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 1

New Season Miniseries: Death-Defying Death Divers – Part One

Welcome to Season 10! There are a lot of wild stranger-than-fiction episodes and miniseries coming your way in 2026. To start the New Year, let's splashback 130 years...In 1895, Australians were astounded by Charles Peart, whose claim to fame was diving head-first from 100 feet into water just six feet deep. How did he do it? How long could he do it?In this four-part miniseries, we plunge into the strange world of striving divers, conniving showmen and sensationalist reporters who brought dizzying and often deadly thrills to audiences in England, the United States, Australia and New Zealand...

Published: Jan 4, 2026Duration: 53m 16s

Season 9 - Episode 82

The Marvellous Mary Stoddard

In 1881, plucky Mary Stoddard won the Great Australian Christmas Card Competition and launched her long and brilliant career in the Sydney art scene. While colonial gentlemen usually didn’t take ‘lady artists’ terribly seriously, Mary’s mastery of the pen and brush, particularly when doing portraits of powerful men, commanded respect, praise and plenty more prizes. She was a true pioneer.To hear the bonus episode 'The Day Australian Art Changed Forever', and get access to other exclusive shows, and get all episodes early and ad-free, become an Patreon or Apple supporter. Click here for a free tria...

Published: Dec 30, 2025Duration: 1h 5m 27s

Season 9 - Episode 81

The Garden Palace Mystery Revisited

Hope you all had a great Christmas. New episodes will be out next week. In the meantime...Australia's first Christmas cards were displayed at The Garden Place. In this episode, originally released in 2023, we look at the raising – and blazing – of colonial Sydney's most spectacular building. Nearly 150 years after its conception, questions linger about its destruction.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/forgottenaustralia...

Published: Dec 26, 2025Duration: 1h 4m 59s

Season 9 - Episode 80

Australia’s Great Christmas Card Competition

In 1881, after years of a Christmas card market dominated by wintry imports, the John Sands company launched a competition for Australian-themed designs, with the best and most popular artworks to be reproduced for sale to the public. Who would win? What did this contest and ongoing card mania mean for Australian cultural identity, women's employment, art and culture, education and industry – and for the authenticity of our creativity and communication?Bessie Rouse's scrap album, featuring early Christmas card designs:https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/bessie-rouses-scrap-album/It’s easy to get a free...

Published: Dec 21, 2025Duration: 1h 3m 36s

Season 9 - Episode 79

When Santa Broke Into Pentridge

A new Christmas episode is on the way. In the meantime, let’s revisit the cheekiest Santa Claus in Australian true crime history: Dusty Sheehan – the young Melbourne larrikin, hapless crook and serial prison escape artist – who made news everywhere in 1951 when he broke into Pentridge to bring joy to jailbirds.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 true crime an...

Published: Dec 15, 2025Duration: 32m 25s

Season 9 - Episode 78

Shirley Butler: 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 after her death, detectives announced a stunning breakthrough. But the arrest of their ‘Hitler’ suspect would pale in comparisons with the revelations to come.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 true crime and history? Check out my...

Published: Dec 8, 2025Duration: 41m 50s

Season 9 - Episode 77

Shirley Butler: The Christmas Murder – Part One

In this re-release episode, we revisit one of Australia’s most haunting murder cases. On Christmas Day 1952, the body of Shirley Butler was found not far from her Sydney home. The vivacious 21-year-old had last been seen on Christmas Eve, in a festive mood, boarding a packed city. What had happened next? Who had killed her and why? In their search for answers, an army of detectives would scour the city for clues – and authorise a world-first radio re-enactment of her last fateful journey. The man they were looking for? A Russian magician with a Hitler moustache.<br...

Published: Dec 7, 2025Duration: 38m 2s

Season 9 - Episode 76

Short – Stunt Pilot Percy Snell

In September 1920, Captain Percy Snell thrilled Brisbane by performing aviation stunts in a biplane right over the centre of the city. Forgotten today, this fearless flier was a man of many adventures, including heroics and possible crimes in the Great War. Back home, when not entertaining the future King of England, Percy was piloting a state premier on an aerial election campaign tour that ended in what may have been Australia’s first political assassination attempt.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit eith...

Published: Nov 28, 2025Duration: 20m 13s

Season 9 - Episode 75

Short – The “Man-Woman” Murder Case That Shocked Australia

In 1920, Sydney police arrested a man named Harry Crawford for murder — giving Australian newspapers the story of the year when it was revealed this male suspect was biologically female. The Eugene Falleni "man-woman" case — as it became known — culminated in a sensational trial, though doubts that justice was done persist to this 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 Australi...

Published: Nov 26, 2025Duration: 16m 52s

Season 9 - Episode 74

Short – Sydney’s Horror Shipwreck

In 1857, Sydneysiders awoke to the nightmare vision of their harbour bobbing with bodies. The great ship Dunbar been dashed against The Gap and there seemed to be no survivors. But one lucky chap had lived – and he’d live not only to pay it forward but to see his tale told on stage and screen. 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/forgottenaustralia<...

Published: Nov 23, 2025Duration: 16m 17s

Season 9 - Episode 73

Short – Australia’s First Night at the Flicks

In August 1896, Aussies went to the movies for the first time – and it happened at Melbourne’s Opera House just nine months after the French Lumiere brothers got le punters to pay to see the moving pictures in Paris.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 true crime and history? Check out my books!They’ll Never Hold Me...

Published: Nov 20, 2025Duration: 11m 3s

Season 9 - Episode 72

Short – Escaping Hell

In 1824, two desperate convicts escaped the penal outpost of Macquarie Harbour, risking murder and cannibalism for a fleeting chance at freedom.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 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.htmlThe Murder Squad:ht...

Published: Nov 17, 2025Duration: 12m 50s

Season 9 - Episode 71

Short – The Canberra Air Disaster Mystery

In August 1940, an RAAF Hudson bomber crashed in Canberra, killing four of Australia's top wartime leaders — along with six other men. It was a tragedy that'd lead to the downfall of one Prime Minister and set two politicians on their paths to that top job. But what — or who — caused the crash?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 true cri...

Published: Nov 13, 2025Duration: 18m 8s

Season 9 - Episode 70

This Week in 1957: Part Two – Keep Watching the Skies

Space dog Laika and Sputnik II were the green light for the Cold War missile and space races to accelerate at warp speed. With the Russians out in front, the Americans were hellbent on catching up, using Nazi war-criminal know-how as they kicked around making the moon into a military base to launch nukes at the Commies. Meanwhile, as people everywhere were seeing UFOs and worrying about subliminal brainwashing, Sydney and Melbourne had some very specific problems – surviving freak weather and enduring the loved-up antics of Liz Taylor and Mike Todd.It’s easy to get a fr...

Published: Nov 6, 2025Duration: 40m 47s

Season 9 - Episode 68

This Week in 1957: Part One – Dogs In Space

The world would never be the same after the Russians launched Sputnik II into space and its cosmonaut canine Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth. Aussies would have to keep their eyes on the skies during an extraordinary week of heavenly happenings, from freak weather and flying saucers to planes in peril and swooping Hollywood stars. One big question: would the Commies really nuke the moon during a total lunar eclipse to mark the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution?It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to...

Published: Nov 2, 2025Duration: 40m 21s

Season 9 - Episode 67

This Week in 1932: 32 Rabbit Holes – Part Three

In 1932, horror movies are on the rise, reflecting fears of an uncertain age – and fair enough, too, because, in addition to the woes of the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and Nazism, and the slide towards another world war, machines are taking jobs, mad scientists are transplanting monkey balls into millionaires, a self-aware robot is trying to kill its master, and an elite cabal of technocrats are hellbent on taking over the world.It’s easy to get a free trial that will give you access to ad-free, early and bonus episodes. Hit eith...

Published: Oct 31, 2025Duration: 1h 6m 12s

Season 9 - Episode 66

This Week in 1932: 32 Rabbit Holes – Part Two

While Hitler’s rise to power In Germany seems unstoppable and Mussolini celebrates ten years of fascism in Italy, Australia's homegrown New Guard numbskulls have already become irrelevant – and escaped investigation for their planned insurrection. Plus: Ripley’s Believe it Or Not; an extraordinary outback survival story with a Nazi aftertaste; a 'fun' bigamy story turns very dark; and everything that was ‘wrong’ with modern women.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/forgottenaus...

Published: Oct 29, 2025Duration: 38m 16s

Season 9 - Episode 65

This Week in 1932: 32 Rabbit Holes – Part One

From robots and rockets, to mad scientists, anti-democratic techbros and narcissistic fascist strongmen, a lot of what was making news this week in the Great Depression sounds, well, familiar. But at least we’re not declaring war on emus... just yet. Join me as we jump in and out of 32 strange stories from 1932 – and see which chime – a least a little – with this week in 2025. Part one includes: Brave New World banned, the plucky young poetess whose pen was a sword against poverty and the plan to turn the South Pole into a garbage dump.<p...

Published: Oct 27, 2025Duration: 46m 19s

Season 9 - Episode 64

This Week in 1907: All Quacked Up

Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills, Freeman’s Chlorodyne, Hearn’s Bronchitis Cure, Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills – what was in these and other patent medicines and how much good and harm did they do? These questions were being asked this week in 1907, in the wake of a Royal Commission report that showed Australians were risking their health and wealth on costly quack concoctions that were often placebos and/or contained poisons. In this episode, we look at the first attempts to control a hugely profitable unregulated industry that had been built with pioneering techniques in mass marketing and misinforma...

Published: Oct 20, 2025Duration: 1h 2m 5s

Season 9 - Episode 63

Short – The Coastwatcher’s Lonely War

In July 1942, as Australia’s armed forces were about to begin what would become the legendary battle for the Kokoda Track, in another occupied part of New Guinea, the brave Aussie coastwatcher Con Page was desperately trying to evade a huge force of Japanese soldiers that was systematically hunting him down.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 true crim...

Published: Oct 14, 2025Duration: 18m 13s