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Society & Culture

Australia On This Day

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What happened on this day back in the day? From the creator of Forgotten Australia, this is your daily dose of the stories that made headlines and sometimes made history. See acast.com/priva...

Episodes

20 of 58 episodes

5 August - 1944 - The Cowra Breakout

REPEAT: At 2am on this day in 1944, the Cowra Breakout began. This episode looks at the man who blew the bugle that gave the signal for the...

17:41Aug 4, 2021

3 August - 1912 - The Persecution Of The Eccentric Sexologist

REPEAT: On this day in 1912, William Chidley, radical sexologist and one of Australia’s most eccentric characters, was arrested for being a...

18:37Aug 2, 2021

2 August - 1986 - The Theft Of The Weeping Woman

REPEAT: On this day in 1986, one of Australia's strangest and funniest crimes was committed when Pablo Picasso's masterpiece The Weeping Wom...

21:21Aug 1, 2021

1 August - 1905 - Australia's First Lady At Law

REPEAT: On this day in 1905, Flos Greig became Australia’s first female lawyer — but before she could practice the law she had to change it...

18:15Jul 31, 2021

31 July - 1902 - Henry MacCabe & Our Two Worst Mining Disasters

REPEAT: Australia suffered what is still our worst industrial disaster when an explosion ripped through the Mount Kembla mine on 31 July 190...

13:22Jul 30, 2021

30 July - 1930 - The Fate Of Australia's Forgotten Aviator

REPEAT: Pioneering Australian pilots Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm and Bert Hinkler are household names for their aviation feats and...

21:52Jul 29, 2021

29 July - 1917 - The Outback Accident That Changed Australian History

REPEAT: On the 24th of May 1917, famous Aussie boxier James Leslie “Les” Darcy died in America. Just over two months later in Western Austra...

14:32Jul 28, 2021

28 July - 1950 - The Life-Saving Sacrifice of the Young Snake Catcher

REPEAT: On this day in 1950 in Cairns, amateur herpetologist Kevin Budden caught a Taipan to start Australia’s anti-venom program for that d...

30:14Jul 27, 2021

27 July - 1909 - The Mysterious Disappearance of the S.S. Waratah

REPEAT: On this day in 1909 the SS Waratah, voyaging from Australia to England via South Africa with more than 200 people aboard, vanished w...

22:33Jul 26, 2021

26 July - 1919 - The Forgotten Flyweight Champion

REPEAT: On this day in 1919, boxer George Mendies won the Australian Flyweight Title — and it was a crown he'd defend successfully again and...

15:12Jul 25, 2021

25 July - 1910 - A Meeting Of Magnificent Minds

REPEAT: On this day 111 years ago, two scientific giants spent a couple of hours hanging out and talking shop in Sydney. One had invented th...

11:20Jul 24, 2021

24 July - 1920 - Dad & Dave Hit The Silver Screen

REPEAT: On this day in 1920, Raymond Longford's classic silent film On Our Selection had its Australian premiere in Brisbane. This was a bus...

14:23Jul 23, 2021

23 July - 1931 - The Murder Of Mary Edson

REPEAT: On this day in 1931 Australia was shocked by news of an Adelaide crime, as much for its sheer brutality as for the cold and calculat...

14:37Jul 22, 2021

22 July - 1950 - From Dead Heart To Inland Sea

REPEAT: On this day in 1950, Australia learned that its driest and most inhospitable region had become a huge inland sea — and that it was b...

14:07Jul 21, 2021

21 July - 1942 - The Coastwatcher's Last Stand

REPEAT: On this day in 1942, the battle for the Kokoda Track began — just as the long and lonely war of a brave Australian coastwatcher came...

18:15Jul 20, 2021

20 July - 1940 - Australia's Spitfire Ace

REPEAT: 81 years ago today the Battle of Britain was raging. Among those taking on the Nazis in Spitfires was a handful of young Australian...

17:23Jul 19, 2021

16 July - 1952 - Humping A Swag To Hollywood

REPEAT: Born in 1900, Charles Shaw grew up in poverty, was orphaned at age 14 and worked more tough jobs than he could count over the next t...

18:49Jul 15, 2021

15 July - 1968 - The Lady Reappears

REPEAT: On this day in 1968, geologist Jim Bowler found the bones of an Aboriginal woman who'd died and been ritually cremated and buried mo...

34:04Jul 14, 2021

13 July - 1940 - The Death Of A Razor Gangster

REPEAT: On this day in 1940, a bullet-ridden body was found in a dark alley in Sydney's Surry Hills. The reign of razor-gangster William Smi...

11:53Jul 12, 2021

12 July - 1912 - Queen Of Swimmers

REPEAT: At the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, champion swimmer Fanny Durack became the first Australian woman to win a gold medal. But Fanny ne...

13:25Jul 11, 2021