ABC Rewind

It's 1984, and in Dublin, Ireland, 21 year old shop assistant Mary Manning refuses to sell a South African grapefruit. Her action draws world attention to the campaign to hit Apartheid where it hurts, by crippling the South African economy. At the same time a young Australian seaman starts a global ban on shipping oil to South Africa.How South Africans won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime, and the Australians who helped them fight for it.

How South Africa won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime and the Australians who helped them fight for it.A new leader emerges in South Africa, a young man with radical ideas. Steve Biko’s ‘black consciousness’ movement inspires a generation. His murder at the hands of authorities is a moment of reckoning. When the children of Soweto township are forced to study in Afrikaans, the language of their oppressor, they rebel and set the country on fire with their resistance. Hundreds of them are killed by the regime. Steve Biko’s murder in a prison cell sparks a wave of militant activism, as the government doubles down with more violent raids and arrests. And an Australian diplomat gets swept up in the conflict.

By the 1970s the anti-apartheid movement is growing around the world as protesters find ways to hit the South African government where it hurts most. In Australia, the action takes place in a very public way, by heading onto the sports field.Seven former Wallabies rugby players refuse to compete against the South African Springboks when they tour Australia. As mass protests divide the country, Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen declares a state of emergency in Queensland. First Nations activists join the fight, and even Aussie cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman gets caught up in the action.

How South Africans won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime and the Australians who helped them fight for it.It’s 1990 and Sisonke Msimang is glued to the TV, watching Nelson Mandela, the world’s most famous political prisoner, walk free after 27 years. She’s weeping with joy for a country she knows and loves but has never seen.Since 1948 South Africans have been divided along race lines, called Apartheid. Blacks, Indians and ‘coloured’ people are separated from white people, and cannot marry them, earn the same wage, or get the same education as whites. Blacks are simply cheap labour for the mines and for rich white families. Then in 1960 police open fire on a protest in Sharpeville, killing 69 blacks. This is a turning point: world leaders condemn the massacre, and inside South Africa, the resistance movement galvanises.Sisonke’s dad Mavuso is a rebellious young man and dedicates his life to fighting for the freedom of his people. This commitment takes him all the way to Russia and an uncertain future.

How South Africans fought to win their freedom, and the Australians who helped them fight for it.It's 1990, and the world is watching as Nelson Mandela walks free from his prison cell after 27 years.The global movement to end the racist policy of Apartheid in South Africa is finally on the brink of victory.Host Sisonke Msimang grew up in a family of South African freedom fighters, and in this series, she talks to South Africans who risked their lives in the struggle to end apartheid. She also meets Australians who used sport, culture, alongside boycotts and sanctions to bring South Africa to its knees.This is a story of hope in unsettled times, a story about the power of collective struggle to change the course of history.

In the summer of 1978, Australian narcotics agents intercepted a campervan being unloaded on the Melbourne docks. What they discovered inside the van turned out to be the largest haul of an illicit substance, black hashish, to land on Australian soil at the time. The campervan belonged to two elderly American women tourists, whose overseas holiday odyssey quickly spiralled into a hellish nightmare.

In the summer of 1978, narcotics agents discovered the largest ever haul of illicit drugs to land in Australia, stashed inside a campervan belonging to two elderly American women tourists. But were these women truly drug smugglers or naive puppets in an elaborate plot masterminded by someone else?

Forty years ago this January, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated on its way into orbit. All seven astronauts on board were killed.In the days after the tragedy, the world wanted answers. What really caused the shuttle to explode? And should the launch have been stopped altogether?For season five of Science Friction, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Fiona Pepper investigate how the Challenger disaster unfolded — and what that has meant for space exploration from 1986 to now.The Challenger Legacy is a five-part series from Science Friction. Out NOW — search Science Friction and The Challenger Legacy.

In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977. So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day? Please listen with care - this episode contains graphic content. Guests:Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: her secret and extraordinary lives Mark Whittaker – Journalist and author, Granny killer: the story of John Glover Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer Vincent Jones – VP Sales & Licensing, Asia-Pacific, Centa IP David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst Credits:Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner

She’s one of Australia’s most prolific and popular designers, and yet not many people know her name, let alone her audacious life story. Florence Broadhurst was from regional Queensland but people who met her later in life, thought she was English aristocrat. She reinvented herself many times throughout her life. Today she’s known for her wallpaper designs that cemented her in Australian design history. But a shadow lingers over her legacy; her unsolved murder in 1977.Guests:Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: Her secret and extraordinary lives Dr Andrew Field – Associate Professor of Chinese History, Duke Kunshan University Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer David Lennie – Screen printer, Signature Prints Sheridan Black – Owner, Signature Handprints Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst Laura Doble – Interior design graduateCredits:Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner

When journalist Annika Blau learns of the discovery of two tea chests of highly valuable letters under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she begins to uncover secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.

When two tea chests full of letters are found under a house in Sydney, they're identified as one of the most important finds in Australia's postal history. But for journalist Annika Blau, they also expose family secrets, silences and shame, as more startling truths are revealed about who her family really is and where they come from.

Join wheelchair racing legend Louise Sauvage for the intriguing history of The Paralympics. The games had their beginnings back in 1948 as life-saving rehabilitation for World War 2 soldiers but today have become an elite sporting event watched by millions. Along that journey Australia radically changed the way the world saw athletes with a disability by treating them equally to the Olympic competitors at the Sydney 2000 games. Louise introduces us to some Australian sportspeople with remarkable stories. Aboriginal wheelchair basketball player Kevin Coombs who went to five Paralympic games; wheelchair table tennis star and backbone of the Australian athlete community Danni di Toro and Ryley Batt who stubbornly refused to use a wheelchair as a child but is now a rugby champion.Presenter - Louise SauvageProducer - Sarah AllelySound designer - Russell StapletonSupervising producer - Claudia TarantoFor a deeper dive into the history of the Paralympics check out the podcast series Unbroken.

Gold medal winning Paralympian and coach Louise Sauvage tells the controversial story of classification at the Paralympics and the fallout from Spanish intellectually impaired basketballers who faked their disability at the Sydney 2000 games. We meet champion swimmer Siobhan Paton whose dreams of winning future medals were shattered when all the intellectual disability categories were cancelled.An advertising campaign at the London 2012 Paralympics portrayed competitors as superhuman and kickstarted a change in visibility and respect for all disabled people. Today the games and some competitors attract big money and sponsorship deals but wheelchair racer Angie Ballard reminds us that it’s still a physical and financial struggle for many.

In the final episode of Anzac Massacre, host William Ray delves into the unanswered questions surrounding the killings at Surafend, in Southern Palestine by the Anzac Mounted Division in December 1918. What motivated this brutal act?

In part two of this series, host William Ray unravels the story of the Surafend massacre in December 1918, and the events which followed it - including the little known role that the Anzacs played in suppressing the 1919 Egyptian revolution.

The story of the Surafend massacre of December 1918, an event described by one historian as the worst war crime ever committed by New Zealand and Australian military personnel.

It’s 1994 and fugitive billionaire tycoon Christopher Skase lies in a Majorcan hospital bed under police guard. A Spanish court has ordered he is well enough to be extradited back to Australia to face corporate crime charges. But Skase is appealing. When the decision finally comes, it’s a shock.

In June 1993, the Australian Federal Police get a call. Someone from Christopher Skase’s inner sanctum, someone who knows all the ins and outs of his business dealing, who knows exactly where all the bodies are buried, is defecting. But Skase isn’t going down without a fight and he’ll use every trick in the book to avoid extradition back to Australia.

It’s April 1989 and Christopher Skase is reclining on his private jet, sipping a flute of champagne as he flies home from Hollywood. He's just made a $1.2 billion bid for the MGMUA/United Artists film studio. There’s one small problem though - he doesn’t have the money.

In the 1980s, Christopher and Pixie Skase are headline news, right on top of the billionaire food chain. Australia can’t get enough of them. Skase builds the luxury Mirage resorts in Queensland and throws epic, over-the-top, star-studded parties. Pixie flies in flowers, chefs and dresses on their private jet. It’s a wild ride. But if something seems too good to be true it quite possibly is.

Christopher Skase wants to be a corporate cowboy. He’s handsome and elegant, with Hermes ties and flowing locks. His wife Pixie is beautiful, in a 1980s kind of way, with bouffant blonde hair and more diamonds than a high street jeweller. Together they take on the Melbourne business establishment and start building the Qintex empire.

It's 1980s Australia and everyone wants to be seen with billionaire power couple Christopher and Pixie Skase. They have it all — money, power, fame and big hair. Then, in the blink of an eye, they don't.This is the story of Australia's most famous fugitive entrepreneur, his epic fall from grace and the multi-million-dollar chase for Skase.By the age of 40, Christopher Skase's Qintex empire is worth $2 billion, his extravagance legendary, the couple's lavish taste questionable. It's said a glass dome sits in his home office with a million dollars inside. Shredded. An homage to his first mill.But when Skase makes an audacious tilt at Hollywood, his empire collapses.In one of the greatest escapes Australia's ever seen, Christopher and Pixie skip the country owing a whopping $1.5 billion.The Australian courts, government and media are baying for blood. But the billion-dollar question is — will Skase outfox them all?To binge more incredible podcast episodes about 'Australia's fugitive entrepreneur,' the billionaire con man Christopher Skase, hosted by Mark Humphries; search 'Rewind Skase: Fall of a Tycoon podcast' on the ABC listen App (Australia), or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mercia Masson is one of Australia’s longest serving undercover spies in Cold War era Australia. But her double life remains a secret to those closest to her, including her family, for nearly 50 years

Young Alexandrina Grant is an audacious liar. Host Richard Roxburgh follows this clever and ambitious crook as she travels from the alleys of Aberdeen to a convict cell in Van Diemen's Land, then onto the streets of colonial Melbourne. It's there that Alexandrina Askew emerges, transformed into a squatter’s wife, with a distinguished pedigree and connections. But when her disguise is revealed, the newspapers pounce. And this notorious fraudster has serious questions to answer.

It's May 1971, and Qantas flight 755 takes off from Sydney on a routine flight to Hong Kong. Then a man calls the airline, saying he wants a half a million dollars, or else 'the plane will blow up'.The public anxiously watch the skies above Sydney, as bomb experts are called in, and the plane's fuel runs dangerously low.How can someone hold a plane full of passengers to ransom? Host Richard Roxburgh takes a deep dive into the events of that fateful day.

Is he a baronet or a butcher from Wagga Wagga? Can he claim the estate of an English aristocrat thought to be lost at sea?Throughout the 1870s, this question attracted global attention, and was the subject of one of the longest, most sensational court cases Britain had ever seen. Guests: Robyn Annear (author) The Man Who Lost Himself: The Unbelievable Story of the Tichborne ClaimantZadie Smith (author) The FraudClaire Campbell (former) Wagga Wagga head librarian and Tichborne aficionadoCredits: Narrator - Richard RoxburghProducer - Lyn GallacherSound engineer - Angie GrantScript Editors - Kirsti Melville & Tom WrightMusic - Matthew CrawfordArtwork - Lachlan Conn

One of Australia’s craftiest counterfeiters forges two million dollars in his suburban basement in the 1950s. Richard Roxburgh, renowned for playing shady characters on screen, tells the story of Robert Baudin and his brazen ability to make fake money.

After help from the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, the people of Rongelap atoll, in the Marshall Islands, have a new, safer place to live. But at what cost? What does the future hold for them? And will they ever be able to go home? Credits:Writer, producer, host: James NokiseWriter, script editor: Sophie TownsendWriter, producer: Justin GregoryHead ABC Radio Australia: Justine KellyExecutive Editor Audio RNZ: Tim WatkinContent Director ABC Radio Australia: Faleagafulu Inga StünznerRNZ Production Coordinator: Briana JuretichABC Production Manager: Alison BarclayAudio engineer RNZ: Rangi PowickDesign RNZ: Dexter EdwardsEditorial Policies advisor ABC: Tiger Webb

It’s July 1985, and public anger is at its peak in New Zealand, as the hunt begins for those responsible for bombing the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour. Shockwaves ripple around the globe once it’s discovered who is behind the attack.

By 1985, nearly four decades after the US nuclear testing in the Pacific's Marshall Islands, advocate Jeton Anjain has had enough. He decides to act to save his people of Rongelap Atoll. And with the help of some well-connected friends, he pulls off one of the great humanitarian feats of the 20th century.

In the days following the 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear detonation, the people of Rongelap, in the Marshall Islands, desperately need help. But when that help arrived, it came with something they didn’t expect and never agreed to.

The Atomic age arrives in the Marshall Islands as the US turns the region into a nuclear testing ground. But after one massive detonation, nothing will ever be the same for the people of Rongelap Atoll.

The crew of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior should have felt safe and welcome when they arrived in Auckland, New Zealand in July 1985. Instead they became the target of a violent attack, which led one person dead. But why – what is the twisted back-story to these events, which led to spies, secrets and bombs?

Miyakatsu Koike was a mild-mannered Japanese bank official who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was working in Surabaya in Indonesia when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour.Koike was arrested by the Dutch East Indies authorities and sent to Loveday detention camp in South Australia where he spent four long years behind the wire.

Italian anarchist Francesco Fantin fled Mussolini's Italy for the freedom of the Queensland cane-fields, only to find himself locked up in a detention camp in wartime Australia, surrounded by his political enemies.

The extraordinary tale of one man's mind-bendingly long kayak journey that begins in Germany and ends up in an Australian Detention camp during World War 2.

The story of one of Australia's most misunderstood criminals. With nothing to lose, Raymond Denning escapes Grafton prison in a rubbish bin. He has help from prisoner rights groups, and a desire to expose police corruption. The man-hunt for Denning turns farcical when he uses the media to make the police look foolish.

The story of one of Australia's most misunderstood criminals. After a traumatic childhood, Raymond Denning jumps from 'juvie' to jail. When an escape attempt goes wrong, a prison warder is critically injured and the finger is pointed at Denning.

Asbestos was once known as the wonder mineral. It's now banned in Australia. But before that happened, companies kept making asbestos products despite growing evidence of its deadly dust and a mounting death toll.

When a vast coal seam was found running through the escarpment around the NSW town of Wollongong it seemed that this beautiful part of Australia had got lucky. But had it? Van Badham heads back to her hometown to explore the deadly cost of coal mining for those who worked the pit.

Van Badham explores the human cost of mining in Australia across the past 2 centuries. Gold may have made Australia rich, but historians are now digging up evidence about the devastating impact of the silica dust that surfaced with it.

It's the early 1970s and the power of good is unleashed. In the Age of Aquarius the public get wise to being hoodwinked by advertising. Health campaigners hijack the medium — and turn it to their advantage.

The hunt is on for the winning TV ad — the one that keeps the client happy and the consumers consuming. What's the right method for making the perfect advertisement? In 1970 a young bloke called John Singleton thought he had the answer.Host Dee Madigan continues her adventures through the vaults of Australian advertising.

It’s the 1970s and we're entering Australia's golden age of advertising. The Aussie larrikin makes his TV appearance and liquid lunches get longer. Salaries get bigger and the egos to match them.Join host Dee Madigan as she digs through the history of advertising in Australia.