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 Australia
The Birdman of Adelaide Gaol – Part One: Murder on the High Seas
In September 1882, on a British ship on the high seas bound for Australia, English sailor William Burns stabs and kills a superior officer. For this capital…
- Forgotten Australia
Your Stories: ‘I Found Australia’s Lost Rock ’n’ Roll Concert Film’
In 1959, entrepreneur Lee Gordon staged an all-star rock ’n’ roll show at the Sydney Stadium and filmed it for cinematic release. But this pioneering movie –…
Forgotten AustraliaBook Preview – The Murder Squad
Exclusive to Forgotten Australia listeners, this episode comprises the first 20 pages of The Murder Squad, my new book about homicide investigation in Sydney…
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Book Club: Peter Doyle – Suburban Noir
Peter Doyle, author of Suburban Noir, talks about researching and writing true crime, and about his uncle Detective-Sergeant Brian Doyle, a top Sydney cop in…
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History Matters: The Birth & Rebirth of The Sun News-Pictorial
Launched in September 1922, Melbourne's The Sun News-Pictorial forever changed newspapers in Australia. But for decades this historic publication has been…
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Your Stories: 'My Father, the Spitfire Pilot'
Sue Northey knew barely anything about her dad’s experiences during World War II. That was until she found 98 letters he wrote between 1941 and 1945. Sue joins…
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Bloody Murder in the Blue Mountains – Part Three
Even when the verdict is delivered in the Katoomba murder trial, the story is far from over – especially after the convicted man makes a startling allegation…
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Bloody Murder in the Blue Mountains – Part Two
In the wake of the gory outrage at the California, the accused faces an inquest and then his trial for murder. If he's found guilty, he'll be sentenced to…
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Bloody Murder in the Blue Mountains – Part One
A mountains hotel. A locked room. Screams in the night and a body in the morning. The mystery of what happened in the California boarding house in Katoomba in…
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The Notorious Lady Munro – Part Three: A Most Remarkable Woman
Did Lady Justice favour Lady Munro? Would she have the last laugh on her copper nemesis? Has anyone ever faced court more often in Australian history or done…
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The Notorious Lady Munro – Part Two: Drunk Around the Universe
Having come back from the grave once, Lady Munro faces another close call with death, becomes ever-more popular in colonial culture and goes toe-to-toe with…
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The Notorious Lady Munro – Part One: The Woman in the Waterhole
The eccentric Lady Munro cut a swathe through late colonial and early Federation Australia with her drunken antics, defiant unconventionality and mysterious…
- Forgotten Australia
Unholy War – The Salvation Army vs The Skeleton Army
While The Salvation Army is now a beloved institution, 140 years ago its men and women were regularly the victims of violent assaults by larrikin hordes who…
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The Pashometer Craze – Measuring Aussie Sex Appeal In The 1930s
“GIRLS ON PYLON SEX MACHINE”– it’s gotta be the weirdest newspaper headline of the 1930s. So what’s the strange story behind it? Join me for a plunge into the…
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The Terrible Mr Thomas – Part Four
It’s July 1950 and Sydney detectives have Arthur Graham - aka Fred Stevens, aka Thomas Croft, aka Lionel Thomas – cornered in Perth. But can the man they…
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The Terrible Mr Thomas – Part Three
It’s winter 1950 and Sydney detectives are criss-crossing Australia as they try to piece together the whereabouts of Blacktown widow, Phyllis Mary Page, last…
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The Terrible Mr Thomas – Part Two
It’s 1945 and Lionel Thomas - aka Thomas Croft – looks set to pay for one of the most heinous murders in Melbourne’s recent history: the cold-blooded shooting…
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The Terrible Mr Thomas – Part One
Lionel Charles Thomas went by a lot of aliases. But by any name, he was one nasty character. In this instalment, we chronicle his early criminal career and…
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Pearl Harbor and the Pay Car Ambush – Part Two
With the true horror of the pay car outrage revealed – but buried ever-deeper in the war-time newspapers – Sydney police follow promising leads, conduct…
- Forgotten Australia
Pearl Harbor and the Pay Car Ambush – Part One
Just hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, cold-blooded bandits staged a ruthless ambush on a railway pay car crew south of Sydney. In the aftermath…
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The Christmas Murder – Part Two
In the weeks after Shirley Butler's murder, newspaper reports hinted that police weren't divulging everything they knew. Then, in June 1953, nearly six months…
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The Christmas Murder – Part One
Christmas Day 1952 saw three tragedies result in eight sudden deaths in Sydney. But the most haunting of these was the vicious murder of Shirley Butler, a…
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The Mayor of Tiny Town vs Australia's Shiftiest Showman – Part Four
After Fred Jones's betrayal, with Hayati branded an 'enemy alien', the showman and the performer go head to head in a series of court cases that make headlines…
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The Mayor Of Tiny Town vs Australia's Shiftiest Showman – Part Three
Who was Frederick Hooper Jones, the man who tried to ruin Hayati Hassid? In this instalment, we look at Fred's life and career as a showman and as a pioneering…
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The Mayor Of Tiny Town vs Australia's Shiftiest Showman – Part Two
Having conquered Australia with Tiny Town, Hayati Hassid goes out on his own and falls into the orbit of Frederick Hooper Jones. To heat parts 3 & 4 right now…
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The Mayor Of Tiny Town vs Australia's Shiftiest Showman – Part One
From a digitised formerly secret Australian military intelligence file comes one of Forgotten Australia’s strangest stories. In 1911-1912, from Sydney to…
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The Cairns Grenade Murders Part 3
With the accused murderer of Holly Murphy and Kathleen Brown set to go to trial in April 1946, there's a series of shocking secret developments, including a…
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The Cairns Grenade Murders Part 2
With Detective Senior-Sergeant Frank Bischof in Cairns, Bob Davis soon identifies the murderer. But how far can Bob be trusted? And what is Bischof offering?…
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The Cairns Grenade Murders Part 1
On a hot night in January 1946, two women were cold-bloodedly murdered with a grenade in the centre of Cairns. In this three-part special episode - based on…
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Hanging Ned Kelly – A Special Audio Preview
Note: This episode - like all old and new regular episodes - is free for everyone to listen to. I'm very pleased to present an exclusive audio version of the…
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Sydney's Wildest Woman
While 1950s eccentrics Bea Miles and Rosaleen Norton are well remembered, Luba Shishova was twice as wild yet she's all but forgotten. Dubbed a ‘one-woman…
Forgotten AustraliaFarewell, Henry Lawson... World's First Screenwriter?
On this day in 1922, Henry Lawson died at the age of 55. In this episode, we revisit his death and the pomp, circumstance and furore of his funeral, while also…
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The Vampire Murder – Part Five: A Life & Death Trial
After the discovery of new evidence, the police and the crown prosecutor are determined to see Dot's killer swing from the gallows at Long Bay Gaol. To support…
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The Vampire Murder – Part Four: 'Miss X' Spills Her Secrets
With the coronial inquest used to build a case against the chief suspect in the murder of Dot Everett, witness 'Miss X' tells the court sordid stories about…
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The Vampire Murder – Part Three: A Surprise Suspect
While the newspapers reported detectives investigating Dot's murder had reached a dead end, the opening of the coronial inquest revealed the cops believed they…
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The Vampire Murder — Part Two: Manhunt for a Maniac
In the days following the discovery of Dot Everett's body, Newcastle police are joined by a star Sydney CIB detective. They have to catch the killer before he…
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The Vampire Murder – Part One: The Death of Dot Everett
In November 1937, Dorothy May Everett was murdered in the grounds of the elite Newcastle school where she worked as a live-in kitchen maid. The case was a…
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The Aussie Who Saved John F. Kennedy – Part Two
Here is the conclusion to Reg Evans's astounding story – including his belated rediscovery. I'll be making another episode about another incredible…
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The Aussie Who Saved John F. Kennedy – Part One
Recently I was very pleased to be able to help the United States embassy with information, contacts and material relating to the activities of our…
Forgotten AustraliaMore Than Australia's Most Beautiful Girl – Part Two
In this concluding instalment, Eve Gray tries to come to grips with being mostly for her beauty before making the move to London that will change her life…
Forgotten AustraliaMore Than Australia's Most Beautiful Girl – Part One
A century ago, Sydney chorus girl Eve Gray won a beauty competition and shot to national fame. 'Australia's Most Beautiful Girl' was soon a theatrical leading…
Forgotten AustraliaThe First Dismissal – Part Two: The Public Servant Who Brought Down The Premier
In this final instalment of The First Dismissal, we look at Robert Beardsmore's horrific experiences at Fromelles in 1916, his role in a 1922 soldier-settler…
Forgotten AustraliaThe First Dismissal – Part One and a Half: The Public Servant Who Brought Down The Premier
When – if – Robert Henry Beardsmore is mentioned in connection with the May 1932 dismissal of Jack Lang, he's depicted as merely an old public servant who…
Forgotten AustraliaThe First Dismissal – Part One: The Last Days of Jack Lang
On this day 90 years ago, firebrand NSW Premier Jack Lang was sacked by Governor Sir Phillip Game. In this first of two instalments, we look at Lang's early…
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'Young Ned Kelly' – The Boy Bushranger of 1922 – Part Two
With the newspapers depicting Henry Maple as determined to commit crimes as terrible as Ned Kelly's atrocities, and the police handing out high-powered…
Forgotten Australia'Young Ned Kelly' – The Boy Bushranger of 1922 – Part One
100 years ago today a 15-year-old bushranger dubbed ‘Young Ned Kelly’ made his last stand against an army of heavily armed police and vigilantes. In this…
Forgotten AustraliaKathleen Butler — Mother Of The Sydney Harbour Bridge: Part Two
Kathleen Butler's smarts and skills saw her play a huge if forgotten role in making the Sydney Harbour Bridge a reality. But this female pioneer in engineering…
Forgotten AustraliaKathleen Butler — Mother Of The Sydney Harbour Bridge: Part One
From humble beginnings in the Blue Mountains, Kathleen Butler's smarts and skills saw her play a huge but largely forgotten role in making the Sydney Harbour…
Forgotten AustraliaShark Attack Of The Century — Part Two: The War On Sharks
Like the podcast? Take a sec to leave a rating and review — this helps it reach other people who might be interested. Cheers! Just when they thought it was…
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Shark Attack Of The Century — Part One: Into The Jaws Of Death
100 years ago today — 4 February 1922 — Australia's attitude to sharks changed when the first known fatal shark attack on a Sydney ocean beach happened in…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Plague Returns — Part Three: The Great Fire
In March 1902 — as the Bubonic Plague tightens its grip — Sydney awakes to a disastrous fire at Her Majesty's Theatre. Next the city's Zoo falls victim to the…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Plague Returns — Part Two: Bigger Than Ben Hur
With Bubonic Plague spreading in Sydney, the highest-profile "victim" is Ben Hur at Her Majesty's Theatre, despite producers putting pressure on the Premier to…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Plague Returns — Part One: The Bays Of Blood
120 years ago today, Sydney faced an epidemic. And it also had a rat problem — but in this case it was there was too many of them. January 1902 saw the second…
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Reprise — Murder On The Dance Floor — Part Two
Season Five is just around the corner. We're kicking off with an episode called Blue Murder On The Golden Mile. It’s a killer tale set in 1926 and it takes us…
- Forgotten Australia
Reprise — Murder On The Dance Floor — Part One
Season Five is just around the corner. We're kicking off with an episode called Blue Murder On The Golden Mile. It’s a killer tale set in 1926 and it takes us…
- Forgotten Australia
Australia's Slave Ship Massacre — Part Three (Season Finale)
In the wake of the massacre, Dr James Patrick Murray makes a series of surprising moves that further his infamy in Australia and across the British Empire…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's Slave Ship Massacre — Part Two
Dr James Patrick Murray takes the brig Carl to the sunny South Seas and into a heart of darkness beyond the imagination of even Joseph Conrad. In this…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's Slave Ship Massacre — Part One
150 years ago today — 13 September 1871 — Australian slavers — aka 'blackbirders' — fired their guns into the hold of the brig Carl, where they had imprisoned…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First UFO Wave — In 1909
Months before Australia's first heavier-than-air flights, people from Sydney to Hobart, Goulburn to Kalgoorlie, Melbourne to Perth reported seeing strange…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Eight: Finale
George O'Brien's life hangs in the balance as his DIY yacht is smashed by a gale and heavy seas. Gower Wilson's son Roy grows up to become the hero of a Lord…