ABC Rewind
ABC Rewind is a narrative history podcast that brings gripping true stories to life, told by the people who lived through them. Each episode dives into historical events and personal experiences, offering a deep and engaging look at the past. The show is produced by ABC Australia, drawing on their extensive archive of storytelling.
Episodes
02 | Remember Me | Return of the Songbird
When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.
01 | Remember Me | The Foster Files
There’s a government file about my life. A file full of reports. The reports date from 1985 to 2003. That’s 18 years. File 105538.No, I’m not a terrorist or a spy. From two weeks old, to the day I turned 18, I was a foster child.I do not own the file about my life. It belongs to the state of Queensland. But when I turned 18 I wanted answers. What I found rocked me to my core.Th
Fairlight CMI - the sound you've never heard of
The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made. At the start of the 1980s the Fairlight caught the eye of synthesiser pioneers likes Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. By the end of the 1980s it had caught the ear of millions of people around the world, even if they didn't know it.
Blood, prejudice and nursing
It's the 1980s, and the first devastating decade of the AIDS pandemic. A young student nurse tests positive for the virus. and this information ends up on the front page of his local newspaper. A tale of fear and prejudice. but also of great courage, and love.
The story of Sam Poo - Chinese bushranger?
It's 1865 in remote central west NSW. A police office is fatally shot by a man he believes is a Chinese bushranger. But all may not be as it seems. A bushranging tale with a twist
Finding Fanny Finch
What if the most remarkable of all your ancestors was the one left out of the family tree? Historian Kacey Sinclair and two of Fanny Finch’s direct descendants reconstruct the life and legacy of a Victorian goldfields trailblazer, a woman of colour whose story was hidden for generations.
The Roo Dog
The Kangaroo dog is unique to Australia. It's a mystery dog with a big story. Born in the early Sydney colony, this deerhound-greyhound mongrel dog was bred to hunt and kill kangaroos. The kangaroo dog was there at key moments in Australia's colonial past - from hunting dog that fed the colony, to bushrangers best mate - to battle dog in the Frontier wars, and family member. The
02 | A succulent chinese meal
Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video? This episode unravels the story of a prison playwright and his muse which led Jack to utter those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”
01 | A succulent chinese meal
Who is the man behind Australia's most iconic internet meme, who famously said “What is the charge? Eating a meal, a succulent Chinese meal? Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest"?
07| Boycott! | Rugby, Rebels and Reconciliation
In this extra episode Sisonke Msimang tells stories of First Nations Australians, Rugby and the fight to end Apartheid.When Aboriginal Rugby player Lloyd McDermott refused to declare himself an honorary white for the Wallabies tour of South Africa in 1963 he began a tradition of First Nations Australians using the sport to get under the skin of the country’s regime. But when Glen
06 | Boycott! | Homecoming
After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is free and the anti-apartheid movement is full of hope. But as apartheid legislation is repealed and South Africa starts transitioning to democracy, not everyone is happy. Right-wing Afrikaner groups take to the streets with guns and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party inflicts terrible violence within the black community. There are mass killi
05 | Boycott! | The streets are burning
The 1980s see South Africa spin out of control as defiance to apartheid and the regime’s crackdown builds. A cultural boycott of South Africa sees international musicians refuse to play there until Paul Simon controversially records his album Graceland with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The world finally gets to hear the vibrant sounds of Zulu music but at what cost to the anti-aparth
04 | Boycott! | The Grapefruit Ladies
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
03 | Boycott! | Uprising
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 Af
02 | Boycott! | Blood Sport
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 divid
01 | Boycott! | Spear of the Nation
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 divide
INTRODUCING: Boycott! The fight to end apartheid
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
The Drug Grannies | Too Old to Run | 02
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
The Drug Grannies | Too Old to Run | 01
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?
PRESENTS — The Challenger Legacy
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 th
02 | Florence | A murder still unsolved
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 – Jo
01 | Florence | A life papered over
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
01 | The Buried Tea Chests
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.
02 | The Buried Tea Chests
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.
The paralympic journey | Money, media and ethics | Part 2
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
The paralympic journey | From rehab to elite | Part 1
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
03 | Anzac Massacre | The story of Surafend
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?
02 | Anzac Massacre | After Surafend
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.
01 | Anzac Massacre
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.
05 | Skase | In sickness and in health
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.
04 | Skase | The Chase for Skase
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.
03 | Skase | Flying too close to the sun
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.
02 | Skase | Building a Mirage
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 p
01 | Skase | The Confidence Man
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.
INTRODUCING — Skase: Fall of a Tycoon
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 Qin
Great Aussie Cons | My Mother the Spy
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
Great Aussie Cons | The Lady Imposter
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 disguis
Great Aussie Cons | The Qantas Hoax
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?
Great Aussie Cons | The Tichborne Claimant
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 Claim
Great Aussie Cons | The Flying Forger
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.
06 | Rainbow Warrior | Legacies
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
05 | Rainbow Warrior | Operation Satanique
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.
04 | Rainbow Warrior | The Land and the Soul
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.
03 | Rainbow Warrior | Project 4.1
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.
02 | Rainbow Warrior | The Day of the two suns
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.
01 | Rainbow Warrior | The Other Cold War
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?
03 The Loveday Trilogy | Miyakatsu Koike
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.
02 The Loveday Trilogy | Francesco Fantin
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.
01 The Loveday Trilogy | Oskar Speck
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.
02 | Ray Denning | The stitch up
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.
01 | Ray Denning | Breaking out
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.
03 | Dusted | The human cost of mining in Australia
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.
02 | Dusted | The human cost of mining in Australia
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.
01 | Dusted | The human cost of mining in Australia
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.
04 Where the bloody hell were you! When the tobacco ads came down
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.
03 Where the bloody hell were you! When TV marketing went mad
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.
02 Where the bloody hell were you! The jingle reigns supreme
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.
01 Where the bloody hell were you! Television comes to Australia
Join host Dee Madigan for a wild ride through the golden days of Australian advertising. When TV arrived in Australia in 1956, it brought American ad agencies, international sophistication and the rise of the cultural cringe.
07 | Conspiracy | We're still feeling it
In this bonus episode Jan Fran and historian Dr Geraldine Fela discuss how the waterfront dispute has shaped the way we work in Australia today. 27 years later work is more precarious – casual and fixed term jobs have grown, the kind of work we do has changed and employers now have more power over employees. Politics and industrial relations were also changed by the dispute and u
06 | Conspiracy | All the way to the top
Was the Howard government the puppet master of the Waterfront dispute? Host Jan Fran reveals new evidence that provides some answers to questions that’ve dogged Australian politics for 27 years.
05 | Conspiracy | Judgement Day
After Patrick Stevedores sacks its 1,400 maritime union workers the waterfront dispute turns into a courtroom drama as the legal teams battle it out in the Federal Court before heading all the way to the High Court.
04 | Conspiracy | Who Let the Dogs Out
The Maritime Union knows Patrick Stevedores is building up to a dramatic move. But it’s shocked when the company sends in balaclava-clad security guards and dogs to forcibly lock out workers in the dark of night. The union's lawyers take the company to the Federal Court where Patrick drops a bombshell on day one of the hearing.
03 | Conspiracy | The farmers come to town
After the collapse of the Dubai plan Patrick Stevedore's boss Chris Corrigan turns to Plan B, training fresh-faced farmers to work as wharfies. The MUA suspect the farmers will take their jobs and so create chaos at the gates of Patricks’ Webb Dock to stop the farmers getting through. Meanwhile the heat remains on Corrigan to fess up to his masterminding of Dubai.
02 | Conspiracy | Bosom Buddies
When the Opposition Labor Party breaks the news in Parliament about a secret group of ‘industrial mercenaries’ training in Dubai to take over the wharfies' jobs some big questions are asked: who exactly is behind the training operation, and is the government involved?
01 | Conspiracy | If it quacks like a duck
When Patrick Stevedores locks out and fires 1400 wharfies overnight on April 8, 1998, it divides the country. But behind all this is a story of high drama and political intrigue, a complex web of double dealing and high-stakes leaks. It's no secret that the Howard government wants waterfront reform but what role is it playing in Patrick owner Chris Corrigan's "revolution"?
INTRODUCING — Conspiracy? War on the waterfront
On 8 April 1998 Australians woke up to the startling news that dogs and men in balaclavas were invading the docks around the country, locking out workers. This is a story of political intrigue, of lies, double dealing, high stakes leaks and high stakes finances. And guns. It takes us from Queensland’s Ettamogah pub to the ports of Dubai, from low-rent motel rooms to the highest
Anzac Massacre | The story of Surafend | 03
In the final episode of Anzac Massacre, Black Sheep podcast host William Ray delves into the unanswered questions surrounding the killings at Surafend, Southern Palestine by the Anzac Mounted Division in December 1918. What motivated this brutal act?
Anzac Massacre | The story of Surafend | 02
Radio New Zealand podcast Black Sheep brings us 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.
Anzac Massacre | The story of Surafend | 01
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.
Inside the Big day Out | Flying too close to the sun
Come on a wild ride through the extraordinary story of the Big Day Out; the festival which, for over two decades, was a summertime rite of passage for music lovers around Australia. Was it really a victim of its' own success?
Introducing Rewind
We''ve got news! The History Listen has been given a makeover. Our new show, ABC Rewind, is still your home for gripping audio storytelling, and still the podcast where you'll hear true stories told by the people who lived through them. Come on a deep dive into the past on Rewind.
Inside the Big Day Out | From Nirvana to nightmare
Come on a wild ride through the extraordinary story of the Big Day Out; the festival which, for over two decades, was a summertime rite of passage for music lovers around Australia
Sam Poo | A Chinese bushranger?
It's 1865 in remote central west NSW. A police office is fatally shot by a man he believes is a Chinese bushranger. The story of Sam Poo is a bushranging tale with a twist
Secrets and Lies | A year behind the Iron Curtain
At the height of the Cold War a New Zealand teenager is sent to a hospital in the Soviet Union to grow new fingers on her left hand. Sounds like fiction? This actually happened to Miranda Jakich and in this episode she tells her tale.
Friedrich the Fraud
Was he Australia's greatest con artist? That was the title given to John Friedrich, the former head of the Victorian Division of National Safety Council of Australia. Back in the 1980s, he famously made $293 million of investors’ money disappear. When his fraud was uncovered, he went missing himself for sixteen days, prompting a nationwide manhunt and a media storm that reporte
Finding Fanny Finch
When Bill Garner began exploring his family history, a puzzling gap in the family tree led him to discover a most extraordinary ancestor: Fanny Finch. Finch was a well-known and controversial figure during the Victorian gold rushes. A London-born woman of African heritage, she pushed a wheelbarrow from Melbourne to the goldfields in 1852, where she became a sly grogger and restau
Laya's Way Home - part 2
Laya Semler was the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany, in 1945. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf was sent to slave labour for not denouncing her. Both survived. Now, Wennigsen has invited their Australian family back, to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s incredible story of courage and love. In Part 1, their great-grandchildren discovered a town perhaps final
Laja's Way Home part 1
In 1945, Laya Semler became the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf chose slave labour rather than abandon her. They both survived. In 2022, the village of Wennigsen invited their Australian family back to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s bravery. Told by their great-grandchildren, Laya and Adolf’s story is testament to the po
Cyclone Tracy: survivor stories
Fifty years ago, in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy killed 66 people and decimated the city of Garramilla/Darwin. Afterwards more than 30,000 residents were evacuated, many never returning to Darwin. Writing down memories of the event helped some survivors of the cyclone process the experience. Hear a handful of these stories, set in crumbling houses, airborn
The Crutchy Push
It’s the early 1900s and a gang of men moves through the gritty streets of inner-city North Melbourne: they dress sharp and inspire fear wherever they go. This gang, the Crutchy Push ruled the streets of North Melbourne over a ten year period, from late 1890s. And the reason for their curious name? All the members of this gang were amputees: mostly one-legged, and they used a cru
