Shows / Forgotten Australia
Forgotten Australia
Bloody crimes, unsolved mysteries, eccentric celebrities, dark events and bizarre happenings: it's all here – the stuff you wish they'd taught you in school!
Dive into our strange-but-true history via never-before-told stories, author interviews, weekly flashbacks and the weekly trivia quiz.
Forgotten Australia is created and hosted by Michael Adams, author of the acclaimed true crime books The Murder Squad, Hanging Ned Kelly and They'll Never Hold Me.
He's also a regular history and true crime…
Episodes
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Trial – The Poisoned Footy Player: Part Two
When Sydney detectives confirm star Balmain rugby league player Bob Lulham has been poisoned with Thall-Rat, they begin an investigation that at first turns up…
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Trial – The Poisoned Footy Player: Part One
On the 20th of July 1953, Sydney detectives discovered that someone had used rat poison to try to murder star Balmain rugby league player Bob Lulham. More than…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1980 – The Family Court Murders, Miracle Babies and Birds, Our Richest Real Estate and the Village People Conquer Australia
A judge is gunned down, we welcome our first test tube baby and we try to save the world’s rarest bird. Meanwhile, Sydney sets a record house price and the…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1955 – Part Two: A Ban on Aboriginal People, Putting An End to Polio, the Murder Manhunt and the ‘Murderphobia’ Case
While Sydney welcomes African-American entertainers, Moree bans Aboriginal Australians from exercising their human rights on the land that’s always been their…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1955 – Part One: A Murderer Escapes, Our Politicians Jail Pressmen and an Aussie Witnesses Horror at Le Mans
Up in the Queensland, a murderer and a robber break out of prison, while down in Canberra our Federal Parliament puts a couple of newspaper blokes behind bars…
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Five
Following the verdict, Ronald Griggs has one last trick up his sleeve to amaze Australia. It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free…
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Four
Having already been convicted by the newspapers, Ronald Griggs stands trial for the murder of his wife. If he’s found guilty, he’ll be sentenced to death. It’s…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1930 - America's Tariff Apocalypse, Aviatrix Amy Johnson Awes Aussies... and Ferris Bueller?
In the first week of June 1930, America was on the brink of economic apocalypse with its Smoot-Hawley tariffs – and their effects would be felt terribly Down…
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Three
After Lottie Condon’s shock confession, Ronald Griggs becomes infamous overnight when Truth newspaper publishes every sordid detail of his scandalous love…
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part Two
Following the mysterious death of his wife in the mountain town of Omeo, rumours about Methodist preacher Ronald Griggs reach a fever pitch — and a veteran…
Forgotten AustraliaBefore the Mushroom Case: Australia’s Infamous Poisoning Murder Trial – Part One
Nearly a century before Erin Patterson was put on trial in the mushroom murder case, Australia was scandalised by allegations that a young preacher from…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1905: Aussie Feminist Highs & Lows, the First Empire Day, an American President Ends a Russian War, and a Ratcatcher Echoes in Eternity
In London this week, the Aussie suffragist Nellie Martel explains to English women how they can win the vote, while back at home pioneering feminist Louisa…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1979: Aussie Movies Go Global, Ye Olde TV Listings & Our Forgotten Comedy Genius
This week at the Cannes Film Festival, My Brilliant Career made Australian film history, while back home Rupert Murdoch became a Sydney TV mogul, setting the…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1954 - Sydney Anarchy, Killer Trains, a Climate Warming Warning, Record Setters & the Roo Roo Hop
Pirates, sailors, mountaineers and the Abominable Snowman run riot through Sydney – a Sydney were you risk life and limb every time you catch a train. Also…
Forgotten AustraliaShort – Nazi Aftertaste
85 years before American President Donald Trump gave unelected social media mogul Elon Musk unprecedented power with DOGE, Australian Prime Minister Robert…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1929: The Blind Digger – Part Two
Just as Frank’s radio career is taking off, his private life is laid bare in a racy tabloid expose. But the sequel to this scandal is to be far more shocking…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1929: The Blind Digger – Part One
Terribly wounded on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli, AIF Private Frank Downes would be celebrated as The Blind Digger. After returning home on the first hospital…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part Two
Did you have to be crazy to take on 10 cops at once? Was Percy Ramage 'perfectly insane'? The question was key but Melbourne’s best and brightest just couldn’t…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part One
In Melbourne and Geelong from the 1890s, Percy Ramage saw red whenever he saw the cops. Known as 'The Policeman Puncher', he was such a 'human tiger' that…
Forgotten AustraliaShort: Cocaine Kurtz
This German-born thug's misadventures included shooting his dad in the butt, taking to the bush as an escapee, doing time in a POW camp, selling cocaine in…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1978: Dead End – The Bloody Last Stand of a Brazen Bank Bandit
A Brisbane armed robber had hit three banks in twelve months. In the second week of April 1978, the cops had laid a trap he couldn’t escape. Until he did. What…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1953: One Murderous Cop, Two Serial Killers & Roy Cohn Runs Riot Against the 'Reds'
It was a big week for true crime and the Red Scare. In Sydney, Roger Rogerson’s future hero, Detective-Sergeant Ray ‘the Gunner’ Kelly, was in court and…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1928: Cocaine Raids, Razor Gangs, Racist Orgy Conspiracies and Girl Bosses vs Man Worms!
In a bumper episode brought to you by the newfangled "Electric Newspaper" of 1928, Sydney and Melbourne cops carry out spectacular public raids to save white…
Forgotten AustraliaShort: Murder at the Melbourne Races
In 1906, when a young bookie tried to cheat his customers, he died as the very public victim of a bloodthirsty mob of Melburnians. His murder left the city…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1903: Gaslight in Perth – Bella Heckler, the Reverend and the Rape Scandal
In the third week of 1903, Perth was transfixed by one of the most sensational libel cases in Australian history. The legal action had been brought by a…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1977: Just Like Jaws
This week was a busy one – a royal visit from the Queen, the Centenary Test and mad bulls running through the streets of Melbourne. But no story was more…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1952: Miss Kangaroo & the Great Koala Heist
Long before Crocodile Dundee put Australia on the map for American moviegoers, Miss Kangaroo was sent to the USA on a similar mission. But this young polio…
Forgotten AustraliaShort: The Brutal Birth of Mardi Gras
In 1978, the first Mardi Gras was met with police intimidation, violence and mass arrests that were followed by custodial abuse, bashings and malicious…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week In… 1927: The First Miss Australia & the Newspaper Stunt that Launched a Media Empire
In the last week of February 1927, Sydneysiders could go to the Crystal Palace Theatre to see Australia’s very own ‘Queen’ – the winner of the first Miss…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in 1902: Bubonic Plague, the Crutchy Push, Breaker Morant, Boer War barbarities & the first choice for an Aussie capital
In the third week of February 1902: the first Australian senators select a sweet site for our national capital and the first Australian commonwealth soldiers…
Forgotten AustraliaYour Stories: ‘My Father was Count Copernicus!'
As an adoptee, Pam Korreng always wondered about her biological parents. In 2021, hoping for some answers, she used Ancestry DNA. What Pam discovered was that…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in… 1976: Ned Kelly lives, Apocalypse Now dies, sex sells cinema tix but Australia’s star stripper quits
In this special movie episode: the same week that we rediscover the first filmic Ned Kelly, we lose the chance to have Apocalypse Now made in Australia – and…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week In… 1951: Melbourne’s Retro “Teacher’s Pet” Case
This week in 1951, Melbourne’s detectives and a police diver were searching the waters off Frankston for the body of Caroline Scully, a wife and mother who’d…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in... 1926: Ugly Men, Tesla's Predictions, a Fascist ‘Footloose’ and a Mysterious Masked Dancer
As a sensuous Catwoman seduces Sydney society and Perth’s Ugly Men stage their annual carnival at Uglieland, ugly meanie Mussolini uses his new executive…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in... 1901: the first election, a federal erection and the dying queen
Australia talks about the first federal election campaign, weeps about the death of beloved Queen Victoria and laughs at a visionary’s plan for a giant statue…
Forgotten AustraliaThis Week in… 1975: Sex, Speed, Strippers & Skyhooks!
In the third week of January 1975, the ‘The Sensual Seventies’ live up to the label when 2JJ plays a banned song about bonking as its first-ever broadcast…
Forgotten AustraliaSummer Shorts - The Murdochs and the Child Murders
On New Year’s Eve 1921, Australia was shocked by a Melbourne child murder. Desperate to boost the Herald’s stagnant circulation, newly appointed editor Keith…
Forgotten AustraliaForgotten Australia This Week… In 1950
Will the Chinese invade Taiwan? Is nuclear war with Russia inevitable? While it sounds like these questions are ripped from today's headlines, these were…
Forgotten AustraliaSummer Shorts: TAA Flight 408 – Australia’s First Skyjacking
In July 1960, Australia was shocked by a new breed of criminal desperado – a gun-wielding and bomb-toting skyjacker. For a free trial that will give you access…
Forgotten AustraliaForgotten Australia This Week … in 1925
Happy New Year! We kick off 2025 by adding a new format in which we look at a different week from each year in the 20th Century. And what better place to start…
Forgotten AustraliaSummer Shorts: Archibald McCafferty – Australia's Charles Manson
In 1973 in Sydney, a delusional young criminal and his band of disciples set out to ‘Kill Seven’ as a way to resurrect a dead child. For a free trial that will…
Forgotten AustraliaSummer Shorts: Curtains for the Magician
In the first of the Summer Shorts series, we step back to the day in 1974 that underworld serial killer Stewart John Regan, known as ‘The Magician’ for his…
Forgotten AustraliaThe End of the Year Interview Episode
Recently, Nine radio network host Simon Owens interviewed me for his Saturday night show, which is broadcast on Australian east coast stations, including 2GB…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Model & The Murder Case – Part Two
In 1954 popular Sydney model Shirley Beiger went on trial for the shooting murder of her boyfriend, with the already sensational proceedings made wilder by her…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Model & The Murder Case – Part One
Seventy years ago – in 1954 – glamorous Sydney model Shirley Beiger shot her lover dead outside a city nightclub. But why did she kill him — and what…
Forgotten AustraliaVanishing Cousins – Part Two: The Suspects
In April 1974, teenage cousins Yvonne Waters and Raelene Eaton went to a surfside pub in Perth to enjoy a Sunday session. They were never seen again, victims…
Forgotten AustraliaVanishing Cousins – Part One: The Disappearance
In April 1974, teenage cousins Yvonne Waters and Raelene Eaton went to a surfside pub in Perth to enjoy a Sunday session. They were never seen again, victims…
Forgotten AustraliaMichael Adams talks They’ll Never Hold Me with Australian True Crime – Part Two
They’ll Never Hold Me is in bookstores now. Michael sat down with Meshel Laurie of the Australian True Crime podcast to talk all things Kevin John Simmonds…
Forgotten AustraliaMichael Adams talks They’ll Never Hold Me with Australian True Crime – Part One
They’ll Never Hold Me is in bookstores now. Michael sat down with Meshel Laurie of the Australian True Crime podcast to talk all things Kevin John Simmonds…
Forgotten AustraliaThey’ll Never Hold Me – The Next Few Audiobook Chapters
Please enjoy a second audiobook extract that continues the story of young Kevin John Simmonds, as he grows up in Griffith, grapples with the lure of…
Forgotten AustraliaThey'll Never Hold Me – Exclusive Audiobook Excerpt
My new book, They'll Never Hold Me, which chronicles the life, times and crimes of Long Bay Gaol escapee Kevin John Simmonds, has just been released as an…
Forgotten AustraliaArizona Ryan and the Sydney Shootout – Part Two
Who was this good guy with a gun? We delve into life of American cowboy Albert “Arizona” Ryan, who became a celebrity in 1919 in Australia after killing a man…
Forgotten AustraliaArizona Ryan and the Sydney Shootout – Part One
In 1919, in the Sydney slum of Surry Hills, a Chinese gunman shot more than a dozen people, triggering a dramatic police siege that was only ended by the…
Forgotten AustraliaTo Live & Die in D.C. – Part Five: A Forensic Furore
With their suspect in custody, D.C. detectives still can’t celebrate because in Washington in 1972 seven out of every ten murderers go free. Forty years after…
Forgotten AustraliaTo Live & Die in D.C. – Part Four: A Killer Named Goliath
With another Washington woman murdered in identical circumstances to Sherry and Sharan, D.C. detectives finally have a suspect – but can they find the…
Forgotten AustraliaTo Live & Die in D.C. – Part Three: Dead Ends and Another Dead Woman
Despite the best efforts of D.C. detectives and Sydney cops – including Senior Constable Roger Rogerson – Sherry and Sharan’s killer remains at large. When a…
Forgotten AustraliaTo Live & Die in D.C. – Part Two: A Race Against Time
Sherry Frahm and Sharan Tapp settle into living and working in Washington. But it’s dangerous being a counter girl in a McDonald’s during D.C.’s ever-bloodier…
Forgotten AustraliaTo Live & Die in D.C. – Part One: Two Aussie Girls
In November 1971, at the exact moment that Prime Minister Billy McMahon’s wife Sonia stepped out in her infamously revealing dress at a White House dinner…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Rise of Roger Rogerson – Part Two: Men Died Because of What He Did
How was the 1976 case of armed robber Phillip Western a prototype for the “Green Light” that’d soon be given to Neddy Smith? Continuing our in-depth interview…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Rise of Roger Rogerson – Part One: All Hell Broke Loose
How did a hero detective become Australia’s most notoriously corrupt killer cop? In an in-depth conversation, veteran journalist Neil Mercer talks about the…