Forgotten Australia

byForgotten Australia

HistoryTrue Crime

Created by Michael Adams, author of The Murder Squad and Hanging Ned Kelly, Forgotten Australia delves deep into bloody crimes, dark histories, unsolved mysteries, eccentric personalities and bizarre happenings that are almost always stranger than fiction. Each episode brings to life people and events that were once known to everyone but are now barely remembered by anyone. Based on intensive original research, Forgotten Australia is crafted with a novelist’s eye for character and detail to create gripping narratives that sound so fresh it's like they're ripped from today's headlines. This is the history you wish you’d been taught in s...

Episodes(40 episodes)

Season 10 - Episode 21

Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part Seven: All Disquiet After the Western Front

Beyond the propaganda about glory, duty and sacrifice, the aftermath of the Great War ushers in a grave new world for my great-grandmother Emma Murtough and her three children. To escape and have a new life, she’ll have to make a shocking choice.*All episodes will be available early & ad-free to Patreon and Apple supporters*It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access. Follow these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustraliaWant more original Australian history? Check out...

Published: Mar 24, 2026Duration: 43m 4s

Season 10 - Episode 20

Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part Six: Somewhere in France

My great-grandfather Peter Murtough arrives on the Western Front in August 1915. He is soon plunged into some of the most horrific battles of the Great War. Casualty rates soar in his battalion. Some months, more men are killed or wounded than come through unscathed. With bullets flying, shells falling and deadly poison gas drifting across the battlefield, how long will it be until Peter's luck runs out?*All episodes will be available early & ad-free to Patreon and Apple supporters*It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access. Follow these li...

Published: Mar 22, 2026Duration: 41m 30s

Season 10 - Episode 19

Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part Five: It’s A Long Way to Tipperary

Celebrated high diver Peter Murtough takes the plunge when he marries Emma Hanbury – my colourful great-grandmother. But being a husband and father to three young children doesn't stop him from taking the greatest risk of his life – enlisting at age 40 to fight in the Great War. As Emma cheers him on with her special version of 'It's A Long Way To Tipperary', she can't know that the horrors of the Western Front will upend all of their lives.*All episodes will be available early & ad-free to Patreon and Apple supporters*It’s easy to get a...

Published: Mar 20, 2026Duration: 38m 1s

Season 10 - Episode 18

Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part Four: Nightmare in South Africa

After the patriotic fervour that sends Peter Murtough to South Africa, he and hundreds of thousands of soldiers discover the reality of the Boer War is hunger, thirst, filth and sudden bursts of deadly violence. But the most dangerous enemy? Typhoid. Fortunately, a vaccine has been developed – but most soldiers won't take it.*All episodes will be available early & ad-free to Patreon and Apple supporters*It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access. Follow these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustralia<b...

Published: Mar 18, 2026Duration: 58m 31s

Season 10 - Episode 17

Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part Three: Diving & Dicing With Death

In July 1898, my great-grandfather Peter Murtough competes for the title of best diver in the world. But seeking more than the thrills of the life aquatic, he ratchets up the risks to himself – and future me – by enlisting to fight the Boer in South Africa.*All episodes will be available early & ad-free to Patreon and Apple supporters*It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access. Follow these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustraliaWant more original Australian history? Check o...

Published: Mar 15, 2026Duration: 50m 25s

Season 10 - Episode 16

Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part Two: From Waterloo to the Waters of Life

Having fought the French and beaten the odds, Bernard Murtough’s family goes on to prominence in peacetime, establishing themselves and their mineral water business in Portsea. While raised a child of privilege, restless youngster Peter Murtough strikes out for London, set on high adventure as a high diver.*All episodes will be available early & ad-free to Patreon and Apple supporters*It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access. Use these links to get started:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustralia<...

Published: Mar 12, 2026Duration: 44m 21s

Season 10 - Episode 15

New miniseries: Death-Defying Destiny Deciders – Part One: War, Peace & Plague

I recently discovered that my great-grandfather was a champion diver who was active in the very same London scene as the doomed stuntmen who featured in my recent miniseries Death-Defying Death Divers!With this as my, um, jumping off point, I’m taking a plunge into my family history, tracing the men and women of the Murtough family, from the Battle of Waterloo, the Boer War and the Western Front, to the wilds of Western Australia and the remote paradise of Lord Howe Island. We’ll also take a look at the birth of tabloid sensationalism and...

Published: Mar 9, 2026Duration: 47m 36s

Season 10 - Episode 14

Short – Maestro! (feat. Goering + Hitchcock)

From a run-in with the future Nazi villain, to working with the master of movie suspense, Aussie musical genius Arthur Benjamin lived a big life, even if he’s these days overshadowed in our cultural history by the scandalous Percy Grainger and Eugene Goosens.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit either of these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustraliaWant more original Australian history? Check out my books!They’ll Nev...

Published: Feb 26, 2026Duration: 13m 15s

Season 10 - Episode 13

Short – Australia's First Typewriter

A century and a half ago, the age of the typewriter dawned in Australia.Who was the first to import these new American gizmos? Would they cause the extinction of handwriting? Would typewriters increase efficiency or simply empower people to churn out rubbish?How many parallels are there to the modern push for AI?To read Robert Messenger’s typewriter histories, check out:https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/ It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episod...

Published: Feb 23, 2026Duration: 27m 2s

Season 10 - Episode 12

Short – The Strange Story of the Australian Flag

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Australian flag being raised for the first time – the winning design selected from a competition that attracted over 32,000 entries. Who sponsored the contest and why? How many winning designers were there?How did one chap so successfully claim sole credit over the next half century that two Australian prime ministers felt it necessary to officially try to set the record straight?It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit either of th...

Published: Feb 20, 2026Duration: 20m 12s

Season 10 - Episode 11

This Week in 1966 – Part Three: Mr Stinky, a Rogue Cop and the Beaumont Children

Having just retired from the NSW police, infamously bent Sydney detective Ray Kelly injects himself into the Beaumont case in what is one of Australia’s most cynical newspaper stunts. At the same time, the disappearance of two teens in Victoria marks the sad start to another haunting murder mystery. Plus: Aussie dollars and cents finally drop, Gough Whitlam vs Arthur Calwell, and the Rolling Stones roll into town… with Keith Richards getting into an odd bit of bother with the border cops.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad...

Published: Feb 15, 2026Duration: 34m 34s

Season 10 - Episode 10

This Week in 1966 – Part Two: H-Bomb Horror & All the Way With LBJ

In Spain, a B-52 accident has left a nuke lost at sea – while on land a fallout cover-up is in full swing. In Australia, even as more Diggers than ever are dying on the battlefield, and our Americans allies are freezing us out of planning, new Prime Minister Harold Hold doubles down on our commitment to the war in Vietnam. Plus: the BBC bans an unsparing atomic war documentary because it’s too realistic, Australia’s Nazi leader raises his ugly voice to silence a war hero turned peace activist, and the world worries about an impending overpopulation apocalypse.B...

Published: Feb 12, 2026Duration: 39m 51s

Season 10 - Episode 9

This Week in 1966 – Part One: The Dawn of the Decimals

In the second week of February 1966, Australians are preparing for ‘Changeover Day’, when we’ll say 'G’bye' to pounds, shillings and pence and say 'G’day' to dollars and cents. But would we have been better off with a currency called the ‘Roo’, the ‘Dinkum’ or the… ‘Nostril’? Plus: Sir Robert Menzies retires in the dark, Harold Holt is immortalised in wax, and the Russians land on the moon.*Hear Part 2 and Part 3 now ad-free as a supporter*It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes...

Published: Feb 10, 2026Duration: 42m 33s

Season 10 - Episode 8

This Week in 1986 – Part Three: The Murders of Anita Cobby, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp and Megan Kalajzich

Australia is shocked by three Sydney murders – even as a spate of brutal attacks on sex workers goes ignored by the police and tabloid media. Plus: Lindy Chamberlain freed as the newspapers dodge accountability, and David Brett’s strange tale gets lost; DNA set to revolutionise crime fighting, while science explains how you don’t get AIDS; Paul Hogan's peak year gathers pace; and cult leaders L. Ron Hubbard and Charles Manson return the the headlines.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit either of...

Published: Feb 2, 2026Duration: 43m 47s

Season 10 - Episode 7

This Week in 1986: Part Two – A Billionaire Tyrant Terrorises His People

In the Philippines, authoritarian ‘strongman’ President Ferdinand Marcos – having once survived a sex tape scandal that should've sunk him, and having siphoned billions from the people he's impoverished, oppressed, tortured and murdered – unleashes his police and military goons to assassinate and terrorise the opposition during ‘free’ elections.Plus: Rupert Murdoch smashes the print unions; Maggie Thatcher hit by two scandals; and Australians fear they'll be living in George Orwell's 1984 under the proposed Australia Card.Hear This Week in 1986 – Part 3 now early and ad-free as a supporter.It’s easy to get a free trial that w...

Published: Jan 29, 2026Duration: 29m 0s

Season 10 - Episode 6

This Week in 1986 – Part One: The Strange Death That Freed Lindy Chamberlain

After an Englishman fell to his death at Uluru on Australia Day 1986, a search of the area would find the crucial evidence that proved Lindy Chamberlain was innocent of the murder of her baby daughter Azaria. But who was the tortured soul whose fate set her free?Also: the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster; Star Wars can't live up to the hype; President Reagan guns for Colonel Gadaffi; and Donald Trump explains his Russia-friendly plan for world peace as he talks up his awesome dome project and shows off his new mega-mansion Mar-A-Lago!*Parts 2 & 3 are...

Published: Jan 26, 2026Duration: 54m 14s

Season 10 - Episode 5

Spotlight – History Daily – The Rum Rebellion – 26 January 1808

Welcome to the first episode of Forgotten Australia Spotlight, which is to showcase the work of other history storytellers. First up, History Daily, with their episode about the Rum Rebellion, which took place on the 20th anniversary of what would later be called Australia Day. It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit either of these links:Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustraliaWant more original Australian history? Check out my books!They’ll Ne...

Published: Jan 23, 2026Duration: 19m 41s

Season 10 - Episode 4

Death-Defying Death Divers – Part Four

Having left his mark on Australia, Professor Charles Peart’s legend is to fade with the years, even as others step up to even greater heights for even more dangerous plunges – intentional and accidental.To support Forgotten Australia:www.patreon.com/forgottenaustraliawww.apple.co/forgottenaustraliaLifeline13 11 14 0477 13 11 14 https://www.lifeline.org.au/ Want more original Australian true crime and history? Check out my books!They’ll Never Hold Me:https://www.booktopia.com.au/they-ll-never-hold-me-michael-adams/book/9781923046474.html<...

Published: Jan 19, 2026Duration: 27m 56s

Season 10 - Episode 3

Death-Defying Death Divers – Part Three

Arriving in Australia, Professor Charles Peart lives up the hype and wows crowds in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, before showing New Zealand audiences what he can do. But the daredevil has even wilder stunts planned for his return season in 1896.Hear the final instalment now early and ad-free by becoming a Forgotten Australia supporter.Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustraliaApple: apple.co/forgottenaustraliaLifeline13 11 14 0477 13 11 14 https://www.lifeline.org.au/ Want more original Australian true crime and history? Check out my boo...

Published: Jan 14, 2026Duration: 58m 0s

Season 10 - Episode 2

Death-Defying Death Divers – Part Two

After a diving tragedy shocks London, Professor Charles Peart rises to fame with his daring and dizzying head-first pool stunts. When Australian circus owners come looking for acts to take Down Under, they believe they’ve found a star performer.Hear Death-Defying Death Divers parts 3 and 4 now early and ad-free as a Forgotten Australia supporter. You can use a free trial that's easy to cancel. If you decide to continue supporting, it'll cost the same as a cup of coffee per month. Supporters help me to keep making Forgotten Australia as...

Published: Jan 11, 2026Duration: 47m 52s