The Opera House

With special guest: Peter FitzSimons … in conversation with Bill Kable As well as being a 20 th century marvel in its soaring design it remains a source of marvel that the Opera House was even conceived in the parochial, conservative backwater that was 1950s New South Wales. One thing that was typical then and remains so is the Australian love for a gamble so it was a brainwave of the NSW government to think of financing the construction by way of a lottery. All of a sudden there were more than enough funds to do the work of construction. But the bigger gamble was to construct a building like no other that would be on display at the heart of the city with techniques that had not been invented based on the imaginings and sparse drawings of a Danish architect who had never taken a building design through to completion. In his book The Opera House Peter FitzSimons takes us on an incredible journey. It took Peter 12 years to track down all the stories which include sexual intrigue, kidnap and murder, bullying and breakdowns. Friendships were made and irrevocably broken in the course of the 15 years of construction before the glorious opening on a beautiful Sydney day in October 1973. Podcast (mp3)

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The Opera House is an episode from Dads on the Air by Dads on the Air | CRN | dadsontheair.com.au.

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This episode was published on Feb 4, 2026.

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