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 AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Seven
Despite the recent double tragedies of the Mystery Star and Viking, taxi driver and nautical newbie George O’Brien decides he’s going to build a yacht so he…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Six
While Brian Abbott and Leslie Hay Simpson are feared lost with Mystery Star, a macabre discovery on the coastline raises new questions, new hopes and new…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Five
Fears mount for the Mystery Island movie stars aboard the little launch Mystery Star. Brian Abbot’s wife Grace and Leslie Hay Simpson’s brother-in-law Arthur…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Four
Despite warnings from Lord Howe Island’s unofficial chief Gower Wilson, Brian Abbot and his co-star Leslie Hay Simpson set sail for Sydney in the tiny motor…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Three
As Mystery Island's cast and crew descend on Lord Howe Island, Brian Abbot has a secret plan to return to Sydney in his little motor launch Mystery Star. Why…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part Two
After enjoying stage success in Sydney in early 1935, Brian Abbot breaks into the movies and lands a starring role in Ken G. Hall's kangaroo drama Orphan of…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysteries of Mystery Island — Part One
In 2018 I found and reunited with my biological family, discovering that my people go back to 1842 on Lord Howe Island. On my first visit that Christmas, I…
Forgotten AustraliaFrom Lord Howe Island To Titanic
Born in 1864 on Lord Howe Island, Albert Nichols led a colourful life that ended with him an unsung hero of the Titanic sinking. This re-release comprises…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Nature of the Scorpion — Part Three
Having escaped prison, fled interstate and joined the army under yet another new name, George Blunderfield seeks reinvention and redemption on the Western…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Nature of the Scorpion — Part Two
After committing a sickening outrage in the first weeks of 1900, George Blunderfield serves a relatively short jail sentence. When he's set free he sheds his…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Nature of the Scorpion — Part One
Over two decades George Farrow Blunderfield left a trail of pain and death in his wake from one side of the country to the other. I’ve made a three-part…
Forgotten AustraliaAnzac Hero: Sister Savage and the Centaur Sinking — Part Two
Sister Ellen Savage was the hero of Centaur and over the next four decades she'd keep alive the memory of her fallen sisters and brothers. She was an Anzac…
Forgotten AustraliaAnzac Hero: Sister Savage and the Centaur Sinking — Part One
On 14 May 1943, the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, with the loss of 268 people. Nursing…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Guyra Ghost — Part Two
Part two introduces us to a hard-charging cop and a spiritually minded reporter as the search for a solution to the Guyra Ghost mystery takes us to Gallipoli…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Guyra Ghost — Part One
Starting 100 years ago this week, Australia was mystified by strange happenings at a farmhouse at Guyra in northern New South Wales. Showers of stones and…
Forgotten AustraliaPercy Brookfield: Our Hero Politician
One hundred years ago today – 22 March 1921 – a gunman shot up the Riverton railway station in South Australia. One man would put himself in the firing line to…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Entombed Miner
In March 1907 Australia was gripped by the plight of Italian miner Modesto Varischetti, trapped deep underground and underwater at the Bonnie Vale gold mine in…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Finale: Go Out With A Bang
With Greg McHardie on the loose, there's another Woolworths bombing. Is the fugitive out for revenge or is he leading a far more laidback life? Even if his…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Eight: Larry's Last Stand
In this, the second-last instalment of this special series, Greg McHardie is as free as a bird after his audacious Easter escape from Parramatta Jail. That…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Seven: Man On The Run
As the trial of the alleged Woolworths Bombers gets underway, the jury hears about ransom letters, suspicious clock mechanisms and gelignite bomb explosions —…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Six: Operation Softly Softly
The Task Force’s Operation Softly, Softly circles Larry Danielson in Huskisson — with one of the detectives a Manly mate from the good old Flicks days who gets…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Five: Larry The Larrikin
With Greg McHardie claiming to detectives he’s a dead man if he names those behind the Woolworths bombings, the Task Force turns its attentions to his…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Four: Get Benny!
After “Mr Bridge” is caught red-handed with the $1m Woolworths ransom, the suspect tells Task Force detectives he’s only a courier hired for the job. The…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Three: Operation Alpha
As 1980 ends and the New Year begins, Woolworths and the NSW police wage a war of nerves with Mr Dunmore over arrangements for the $1m ransom handover. While…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part Two: Keep Calm & Carry On Shopping
After the Christmas Eve bombing of Woolworths' flagship Sydney store, the company awaits contact from the extortionist calling himself Mr Dunmore. Meanwhile…
Forgotten AustraliaInterview with Allan Duncan — First Police Responder to Woolies Xmas Bomb Threat 1980
On Christmas Eve 1980, young constable Allan Duncan responded to the Woolies Town Hall bomb threat and would be inside the building when the device detonated…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Woolworths Bombings — Part One: Christmas Eve 1980
On Christmas Eve 1980, the Woolworths’ head office in Sydney gets a phone call from the man already responsible for two regional store bombings in the past…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Sporting Heroine — The Marvellous Mrs Douglas: Part Two
On Christmas Eve 1859, Margaret Douglas and Beverley Howard started their epic 1500-mile walking match in Melbourne — which the city’s newspapers did their…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Sporting Heroine — The Marvellous Mrs Douglas: Part One
Melbourne’s Margaret Douglas was an endurance pedestrian every bit as remarkable as her Sydney contemporary The Flying Pieman. After stumbling upon a passing…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Sporting Hero — The Flying Pieman: Part Three
Having made his dazzling pedestrian comeback, The Flying Pieman takes another tilt at politics in typical comedic fashion before jolting the Sydney…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Sporting Hero — The Flying Pieman: Part Two
In September 1847, after crashing out during the challenge to walk 192 miles in 48 hours non-stop, The Flying Pieman takes a second tilt at this epic feat of…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Sporting Hero — The Flying Pieman: Part One
In the 1840s Australia was amazed by the epic pedestrian feats of William Francis King, who was known far and wide as The Flying Pieman. Our first sporting…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Digger Who Survived His 'Beheading'
75 years ago this week, the Japanese surrendered and WWII was over. After these celebrations came horror at what POWs had suffered. Of the many accounts of…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Plague Of 1900 — Part Two: Lockdown, Washdown... Knockdown
By mid-autumn 1900, dozens of people in Sydney had died from Bubonic Plague – many within a day of showing symptoms. Yet the CMO’s rat-killing recommendations…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Plague Of 1900 — Part One: The Rats Must Die
It's New Year's Day 1900 and Sydney is celebrating on this sunny day. But Dr Ashburton Thompson, NSW's chief medical officer, knows that darkness is coming…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Mysterious Case Of Jack The Rapper
In winter 1950 a dark old house in Melbourne — owned by an elderly dying widow — was terrorised by nightly visitations from a fiend who was nicknamed "Jack The…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Aussie Who Saved JFK — Part Two
WWII Aussie coastwatcher Reg Evans rescued John F. Kennedy in the Pacific in 1943 but his world-changing role in history would be left out of media articles…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Aussie Who Saved JFK — Part One
Sixty years ago this month JFK won the West Virginia primary — a decisive moment for his campaign — and he did so with a low-blow political move meant to…
Forgotten AustraliaAnzac Story — Killer Kinsela
John Kinsela is an Aboriginal man, a Vietnam veteran, a two-time Olympic wrestler and a survivor of PTSD and cancer who was awarded the OAM in 2017 for his…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Supermodel — Part Two
Having achieved fame as a fashion model in Paris and London by 1935, Margaret Vyner set her sights on the movies — finding her first substantial film role in…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Supermodel — Part One
In August 1934 — more than half a century before Elle Macpherson was dubbed “The Body” by Time magazine — Sydney teenager Margaret Vyner was acclaimed as…
Forgotten AustraliaTracker Riley: Outback Hero — Part Three
After helping to catch serial killer Mad Mossy, Tracker Riley became Australia's most-decorated Aboriginal policeman, yet he still faced racism — with tragic…
Forgotten AustraliaTracker Riley: Outback Hero — Part Two
In the Dubbo region in the mid-to-late 1930s, Aboriginal tracker Alexander Riley worked three high-profile murder investigations — including bringing serial…
Forgotten AustraliaTracker Riley: Outback Hero — Part One
For nearly 40 years, Aboriginal tracker Alexander Riley chased down thieves, fugitives and murderers in outback NSW — and saved the lives of many people who’d…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Body On The Train
In 1919 Australia was baffled by a real-life mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes when the body of a young man was discovered on top of a railway carriage outside…
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
In 1954 glamorous Sydney model Shirley Beiger shot her lover dead outside a Sydney nightclub. But why did she kill him — and what punishment would she face?…
Forgotten AustraliaSide Note: Where The Truth Lies
Just days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Murray Chambers from Queensland survived when an enemy submarine sank the merchant ship Donerail a few…
- Forgotten Australia
Sole Survivor
In June 1946 a crew of four sailing the ketch Nova down the New South Wales coast vanished with their boat in bad weather. 132 days later a lone skeletal…
Forgotten AustraliaErbie: King of the Ring-Ins
Fifty years before Fine Cotton, Australia was electrified by a series of audacious racing ring-ins starring a champion horse named Erbie. The man who exposed…
Forgotten AustraliaThe First To Fight — Part Two
As 1940 starts and the “Phoney War” ends, Australian RAF Bomber Command pilot Jim Brough flies ever-more dangerous missions against the Nazis and faces death…
Forgotten AustraliaThe First To Fight — Part One
Eighty years ago this week, World War II began when England declared war on Germany in response to the Nazi invasion of Poland. Within 48 minutes of the war…
Forgotten AustraliaSpencer: From Movie Mogul To Murderer — Part Two
From making pioneering bushranger films and launching the careers of Australia’s most famous early stars to a bitter business betrayal and a bloody murder in…
Forgotten AustraliaSpencer: From Movie Mogul To Murderer — Part One
In the early 20th century, Spencer Cosens was Australia’s greatest showman. With his wife, projectionist Senora Spencer, he pioneered motion picture…
Forgotten AustraliaThe Masked Murderer
On a Saturday night in June 1928 a masked gunman shot and killed sisters Esther Vaughan and Sarah Falvey in the lolly shop that had made them favourites in the…
Forgotten AustraliaAustralia's First Queens of the Air
In 1937 Jean Burns was widely reported as Australia’s first woman parachutist — but the newspapers were out by nearly half a century. For six months in 1890…
Forgotten AustraliaIn Conversation - I Did Work Experience on Apollo 11
At the age of 17, Robert Brand did work experience at the Overseas Telecommunications Commission’s station in Paddington, Sydney, where he played a small part…
Forgotten AustraliaUnfriendly Fire: The Murder Of Cathy Wayne
Just hours before Apollo 11 landed on the moon on 20 July 1969, young Australian pop star Cathy Wayne was shot dead on stage while performing for American…
Forgotten AustraliaMurder On The Dance Floor: Part Two
There was no doubt Audrey Jacob had shot Cyril Gidley dead in front of hundreds of people during a charity dance at Perth’s Government House. But why had she…
Forgotten AustraliaMurder On The Dance Floor: Part One
In 1925 beautiful young Audrey Campbell Jacob shot a young man dead in front of hundreds of revellers during a charity dance in the ballroom of Government…