The Martha Plan
The Martha Plan was a secret scheme created in the early 1960's to bring unmarried Spanish women to Australia, in the hope that they'd stay and populate the country. Did it work?
Oct 12, 2024•29 min
ABC Rewind
The History Listen is now ABC Rewind, the home of gripping narrative history series. Dive into true stories told by the people who lived through them.
Episodes
Ep 2: The buried tea chest
Hidden for nearly a century, two chests of mail found under a Sydney home was declared to be one of the most important hauls in Australia’s postal history. Why the secrecy? And why has a Sydney family been so shocked by their revelations?
Oct 05, 2024•29 min
Ep 1: The buried tea chests
When journalist Annika Blau learnt of the discovery of two tea chests of very valuable mail under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she uncovered secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.
Sep 28, 2024•29 min
A succulent Chinese meal - Part 2
Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video? This moving story of the prison playwright and the performer unravels why Jack uttered those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”
Sep 21, 2024•31 min
A succulent Chinese meal - Part 1
Who is the man behind Australia’s most iconic internet meme, who famously said “This is democracy manifest”?
Sep 14, 2024•29 min
The strange life of Ingrid von Oelhafen - Part 2
59-year-old Ingrid was in her office one day when her phone rang. It was the German Red Cross. They asked if she was Ingrid von Oelhafen? Also known as Erika Matko? It was the call she’d waited for her whole life and it opened the door to a terrible secret from one of Nazi Germany’s sickest experiments. Who was she? And where was she from?
Sep 07, 2024•33 min
The strange life of Ingrid von Oelhafen - Part 1
Ingrid von Oelhafen’s childhood in post-WW2 Germany was full of strange events - her mother inexplicably left her in a children’s home for five years, her doctor called her by another name. It took her decades to discover the horrific truth - a secret that led straight back to the highest powers of the Nazi regime.
Aug 31, 2024•33 min
Kangaroo 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.
Aug 24, 2024•37 min
The paralympic journey | money, media and ethics
Swimmer Siobahn Paton won multiple medals at the Sydney 2000 games but her dreams were shattered when athletes in a different sport cheated spectacularly. Louise Sauvage delves into the controversy of classification along with the heightened visibility and respect the Games have brought to all people with disabilities.
Aug 17, 2024•30 min
The paralympic journey | From rehab to elite
Join wheelchair racing legend Louise Sauvage for the fascinating evolution of The Paralympics, from life-saving rehabilitation for World War 2 soldiers to today’s elite sporting event.
Aug 10, 2024•29 min
The Lady of the Swamp
The mysterious tale of rich socialite Margaret Clement, who lived alone in the Gippsland bush in a decaying mansion encircled by waist-deep water. She was known to locals as 'the lady of the swamp' until one day in 1952 Margaret simply vanished.
Aug 03, 2024•29 min
The Great Australian Camel Race (part 2)
The story of an epic 3300-kilometre adventure from the Australian desert to the coast. Half way through the race, Illness, flood, fatigue and flies are all taking their toll, as camels and riders push through to the finish line.
Jul 27, 2024•29 min
The Great Australian Camel Race (part 1)
It’s April 1988, somewhere near Uluru, and the starter gun fires off one of the strangest, most audacious events to mark Australia's bicentennial year, the Great Australian Camel Race. People came from all around the world to take part in a feat which spanned over 3000km, as camels and humans endured scorching heat, flooding rains and serious sickness that almost sent the race belly-up.
Jul 20, 2024•26 min
Monarto | Lost city of the future
Don Dunstan had a dream - a futuristic city to rise out of The Mallee. What went wrong? After years of planning and designing why was it never built?
Jul 13, 2024•29 min
Blood, prejudice and nursing | Barry’s story
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.
Jul 06, 2024•29 min
Great Aussie Cons | My Mother The Spy
Mercia Masson, one of Australia’s longest serving undercover ASIO agents, spied on her communist friends, while her only daughter remained in the dark.
Jun 29, 2024•29 min
Great Aussie Cons | The Lady Imposter
A clever young street urchin disguises herself as aristocracy. She inconveniently finds herself in a convict cell in Tasmania - but only temporarily. Then it's onto the streets of 1850’s Melbourne to continue her deception.
Jun 22, 2024•29 min
Great Aussie Cons | The Qantas Con
The public watch the sky above Sydney as a Boeing 707 circles for hours. Fuel running dangerously low. Qantas flight 755 from Sydney to Hong Kong, is threatened by a terrifying phone call. Richard Roxburgh takes a deep dive into the events of that fateful day. On May 26th, Qantas flight 755 takes off on a routine flight from Sydney to Hong Kong. A man called Mr Brown telephones. He wants half a million dollars – or else 'the plane will blow up'. The public watches the sky above Sydney as a 707 c...
Jun 15, 2024•29 min
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 who has been lost at sea?
Jun 08, 2024•29 min
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.
Jun 01, 2024•29 min
INTRODUCING — Great Aussie Cons
Australian history’s littered with con artists. Renowned Australian actor Richard Roxburgh tells the stories of these brazen and downright deviant identities who used their charm and smarts to spy, extort and steal. How did they get away with it? The first episode drops on the 1st of June.
May 30, 2024
Fight for the forest
In an unprecedented political move, the Western Australian state government will end logging of native forest. Meet the people who have dedicated their lives to saving these incredible forests.
May 28, 2024
Partition's children
When India was divided to create Pakistan more than a million people lost their lives. People who were there remember the chaos, violence and moments of kindness of Partition.
May 21, 2024•30 min
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 2
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 hellish nightmare.
May 11, 2024•29 min
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 1
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?
May 04, 2024•29 min
Michael Mansell: a life of radical resistance
Activist and lawyer Michael Mansell has been fighting for Aboriginal rights in Australia for over 50 years. In this episode his daughter Nala Mansell sits down with her father for a conversation about his life on the frontline, and the resilience of palawa identity in lutruwita Tasmania
Apr 27, 2024•29 min
The Friendship Spitfire: Jack Dawson-Green's war story
A story of swagger, bravery, skill and ultimately, friendship, set on the frontline of war
Apr 21, 2024•29 min
Section 71: The Hindmarsh Island Bridge Affair (Part 2)
In the second part of the bitter and long-running case known as the Hindmarsh Island bridge affair, the battle heads all the way to the High Court.
Apr 13, 2024•29 min
Section 71: The Hindmarsh Island Bridge Affair (Part 1)
Ever wondered how the term "secret women's business" entered the Australian vernacular? It's part of a bitter legal battle over land, culture and history in South Australia.
Apr 06, 2024•29 min
Section 71: Communists, Terrorists and the High Court
How much power does the federal government have to protect Australians from international threats? Two key High Court cases, 50 years apart, which put this question to the test.
Mar 30, 2024•29 min