The Story of Australia: Indigenous Worlds and Colonial Expansion — Fexingo History
This history podcast, hosted by Lucas and Luna, traces Australia's story from the Dreamtime and ancient Indigenous cultures through British colonization, frontier wars, gold rushes, and the Stolen Generations. It covers the political journey toward Federation in 1901 and the ongoing national reckoning with Indigenous dispossession, including the Uluru Statement from the Heart, debates over Australia Day, and the fight for treaty and truth-telling. The show also explores cultural and environmental topics such as the Western Desert art movement, the legacy of Captain Cook, and the impact of European farming on the land.
Episodes
The 1975 Dalki Garak: A Ceremony for the Nation
In 1975, on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra, a Ngunnawal elder named Wally Bell performed a fire ceremony called Dalki Garak — a word that means 'fire country' in the Ngunnawal language. It was the first time an Aboriginal ceremony had opened an Australian Parliament, and it marked a quiet but profound shift in how the nation saw its First Peoples. This episode explores the man behind th
The 1966 Wave Hill Walk-Off: Gurindji Land Rights
In 1966, a group of Gurindji stockmen and domestic workers at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory walked off the job, sparking a strike that would reshape Australia. Led by Vincent Lingiari, they demanded equal pay and, crucially, the return of their ancestral lands. The walk-off lasted eight years, drew national attention, and culminated in 1975 when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured a
The 1937 Mala Bells: A Secret History of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb
In 1937, a group of Djab Wurrung men from the Lake Tyers mission in Gippsland made a journey that would become legend: they climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, defying police orders and performing a traditional dance on the steel arch. This episode follows their story—from the mission dormitories to the top of the 'coat hanger'—and asks what their act meant in a decade when Aboriginal Australians w
The 1934 Caledon Bay Crisis: A Turning Point for Yolngu Rights
In 1934, on the remote coast of Arnhem Land, a series of clashes between Yolngu people and Japanese pearlers at Caledon Bay triggered a crisis that would reshape Australian frontier policy. When five Japanese fishermen were killed and Constable Albert McColl was speared, authorities responded with a punitive expedition — but Yolngu leader Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda turned himself in, standing trial in Da
The 1936 Torres Strait Strike: Maritime Workers' Rebellion
In 1936, the pearling luggers of the Torres Strait fell silent. Hundreds of Torres Strait Islander crewmen refused to work, defying the boat pass system that had controlled their movements since the 1890s. This episode follows the strike from its explosion on Thursday Island to its quiet, devastating consequences. We meet the men who led it — sailors like George Mye and others who risked their liv
The Torres Strait Islanders: Saltwater People and the 1936 Strike
Before the 1967 referendum and the land rights movements of the 1970s, a group of pearl divers in the Torres Strait took on the Queensland government in a strike that shook the colonial order. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the world of the Islanders — maritime traders, skilled navigators, and subjects of a unique colonial regime that classified them as 'natives' but denied them the vote.
Uluru Handback: The 1985 Moment of Return
In 1985, after decades of legal battles and a controversial land claim, the Australian government handed back the title to Uluru to its traditional owners, the Anangu. This episode unpacks the long struggle that led to that moment — from the early protests against climbing the sacred rock, to the 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act, to the fraught negotiations between the Northern Territory government
The Coniston Massacre 1928: Australia's Forgotten Frontier
In this episode, Lucas and Luna confront one of the darkest chapters in Australia's frontier history: the Coniston Massacre of 1928. Sparked by the killing of a white dingo trapper, Frederick Brooks, a punitive expedition led by constable William Murray swept through the Warlpiri and Anmatyerre lands of the Northern Territory, leaving at least 31 Aboriginal people dead—though some estimates soar h
The 1967 Referendum: How a Vote Changed Aboriginal Australia
In 1967, over ninety percent of Australian voters said yes to counting Aboriginal people in the census and letting the Commonwealth make laws for them. But what did that actually change, and what did it leave undone? Lucas and Luna dig into the decade of activism that led to the referendum — the 1957 Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, the petition drives led by people like Faith Bandler a
The 1938 Day of Mourning: First Aboriginal Rights Protest
On January 26, 1938, as Sydney celebrated the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet's arrival, a small group of Aboriginal activists gathered in the city's Australian Hall to declare a Day of Mourning. This episode of The Story of Australia explores that landmark protest — the first national Aboriginal civil rights gathering — and the men and women who made it happen. We follow Jack Patten and Will
The 1908 Moseley Royal Commission: Exposing Australia's Frontier
In 1908, a South Australian royal commission set out to investigate the treatment of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. The Moseley Royal Commission, led by Judge W.J. Moseley, heard testimony from across the Territory — from Darwin to Alice Springs — and its findings painted a brutal picture of frontier violence, exploitation, and neglect. This episode follows the commission's journey,
The 1910 Bar Beach Massacre: A Brutal Frontier Secret
In 1910, on the edge of Darwin, five Japanese divers were murdered by two white men, sparking a trial that exposed the brutal underbelly of the pearl-shell industry and the casual racism of colonial Australia. This episode digs into the Bar Beach Massacre — its victims, its perpetrators, the sham prosecution by Alfred Deakin's federal government, and how the case was quietly buried. Lucas and Luna
The 1902 Dawn of Federation: Aboriginal Affairs and the New Commonwealth
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the early days of the Australian Commonwealth, when the new federal government took control of Aboriginal affairs from the states. They focus on the Aboriginal Protection Act of 1902 and the creation of the position of Protector of Aborigines, which formalised policies of control and assimilation. The discussion centres on the life of David Unaipon, the Ngar
The Frontier of Memory: Interpreting Aboriginal History
In this episode, Lucas and Luna step back from the colonial record to explore how Aboriginal history has been remembered, recorded, and reclaimed. They trace the early ethnographic work of figures like Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis Gillen, the troubled legacy of salvage anthropology, and the Dunbar case that shaped the Northern Territory's Native Administration. The conversation examines oral
The 1948 Pilbara Strike: Pastoral Workers Walk Off
In 1946, Aboriginal pastoral workers in Western Australia's Pilbara region walked off the job, igniting the longest industrial action in Australian history. This episode follows the strike's leaders—Clancy McKenna, Don McLeod, and Dooley Bin Bin—and the extraordinary alliance between an Aboriginal lawman and a white prospector. We trace how the strike began over unequal wages and poor conditions,
The 1884 Escape from Cape Barren Island: A Tasmanian Aboriginal Odyssey
In 1884, a group of Tasmanian Aboriginal people fled the confines of Cape Barren Island, a government reserve in the Bass Strait, sparking a dramatic pursuit across the sea. This episode follows the escape of a family led by the matriarch Dolly Dalrymple, tracing their journey in a stolen whaleboat to the mainland, the colonial authorities' chase, and the legal battle that followed. We explore the
The 1860s Native Police: A Brutal Frontier Force
Before the Native Police became a feared instrument of colonial expansion, there were moments when its Aboriginal troopers defied the system. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the origins of the Native Police in the Port Phillip District, the complex motivations of its Indigenous recruits, and the tragic story of Constable Billy, a Yorta Yorta man who deserted and fought against the force he
The 1876 Lake Tyers Mission: Kurnai Survival on the Coast
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the 1876 establishment of the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission in Gippsland, Victoria, and the fierce resistance of the Kurnai people. They follow the journey of Tulaba, a Kurnai elder who fought to keep his people on their ancestral lands, and the role of the missionary John Bulmer, whose own battles with the colonial bureaucracy shaped the mission's fate. The
The 1880s Frontier on the Gulf: Inside the Native Police
In the 1880s, the Gulf Country of northern Queensland was the most violent frontier in Australian history. This episode follows the Native Police, an armed force of Aboriginal troopers under white officers, as they 'dispersed' Indigenous groups resisting pastoral expansion. We focus on the 1884 Kalkadoon resistance at Battle Mountain, where the Aboriginal people of the Cloncurry region used tradit
The 1901 Immigration Restriction Act and the White Australia Policy
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the origins of the White Australia policy, focusing on the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. They discuss the political climate of the newly federated nation, the push for racial purity, and the act's impact on Pacific Islander laborers, Chinese migrants, and Aboriginal Australians. Learn about the dictation test, the critical role of politicians like Edm
The Djab Wurrung of Budj Bim: The Fight for Country
In this episode of The Story of Australia, Lucas and Luna explore the ancient engineering of the Gunditjmara people at Budj Bim, focusing on the intricate eel trap systems and the ongoing cultural revival led by the Djab Wurrung. They discuss the volcanic eruption that shaped the landscape, the sustainable aquaculture that sustained communities for millennia, and the colonial disruption that nearl
The 1889 Anne Bonney Legend: Fact, Fiction, and the Making of a Myth
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the curious afterlife of Anne Bonney, the notorious Irish-born pirate woman who may or may not have sailed the Caribbean in the 1720s. They sift through the sparse primary sources — the trial transcript, the anonymous chapbook, the fanciful memoirs of Captain Charles Johnson — and find that almost everything we think we know about Bonney was invented or embe
The 1869 Aboriginal Protection Board: A New Colonial Grip
In 1869, Victoria's colonial government passed a law that would reshape Indigenous life for over a century. The Aboriginal Protection Act handed the Board for the Protection of Aborigines unprecedented powers over every Aboriginal person in the colony — where they could live, work, marry, and even whether they could keep their children. This episode follows the Board's early years, from the failur
The 1885 Duguid River Gold Rush and the Yolngu Frontier
In 1885, gold was discovered along the Duguid River in Arnhem Land, sparking a rush that would collide with the ancient worlds of the Yolngu people. This episode traces the brief, brutal encounter between European miners and the Indigenous owners of the land — from the initial skirmishes to the government's reluctant response. We follow the story of a little-known figure, the prospector Ernest Fav
The Gunditjmara Eel Farms: Engineering Before Colonisation
Long before Melbourne existed, the Gunditjmara people of western Victoria built a vast network of stone channels, weirs, and traps to farm eels at Lake Condah. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how this sophisticated aquaculture system worked, the volcanic landscape it was built on, and the evidence that it operated for thousands of years. They discuss the 1830s conflict between the Gunditjm
The Macassan Trepangers: Australia's Pre-Colonial Trade
Before the British flagged the continent, Yolngu people in Arnhem Land were already trading with Macassan fishermen from Sulawesi. This episode explores the seasonal trepang harvest, the exchange of goods and ideas, and how Macassan words like 'balanda' entered Yolngu languages. We dig into the rock art at Djulirri that depicts these praus, and the colonial policies that ended a centuries-old conn
The Kalkadoon Resistance at Battle Mountain, 1884
In northwest Queensland, the Kalkadoon people mounted one of the most determined defenses against colonial expansion, culminating in the 1884 Battle of Battle Mountain. This episode dives into their tactical ingenuity — using leangle clubs, returning boomerangs, and fire drives against armed Native Police led by Sub-Inspector Ernest Henry. We explore the Kalkadoon's sophisticated weapons, their st
The 1881 Coranderrk Inquiry: Aboriginal Voices in the Colonial Court
In 1881, a Board of Inquiry convened in Victoria to investigate the condition of Aboriginal reserves. At its heart was Coranderrk Station, a model settlement established after the 1869 Aboriginal Protection Act. This episode focuses on the testimony of William Barak, the Wurundjeri ngurungaeta, who led a campaign for self-determination and land rights. We explore the political maneuvering of colon
The 1869 Aboriginal Protection Act and the Fight for Coranderrk
In 1869, the Victorian colonial government passed the Aboriginal Protection Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that placed Aboriginal people under state control and created a network of reserves. This episode tells the story of Coranderrk, a station near Healesville that became a beacon of Aboriginal self-determination. We follow the leadership of William Barak, the Wurundjeri ngurungaeta who fo
The 1816 Appin Massacre: Macquarie's Frontier War
In 1816, Governor Lachlan Macquarie launched a punitive expedition against the Dharawal and Gandangara people of the Hawkesbury-Nepean frontier. This episode tells the story of the Appin Massacre, where soldiers under Captain James Wallis killed at least 14 Aboriginal men, women, and children at the Cataract River. We explore the escalating conflict between settlers and Indigenous inhabitants, Mac
The 1824 Bathurst War: Windradyne and Wiradjuri Resistance
In 1824, the Wiradjuri people of the Bathurst Plains waged a guerrilla war against colonial settlers and the British military, led by a charismatic warrior named Windradyne. This episode explores the rapid expansion of the colony after the Blue Mountains crossing, the outbreak of violence in 1822, Governor Brisbane's declaration of martial law, and the eventual negotiated peace that temporarily ha
The 1868 Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England
In 1868, a team of Aboriginal Australian cricketers from the missions of western Victoria became the first Australian sports team to tour England. This episode tells the story of that landmark tour: how thirteen men, including star all-rounder Johnny Mullagh (Unaarrimin), navigated colonial prejudice, impressed English crowds, and played 47 matches in four months. We explore the blend of skill, sp
The Execution of Tunnerminnerwait: Tasmanian Resistance in Port Phillip
In 1842, two Tasmanian Aboriginal men, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener, were publicly executed in Melbourne, the first legal hangings in the Port Phillip District. Their story is a direct link between the Black War in Van Diemen's Land and the frontier conflict on the Australian mainland. Lucas and Luna trace their journey from the brutal Tasmanian campaign, through their escape across Bass Str
The 1789 Smallpox Epidemic: Sydney's Silent Catastrophe
In April 1789, a devastating smallpox epidemic swept through the Aboriginal populations around Sydney Cove, killing an estimated 50 to 90 percent of the Eora and Dharug people. This episode explores the outbreak's origins, its impact on Indigenous resistance, and the controversy over whether it was accidental or an early act of biological warfare. We follow the stories of Arabanoo, an Eora man tak
The Jandamarra Rebellion: Bunuba Resistance in the Kimberley
In the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, a young Bunuba man named Jandamarra turned from police tracker to guerrilla leader, igniting a three-year rebellion against colonial expansion. This episode traces his journey from the Lillimullura police camp to the rugged gorges of Windjana, where he evaded a massive manhunt using his intimate knowledge of the land. We explore the violent fron
The Myall Creek Massacre: Justice on the Australian Frontier
In 1838, on a cattle station beside Myall Creek in northern New South Wales, a group of white settlers murdered at least twenty-eight Wirrayaraay people. What made this massacre different was what came next: a trial, convictions, and the hanging of seven of the killers. It was the first time in Australian colonial history that white men were executed for the murder of Aboriginal people. This episo
The 1804 Castle Hill Uprising: Irish Convicts and Dharug Warriors
In March 1804, a group of Irish convicts at the Castle Hill prison farm in New South Wales rose up, seizing weapons and calling for liberation. But their rebellion was not a solitary event—it unfolded amid ongoing Dharug resistance, with warriors like Pemulwuy and others challenging British expansion. This episode explores the uprising's connection to the 1798 Irish Rebellion, the role of Dharug a
The 1797 Toongabbie Convict Plot: Irish Rebels and Eora Alliances
We step back to 1797, when Irish political prisoners and English convicts conspired to overthrow the Sydney colony—and nearly did. Lucas and Luna trace the plot from its roots in the 1798 Irish Rebellion to the secret meetings at Toongabbie, where hundreds of convicts planned to seize guns from the garrison and escape by sea. But the plan relied on an unlikely ally: the Eora people, who had their
The Eora Fisherwomen of Sydney Cove: Diving for a Living
Before the First Fleet arrived, the shallow waters of Sydney Cove were worked by Eora women who dove for shellfish, fished with handlines, and supplied the fledgling colony with its first reliable food source. This episode follows the lives of Patyegarang, a young Eora woman who taught the naval officer William Dawes her language, and the generations of fisherwomen who sustained both their own cla
The 1790s Sydney Economy: Rum, Dharug Trade and the First Bank
Before the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, there was a struggling penal colony held together by rum, barter, and the ingenuity of the Dharug people. This episode explores the makeshift economy of 1790s Sydney — a world where rum was currency, Dharug women traded fish for iron tools, and the first bank was a marine's wooden chest. We look at how Governor Arthur Phillip tried to impose or
The 1829 Swan River Colony: Noongar Resistance at the Founding
When the first British settlers landed on the Swan River in 1829, they found a land already carefully managed by Noongar people. This episode follows the first decade of the Swan River Colony through the eyes of the Whadjuk Noongar custodians. We explore the initial friendly encounters between Captain James Stirling and Yagan's father Midgegooroo, the rapid breakdown of trust as settlers fenced of
The 1860s Native Police Corps: Black Trackers in Blue
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the complex history of the Native Police Corps in Victoria during the 1860s. They focus on the enigmatic figure of Trooper Billy, a Yorta Yorta man who served as a tracker and enforcer for the colonial authorities. The conversation examines the dual role of Indigenous troopers — as both skilled trackers and agents of dispossession — and the moral ambiguities
The 1846 Bent Street Police Office and Aboriginal Prisoners
In 1846, a small police office on Bent Street in Sydney became the center of a controversy that exposed the brutal treatment of Aboriginal prisoners in the colonial justice system. This episode follows the story of two Wiradjuri men, Billy and Tommy, who were arrested for sheep stealing and held in the Sydney lockup. Their case reveals how colonial law was weaponized against Indigenous people, wit
The 1842 Port Phillip Aboriginal Mounted Police: Black Trackers in Blue
In 1842, the colonial government of New South Wales formed a corps of Aboriginal mounted police to patrol the Port Phillip District. Drawing from the Kulin nations, these men served as trackers and fighters, policing their own country under white officers. This episode follows the rise and fall of the Native Police Corps, focusing on figures like Trooper Billy and the force's role in frontier conf
The 1834 Pinjarra Massacre: Binjareb Resistance on the Swan River
In this episode of The Story of Australia, Lucas and Luna examine the 1834 Pinjarra Massacre, a brutal confrontation between Binjareb Noongar people and the Swan River Colony under Governor James Stirling. We explore the context of escalating frontier violence around the Murray and Swan Rivers, the role of the Mounted Police under Captain Theophilus Ellis, and the leadership of Binjareb elders lik
The 1830 Eumeralla Wars: Gunditjmara Resistance in Victoria's Southwest
Long before the better-known frontier conflicts, the Gunditjmara people of southwestern Victoria waged a decade-long guerrilla war against European settlers and the Native Police. This episode follows the Eumeralla Wars of the 1830s and 1840s, focusing on the volcanic plains around Mount Eccles and the Budj Bim aquaculture system—one of the world's oldest engineered landscapes. We explore how the
The 1860s Native Police Corps: Black Trackers in Blue
In the 1860s, the Native Police Corps of Victoria operated as a hybrid force: Aboriginal troopers under white officers, tasked with 'dispersing' their own people off land claimed by settlers. This episode focuses on the Corps' operations in the Wimmera and Gippsland regions, the career of Trooper Billy (a Yorta Yorta man who served for a decade), and the 1861 massacre at Mount Emu Creek where the
The 1888 Centennial Celebrations: Australia's Forgotten Protest
In 1888, as Sydney celebrated 100 years of British settlement with parades and fireworks, a quiet but powerful protest unfolded. Aboriginal activists, led by figures like William Cooper and the Australian Aboriginal Association, boycotted the events, demanding recognition and rights. This episode explores the Centennial Celebrations, the rise of early Aboriginal political organizing, the role of t
The 1795 Hawkesbury Frontier War: Wiradjuri-Dharug Resistance
In 1795, a wave of violence swept along the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, as Indigenous clans led by the Wiradjuri and Dharug fought to push back the expanding British settlement. This episode reconstructs the frontier war that erupted after the devastating smallpox epidemic, centering on the guerilla tactics of Pemulwuy's allies, the retaliatory expeditions of Governor Hunter, and the forgott
The 1857 Flying Foam Massacre: Yamaji Resistance on the Murchison
In 1857, on the Murchison River in Western Australia, a violent encounter between Yamaji people and a party of European settlers led to what became known as the Flying Foam Massacre — one of the deadliest frontier massacres in the state's history. Lucas and Luna explore the events leading up to the attack, the key figures involved, and the aftermath that saw the displacement of the Yamaji from the
The 1843 Gundagai Floods and Wiradjuri Knowledge
In this episode of The Story of Australia, Lucas and Luna explore the catastrophic 1843 Gundagai floods, which wiped out the fledgling colonial town and killed 89 people—one-third of its population. They examine how the Wiradjuri people, who had lived along the Murrumbidgee River for millennia, warned settlers not to build on the floodplain. The conversation delves into the archaeological evidence
The 1824 Bathurst War: Wiradjuri Resistance and the Frontier
In 1824, the Wiradjuri people of the Bathurst region launched a coordinated resistance against colonial expansion, led by the warrior Windradyne. Governor Thomas Brisbane declared martial law, deploying mounted police and British soldiers in a campaign that foreshadowed later frontier conflicts. This episode examines the causes of the war, the role of the Wiradjuri in shaping colonial policy, and
The Warlpiri of Central Australia: Ceremony, Country and Colonisation
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Warlpiri people of Australia's Central Desert, focusing on their rich ceremonial life, the concept of Dreaming (Jukurrpa), and the violent impact of colonisation in the 20th century. They discuss the 1928 Coniston Massacre, one of the last large-scale frontier massacres in Australia, triggered by the killing of a white dingo trapper and resulting in the
The 1868 Cricket Tour: Aboriginal Athletes in England
In 1868, a team of Aboriginal Australian cricketers became the first Australian sporting team to tour England, playing 47 matches across the country. This episode tells the story of the tour, focusing on key figures like Johnny Mullagh (Unaarrimin), a star all-rounder from the Jardwadjali people, and Charles Lawrence, their English coach and promoter. We explore how the tour was shaped by colonial
The 1885 Queensland Coast Expedition: A Forgotten Voyage
In 1885, a small government expedition set out from Cooktown to chart the unknown coastline of Far North Queensland and establish friendly contact with Aboriginal communities. Led by explorer and naturalist William Saville-Kent, the party encountered the Kuku Yalanji, Guugu Yimithirr, and Wik peoples, documented rock art at Laura, and narrowly avoided disaster on the Great Barrier Reef. This episo
The 1841 Bountiful Heifer and the Wiradjuri Warrior
In this episode of The Story of Australia, Lucas and Luna explore a small but revealing incident from 1841: the attempted theft of a heifer on the Lachlan River and the ensuing pursuit of a Wiradjuri warrior named Monga. This event, documented in the colonial records of the New South Wales Border Police, sheds light on the everyday violence and resistance on the Australian frontier. They discuss t
The 1840s Overlanding: Squatters and Aboriginal Resistance
In the 1840s, a wave of overlanders drove sheep and cattle from New South Wales into what would become Victoria, sparking fierce Aboriginal resistance. This episode follows the story of the Whyte brothers' journey in 1838, the conflicts with the Jardwadjali and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples, and the role of the Native Police. We explore the economic forces behind the squatting rush, the failed attempts
The Wurundjeri and the 1835 Batman Treaty: A Land Deal That Never Was
In 1835, a Tasmanian grazier named John Batman sailed to Port Phillip and claimed to have 'purchased' 600,000 acres of land from the Kulin nation, including the area that would become Melbourne. But the treaty he brokered with the Wurundjeri elders — signed with crosses and marked by the exchange of blankets, knives, and tomahawks — was immediately repudiated by the colonial government in Sydney.
The 1804 Castle Hill Rebellion: Ireland's Fight on Australian Soil
Before the Eureka Stockade, before the Shearers' Strike, there was the 1804 Castle Hill Rebellion — the first major convict uprising in Australian history, led by Irish political prisoners. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the background of the 1798 Irish Rebellion, the transportation of United Irishmen to New South Wales, and the secret plotting that culminated in a midnight march from Cas
The 1838 Waterloo Creek Massacre: Australia's First Frontier Massacre
In 1838, a year before the famous Myall Creek killings, a posse of mounted police and settlers slaughtered dozens of Kamilaroi people at Waterloo Creek in northern New South Wales. This episode tells the story of that largely forgotten massacre — the first large-scale killing of Aboriginal people in Australia's colonial record. Lucas and Luna piece together what happened through the testimony of M
The 1830s Aboriginal Reserve of Port Phillip: A Failed Experiment
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the short-lived 1830s Aboriginal reserve at Port Phillip, a failed experiment in 'civilising' Indigenous Australians. They discuss Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson's controversial role, the Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri peoples caught in the system, and the reserve's collapse due to disease, displacement, and settler encroachment. The conversation highl
The 1788 Old Sydney Burial Ground: Excavating Colonial Erasure
Long before the grand sandstone walls of Sydney's Central Business District rose, a small cemetery near the present-day Town Hall held the earliest European dead of the colony — convicts, soldiers, officials, and a few Aboriginal people who died in the first years of contact. Over time the graveyard was built over, paved, and forgotten. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the history of the O
The 1843 Gundagai Floods: How Water Remade Australia's River Frontier
In June 1852, the Murrumbidgee River rose and swallowed the town of Gundagai, killing a third of its population and washing away the frontier settlement that had grown around the overland route from Sydney to Melbourne. But the disaster was not just a natural calamity — it exposed the deep tension between European settlers and Wiradjuri knowledge of the floodplain. Wiradjuri people had warned the
The 1790 Battle of Pemulwuy: Sydney's First Frontier War
In 1790, just two years after the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove, the Eora warrior Pemulwuy launched a series of attacks that would spark the first frontier war in Australian history. This episode follows Pemulwuy's story—from his first strike at the Parramatta river where he speared Governor Phillip's gamekeeper to his years-long guerrilla campaign against the British. We examine the 1790 raid
The 1842 Port Phillip Aboriginal Mounted Police: Black Trackers on the Frontier
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the short-lived and controversial experiment of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Mounted Police, a force of Aboriginal men recruited in 1842 to track and capture Aboriginal resisters in the Port Phillip district (now Victoria). They delve into the life of its most famous member, Trooper Billy, a Yorta Yorta man who became a celebrated tracker before his tragic en
The 1899 Federation Drought: Australia's Nation-Building Catastrophe
When Australia federated in 1901, the continent was in the grip of one of the most severe droughts in its recorded history. The Federation Drought, which began in 1895 and peaked around 1899-1902, reshaped the fledgling nation's relationship with land, water, and climate. Lucas and Luna explore how the drought devastated sheep stations in New South Wales and Queensland, forced the culling of milli
The 1884 Torres Strait Annexation: Pearl Shell, Missionaries and Empire
In 1884, the British Empire officially annexed the Torres Strait Islands, a chain of over 270 islands stretching from the tip of Cape York to Papua New Guinea. This episode uncovers the world of the Torres Strait Islanders — Melanesian maritime peoples with sophisticated sea-faring cultures, intricate trade networks, and a thriving pearl-shell industry that drew European, Japanese, and Pacific Isl
The 1938 Day of Mourning: Australia's First National Aboriginal Protest
On January 26, 1938, as Sydney celebrated 150 years of British colonization, a small group of Aboriginal activists gathered for a 'Day of Mourning' — the first national protest by Indigenous Australians. Lucas and Luna explore the lead-up to this pivotal event, focusing on the key figures: Jack Patten, William Ferguson, and Pearl Gibbs of the Aborigines Progressive Association. They discuss the pr
Budj Bim: The Ancient Eel Trap Aquaculture of the Gunditjmara
Long before the Roman aqueducts, the Gunditjmara people of southwestern Victoria engineered a vast system of stone-lined channels, weirs, and traps on the slopes of the dormant volcano Budj Bim — an aquaculture network designed to harvest eels, now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how this 6,600-year-old system worked: the volcanic basalt fields t
The 1878 Nagoorie: Yorta Yorta and the Riverine Frontier
In 1878, a Yorta Yorta man named Nagoorie was shot and wounded by police on the Murray River in northern Victoria. The incident sparked a chain of events that exposed the brutal reality of the Queensland Native Police system and the ongoing dispossession of Aboriginal people in the Riverina. This episode follows Nagoorie's story, from his capture and imprisonment in Melbourne to his eventual retur
The 1891 Australian Shearers' Strike: Class War in the Bush
In 1891, the vast sheep stations of Queensland and New South Wales erupted in a conflict that pitted unionised shearers against powerful pastoralists and colonial governments. This episode tells the story of the Great Shearers' Strike — a bitter industrial struggle that saw camps of striking workers besieged by police and military, the use of scab labour from as far away as Melbourne, and the emer
The 1860s Queensland Native Police: A Frontier Force
In this episode, Lucas and Luna go deep into the Queensland Native Police, a force of Aboriginal troopers commanded by white officers that operated from 1848 to the 1890s. They focus on the force's formation under Frederick Wheeler, the controversial figure of Sub-Inspector Robert O'Neil, and the daily reality for the black troopers caught between cultures. Using Jonathan Richards' research and fi
The 1852 Victorian Gold Rushes: Eureka, Chinese Miners and the Making of Melbourne
In 1851, gold was discovered in Victoria, triggering a rush that transformed the colony forever. By 1852, tens of thousands of fortune-seekers had arrived from Britain, Europe, America, and especially China. This episode focuses on the Chinese miners on the goldfields — their journey across the Pacific, the brutal conditions at the diggings, the discriminatory taxes they faced, and their crucial r
The 1888 Centennial Celebrations in Sydney: Whose History Was Being Told?
In January 1888, Sydney threw a massive party to mark a hundred years since the First Fleet landed at Warrane. Banners, parades, fireworks, a grand banquet. But while white colonists toasted progress and empire, Aboriginal Australians experienced the centennial very differently. This episode of The Story of Australia explores the planning and politics behind the 1888 celebrations, the speeches tha
The Wadjemup Prison: Aborigines on Rottnest Island
In this episode of The Story of Australia, Lucas and Luna explore the dark history of Wadjemup, known today as Rottnest Island, which served as a brutal prison for Aboriginal men and boys from 1838 to 1931. Over 3,700 Indigenous Australians from across the continent were incarcerated there, and hundreds died—buried in unmarked graves on the island. We examine the prison's origins under Governor Jo
The 1808 Rum Rebellion: Australia's Only Military Coup
In 1808, the New South Wales Corps, known as the Rum Corps, marched on Government House in Sydney and arrested Governor William Bligh, the former captain of the Bounty. This episode unpacks the events leading to Australia's only military coup: the corrupt rum trade that enriched officers like John Macarthur, Bligh's attempts to curb their power, and the bizarre trial that followed back in London.
The 1860s South Sea Islander Trade: Australia's Other Blackbirding
In the 1860s, tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were brought to Queensland to work on sugar plantations under a system called 'blackbirding.' This episode tells the story of the South Sea Islander trade—how recruiters used deception and coercion to lure men from islands like Vanuatu, the Solomons, and New Caledonia to labour in Australia's cane fields. We follow the journey of a fictionalised
The 1790s Sydney Smallpox Epidemic and Aboriginal Immunity
In the early years of the British colony at Sydney Cove, a devastating smallpox epidemic swept through Aboriginal communities around Port Jackson, killing perhaps half the local Eora population. Lucas and Luna explore the origins of the outbreak — was it introduced accidentally by the First Fleet, deliberately by settlers, or did it travel overland from Macassan trepangers? They examine the limite
The 1838 Myall Creek Massacre: Justice on the Frontier
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Myall Creek Massacre of 1838, a brutal event in which at least 28 Wirrayaraay people were killed by a gang of convict stockmen and former soldiers. They discuss the subsequent trial, one of the first times white settlers were executed for the murder of Aboriginal people in colonial Australia. The hosts delve into the legal battle led by Attorney General
The Stolen Generations: Australia's Forced Child Removal Policy
This episode examines the Stolen Generations, the systematic forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, which continued from the early 1900s into the 1970s. Lucas and Luna discuss the policies behind removals, the impact on families and communities, and the legacy of trauma that persists today. They explore how governments justified assimilation, the role
