Forgotten Australia

In August 1940, an RAAF Hudson bomber crashed in Canberra, killing four of Australia's top wartime leaders — along with six other men. It was a tragedy that'd lead to the downfall of one Prime Minister and set two politicians on their paths to that top job. But what — or who — caused the crash?

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Space dog Laika and Sputnik II were the green light for the Cold War missile and space races to accelerate at warp speed. With the Russians out in front, the Americans were hellbent on catching up, using Nazi war-criminal know-how as they kicked around making the moon into a military base to launch nukes at the Commies. Meanwhile, as people everywhere were seeing UFOs and worrying about subliminal brainwashing, Sydney and Melbourne...

The world would never be the same after the Russians launched Sputnik II into space and its cosmonaut canine Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth. Aussies would have to keep their eyes on the skies during an extraordinary week of heavenly happenings, from freak weather and flying saucers to planes in peril and swooping Hollywood stars. One big question: would the Commies really nuke the moon during a total lunar eclipse...

In 1932, horror movies are on the rise, reflecting fears of an uncertain age – and fair enough, too, because, in addition to the woes of the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and Nazism, and the slide towards another world war, machines are taking jobs, mad scientists are transplanting monkey balls into millionaires, a self-aware robot is trying to kill its master, and an elite cabal of technocrats are hellbent on taking over t...

While Hitler’s rise to power In Germany seems unstoppable and Mussolini celebrates ten years of fascism in Italy, Australia's homegrown New Guard numbskulls have already become irrelevant – and escaped investigation for their planned insurrection. Plus: Ripley’s Believe it Or Not; an extraordinary outback survival story with a Nazi aftertaste; a 'fun' bigamy story turns very dark; and everything that was ‘wrong’ with modern women.

From robots and rockets, to mad scientists, anti-democratic techbros and narcissistic fascist strongmen, a lot of what was making news this week in the Great Depression sounds, well, familiar.

But at least we’re not declaring war on emus... just yet. Join me as we jump in and out of 32 strange stories from 1932 – and see which chime – a least a little – with this week in 2025.

Part one includes: Brave New World banned, the plucky y...

Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills, Freeman’s Chlorodyne, Hearn’s Bronchitis Cure, Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills – what was in these and other patent medicines and how much good and harm did they do? These questions were being asked this week in 1907, in the wake of a Royal Commission report that showed Australians were risking their health and wealth on costly quack concoctions that were often placebos and/or contained poisons. In this e...

In July 1942, as Australia’s armed forces were about to begin what would become the legendary battle for the Kokoda Track, in another occupied part of New Guinea, the brave Aussie coastwatcher Con Page was desperately trying to evade a huge force of Japanese soldiers that was systematically hunting him down.

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In July 1919, tiny-statured but huge-hearted youngster George Mendies won the Australian Flyweight Title. This was a crown he'd defend successfully again and again – until fate dealt him a cruel blow when he did a favour for a fellow boxer.

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Australia suffered what is still our worst industrial disaster when an explosion ripped through the Mount Kembla mine on 31 July 1902. Strikingly, lead rescuer Henry MacCabe had 15 years earlier been acclaimed a hero of the 1887 Mount Keira explosion, which was our previous worst industrial catastrophe. Yet Henry's legacy isn't quite black and white.

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At the height of the silent movie era, young Australian star Lotus Thompson set her sights on Hollywood. But she soon faced a problem: her legs were so beautiful that producers couldn’t see past her perfect pins to recognise her as a true acting talent. So Lotus found a horrifying solution – literally, in a bottle of corrosive acid. Had she been driven to this self-destructive act by a cruel industry? Or was Lotus simply a shrewd o...

In July 1909, the world wondered what had become of the SS Waratah, last seen off coast of South Africa with more than 200 souls aboard. This grim mystery was even more sensational for featuring a one-armed double murderer, a passenger plagued by prophetic visions and a veteran sea captain with a charmed reputation. But once all hope was lost, a likely explanation for the disaster was to come from a former Waratah passenger: Austra...

William Chidley was an early 20th Century Australian eccentric with his own philosophies, which he preached and published - and for which he was relentlessly persecuted. Eventually, Chidley would be charged with being a lunatic – setting the scene for his final battles as a free speech champion.

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The death of stuntman Dale Buggins, the arrival of Adam Ant in Australia and new ‘evidence’ in the Azaria Chamberlain case – it was a big week for sensational tabloid stories. Plus: the birth of the Macquarie Dictionary, the Sale of the Century phenomenon, computers for consumers and the opening of Sydney Tower. And, on a personal note: when your protectors are predators, and remembering Australian journalist John Martinkus.

If ...

In the third week of September 1956, a small number of Australians finally saw what all the fuss was about when regular TV broadcasts began. It was a quiet start - unlike the arrival of the raucous, riot-inspiring youth movie Rock Around The Clock. But the new craze didn’t impress Janese Dooley, the 65-year-old widow who’d just danced not around the clock but around the world!

Hear the exclusive short about how TV came to Austra...

This week in 1944, Australia's most famous war cameraman — whose film Kokoda Front Line! had won us our first Oscar the previous year — was killed while filming American Marines trying to retake a tiny Pacific island held by the Japanese.

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One hundred and thirty years ago this month, Mark Twain, creator of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and hailed as the world’s funniest man, arrived in Australia for the start of a months-long speaking tour. Aussies loved the famous visitor – and those attending his shows were treated to a very modern form of entertainment: American stand-up comedy.

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As winter became spring in Australia in 1939, the world stood on the edge of the abyss.

Then, on Father's Day, 3 September, everyone's worst fears were confirmed: Australia would once again go to war with Germany. 

In the hours that followed this terrible news, shots were fired off Melbourne, foreigners were rounded up in Sydney, Australians got a crash course in air raid measures and enemy ships were unaccounted for in our wate...

180 years ago this month, Australia suffered what is still our worst civil maritime disaster when the emigrant ship Cataraqui struck a reef off King Island and sank in Bass Strait. Of the 409 aboard, just nine were to survive - but fate held a cruel trick in store for two of these men.

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