Forgotten Australia

Having made his dazzling pedestrian comeback, The Flying Pieman takes another tilt at politics in typical comedic fashion before jolting the Sydney establishment with one last audacious stunt. Feeling his mortality as he enters old age, William Francis King makes a public pledge of love — only for heartbreak to follow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 pedestrianism. But he won’t stop there because he has much bigger dreams that include walking 250 miles in 250 hours, spilling his soul in lectures on social issues and finding a damsel he can call Mrs Pieman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 hero, this eccentric celebrity was every bit as famous for his non-stop talking as for his non-stop walking. In this episode we delve into his incredible accomplishments, the larrikin streak that saw him lampoon colonial politics and the tragedies that turned his life into legend. We begin with The Flying Pieman taking on his greatest challenge — walking 192 miles in 48 hours… without stopping for a moment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 surviving atrocities, one stood out: Changi prisoner AIF private Colin Fleming Brien had lived through his attempted beheading. This front-page story shocked Australia and his testimony would help convict Japanese war criminals. In a special Forgotten Australia episode, we'll hear Colin's story in his own words. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 were initially ignored and it’d be up to a future PM to stand up for poor people on the front lines of the lockdown, washdown and knockdown policy. Despite lessons learned from the 1900 outbreak, the Black Death would recur through the first quarter of the 20th Century in Australia – with hundreds more dying... before one final lonely and forgotten fatality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 over the horizon in the form of Bubonic Plague. Once the Black Death strikes, he'll be in charge of Sydney's defences — and have to convince the populace that fleas from infected rats are to blame for the pestilence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Rapper". Like something of out a classic horror movie, the sensational story included frightened nurses, traps laid by cops, vigilante mobs stalking the streets, voyeuristic ghostbusters and a stake-out orchestrated by a tabloid reporter with his own war-time ghosts. As the disturbances spread beyond the original "haunted house", Jack The Rapper became national front page news — and the "answers" offered posed only more questions. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 and campaign propaganda that sought to emphasise Jack’s war heroism. It wasn’t until a little Sydney magazine started digging some 17 years later that the truth about the man who’d saved the life of the 35th President of the United States began to emerge. This is the conclusion and it's a story of wartime bravery, alleged Nazi spies, West African riots, men's magazines, TV game shows and Hollywood movie deals — with... of course... a cameo by Betty White. For more information: www. forgottenaustralia.com.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 showcase him as a naval war hero. But not even JFK knew the truth behind the story that was to help him capture the White House — that he was only alive thanks to the work of a mysterious Australian coastwatcher. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 work with Circle Sentencing, a western Sydney initiative to keep Indigenous offenders out of the prison system where possible. I spoke with him about growing up in poverty in the 1950s, the road to the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, seeing combat in Vietnam two years later, being at the Munich Games in 1972 when Israeli athletes were massacred and how he dealt with PTSD and his recent and very grim cancer diagnosis. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the most unexpected place, just as she’d soon meet the love of her life when she least expected it. But the Second World War would change everything — and by the 1950s Margaret would have to reinvent herself yet again to survive. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Australia’s first celebrity model when she caused a sensation at Paris fashion parades as muse to legendary French designer Jean Patou. But with the Second World War bearing down, plucky Margaret would have to be more than just a pretty face and figure to fulfill her dreams of living a charmed life. For more information. www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After helping to catch serial killer Mad Mossy, Tracker Riley became Australia's most-decorated Aboriginal policeman, yet he still faced racism — with tragic circumstances. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the Dubbo region in the mid-to-late 1930s, Aboriginal tracker Alexander Riley worked three high-profile murder investigations — including bringing serial killer "Mad Mossy" to justice. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 become lost in the harsh landscape. Among Tracker Riley's famous cases were the frustrating manhunt for Roy Governor, known as “the last of the bushrangers”, and collecting grisly evidence against “Mad Mossy”, one of Australia’s most deranged serial killers. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Melbourne. Who was he? How had he died? How had he ended up on the roof of a moving train? While there would be an official explanation, a century down the track I'm presenting a new theory about what really happened. For more information www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 outbursts, a media frenzy, the appearance of a crazed mystic, the accused's unruly cheer squad and a confused verdict. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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? For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and https://www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Murray Chambers from Queensland survived when an enemy submarine sank the merchant ship Donerail a few hundred miles off Hawaii. Twenty four men made it into a lifeboat. When this lifeboat washed up 38 days later, 2000 miles away in Tarawa, Chambers was the lone survivor. But his story didn’t quite add up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 figure washed up just barely alive 1000 miles away, having endured one of history’s most incredible forgotten oceanic ordeals. But for this survivor the battle was just beginning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the conspiracy? Bert “Cardigan” Wolfe, the country's top turf writer, who’d recently witnessed Phar Lap’s greatest moment — and then his last.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 again and again — wondering how long it’ll be before his number is up and whether a fortune teller’s prediction will come true. For more information, visit www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 starting, RAF Bomber Command launched its first mission. For Australians in the RAF, the fight was on — and James Brough from Tasmania would be among the first to take on the Luftwaffe. This forgotten hero's story is told for the first time in this episode. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the remote wilderness, the conclusion to movie mogul Cosens Spencer’s story is like something from the silver screen. But it’s all true. For more information visit: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early 20th century, Spencer Cosens was Australia’s greatest showman. With his wife, projectionist Senora Spencer, he pioneered motion picture exhibition, establishing the first permanent cinema, introducing sound and colour films and championing local feature production. But a business betrayal would ruin Spencer’s career, permanently sabotage the Australian film industry and result in a bloody tragedy that sounded like something out of the movies. For more information and to see Spencer's films, visit www.forgottenaustralia.com and visit us at www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 inner Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill. Who killed the woman and why? For the first time, the murder, the mystery and the main suspect are re-examined. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, Valerie and Gladys Van Tassel — under the management of American aeronaut “Professor” Park Van Tassel, their supposed brother — caused a sensation with their dazzling parachute jumps from trapezes suspended beneath crude hot air balloons thousands of feet in the air. But along with the spectacle came scandal and tragedy whose mysteries endure to this day. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 in ensuring the television images of Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon were seen around the world. On the 50th anniversary of that historic event, Robert talks about how this experience inspired him to spend the next half century working in the space sector. The conversation ranges across what The Dish got wrong, what it was like to hear Apollo 13's crew fight for their lives, how he saved the space mission to Halley’s Comet and his plans to revolutionise communications using stratospheric drones. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Marines in Vietnam. Yet Cathy hadn’t been killed by the enemy — she’d been gunned down by one of the very soldiers who she’d travelled half way around the world to entertain. But who shot Cathy and why? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 killed him and was she guilty of murder? The final instalment of this episode takes us inside one of Australia’s most extraordinary trials—and beyond to a second murder, the tragic downfall of a business titan and across the world to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War and Carter White House. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 House in Perth — and the court case that followed the crime was every bit as shocking. For more information, including photos and articles, go to www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in Melbourne in early 1954, James Robert Walker is hellbent on murdering The Brain and The Thing. But after he reluctantly casts himself in the role of protector to a damsel in distress, the veteran gunman finally ends up serving a life sentence in Pentridge Prison. There, true to form, he hatches a plan as ruthless as it is audacious. Every bit as bold is that Walker is secretly writing his autobiography, which is to cause a sensation when it's smuggled from jail and published Australia-wide. For more information and for photos, visit www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having spent half of the 1930s behind bars, murderous gunman James Robert Walker moves back to Melbourne to start a new life on the straight and narrow. There, he meets the sultry Rita, the love of his life, who he makes his wife, and they amass a stash of cash so they can buy a hotel together. But Walker's past won't let him go and he's soon at the centre of an underworld feud involving The Brain, The Thing, The Gambler and The Mark Foy — and being stalked by a young assassin nicknamed Scotland Yard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charismatic crook and killer James Robert Walker pretty much wrote the playbook that Mark “Chopper” Read would later follow. Finally convicted of murder in Melbourne in 1953, he made headlines by demanding to be hanged. Denied his death wish, Walker then planned a massacre in Pentridge Prison – setting out his reasons in a book-length confession he’d written in secret, in which he also admitted to unsolved murders, shootings and robberies. The publication of “The Robert Walker Story” in newspapers around Australia enthralled hundreds of thousands of readers, though his life and times would soon be inexplicably forgotten — until now. In part one of this three-part episode, we follow Walker in the 1930s as he rejects his respectable upbringing for a career as a petty criminal and cold-blooded gunman responsible for two murders. For more information: www.forgottenaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long before Mick Molloy or Kyle Sandilands, Arundel Nixon ripped up the radio waves as the risqué “King of the Cads”. For a decade the Cad worked for —and was sacked from — hit stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane as he battled censors, conservatives, radio bosses, his three wives and a small army of his own personal demons. On-air sackings, drinking binges, court cases, fateful prophecies, private detectives, car crashes and splashy headlines: this is the forgotten story of our original shock jock. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Radical revolutionaries, maniacal Marines, sexual shenanigans, dodgy dealings, horny hippies, Hare Krishnas and High Court judges: this is the stranger-than-fiction story of American military deserter Douglas Beane. From the violence of Vietnam in the Seventies to beach life in Brunswick Heads in the Eighties, Doug’s case rattled the echelons of power in Washington and Canberra while proving beyond any reasonable doubt that the man himself was one of the world’s most accomplished lovers — if one of its most lacklustre fighters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Private James Coughlan only saw one day of combat — 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli — yet his war would continue at home for years, one of thousands whose quiet fates are often forgotten on Anzac Day. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 1939 case seemed ripped from the pages of a detective novel — and may even have been inspired by one. There was the man with the murky past. Sisters who met sudden suspicious deaths. A corpse that had to be exhumed. Crucial evidence that was allowed to be destroyed and a coroner with a bizarre conflict of interest. Adding to the sensation: police thought by solving the Walwa mystery, they might also solve Australia’s most famous unsolved murder — that of the Pyjama Girl. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 to end a Sydney siege. Hear how Arizona, like Dirty Harry, had a history of trigger-happy vigilantism, and how, like Dirty John, his creepy marriage to a wealthy woman came to a violent end. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A century ago, 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 violent intervention of a lone American vigilante. But who was this self-styled cowboy with the six-shooter? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1891 Henry Lawson published a poem called “The Ghost at the Second Bridge”, which told of encountering a terrifying spectre on lonely Mount Victoria Pass in the Blue Mountains. While a fright of fancy, Lawson’s poem was based on a tragic true story. Gather round for the haunting tale of a handful of murders, a couple of hangings, chaotic court cases, drunken witnesses, shock acquittals, and, of course, sightings of the restless spirit known as “The Woman in Black”. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another missing woman, more illegal operations and alleged murders, along with scandalous affairs and amnesiac witnesses. In the final part of this episode, the full extent of Nurse Hannah Mitchell’s trials and tribulations is revealed. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1923 Nurse Hannah Mitchell faced trial, charged with the murder of Bertha Coughlan and the attempted murder of her ex-husband Frank Bonfiglio. The evidence was sensational, as were the verdicts. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She dropped a headless torso into the Yarra River and shot her ex-husband full of holes — and these were just two of the horrific crimes alleged against Nurse Hannah Mitchell in the 1920s. The full story of “Melbourne’s Most Notorious Woman” is told for the first time in a special three-part episode. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While many bushrangers are celebrated as rebel leaders, the one man who might really fit the bill—Ralph Entwistle, leader of the Ribbon Boys—is all but unknown. It was his naked swim that led to Australia’s biggest convict uprising—1830’s The Bathurst Rebellion—and resulted in one of the largest mass hangings in our history. Yet the entire tragedy wouldn’t have happened if it not for a police magistrate’s fondness for handing out brutal punishments. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elected to state and federal parliament, Thomas Ley’s career in 1920s politics was marked by hypocrisy, corruption, ruthless manipulation and the lingering suspicion that he may have killed his rivals. The worst fears of his critics were confirmed in 1947, when Ley was convicted of cold-blooded murder in one of England’s most sensational court trials. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australians are no strangers to big cat stories, but only one mystery resulted in the capture of not one but two monsters. In the early 1890s, witnesses claimed to have seen a tiger in the Tantanoola region of South Australia and graziers often found their sheep mutilated and partly devoured. Search parties failed to capture the beast until an expert marksman joined the hunt. Yet even after the creature was slain, sheep kept disappearing, falling prey to an even more terrifying predator. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In March 1872 Australians were shocked by one of the most cold-blooded murders the colonies had ever seen. The nightmare began with the discovery of a badly decomposed body that had been weighed down with a heavy stone in the Parramatta River. Even more chillingly, it soon emerged that this victim, John Bridger, had been lured to his brutal death via an employment advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald. Then it became clear that this murdered man wasn’t the only victim. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Titanic sinking in the early hours of 15 April 1912, boatswain Albert Nichols has to muster his men and make ready the lifeboats. Around 1am, it’s claimed, he was given a dangerous mission that, if successful, would save many more lives. But mystery swirls around what happened in the next 80 minutes. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Albert Nichols was born in 1864 on remote Lord Howe Island. After a public scandal that saw him pitted against his parents, Albert fled to Sydney before working his way to London as a seaman. There he established a successful career with the White Star Line, working as a boatswain first on the company’s luxury liner Adriatic and then on the even-bigger Olympic. In April 1912 he transferred to Titanic, the greatest ship ever built and was aboard for the liner’s sea trials, for the trip from Belfast to Southampton and for the maiden voyage. His life story is told for the first time in this two-part episode — and, despite this being a true Titanic tale, you simply won’t believe the ending. For more information and photos: www.forgottenaustralia.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgottenoz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.