Episodes
A rare and exclusive interview with the legendary Sir Donald Bradman
THIS IS THE FINAL EPISODE IN SEASON ONE. Whoah! It seems I achieved something that the great television interviewer and self-confessed cricket nut Sir Michael Parkinson longed for, but never managed – to not just meet, but to...
As a kid, he skinned cats and sold the meat. What happened years late…
When I interviewed Ernest Skein in 1970, I was told he had recently been let out of jail. I didn’t want to close down an interview with a fascinating old-time prospector, so when I got the message that some subjects …
The bushman with a passion for local history
PICTURED: Fred Teague leans against his dry blower, his brother George is to his left, with the gold pan. Taken on the Koonamore goldfield, South Australia, 1934. In the Depression years Fred Teague had been a gold miner and ...
‘You had to overcome their fear’. Exclusive interview with co-founder…
It was bitterly cold up there, in leather cap and goggles, in the open cockpit. Turbulence in those North Queensland skies was often terrifying. Passengers could do nothing but hang on and bear it, hopefully holding something...
‘It’s a terrible crime to be a scab. A scab is worse than a murderer’
One day 1970, in the Outback town of Broken Hill, I was standing on a street corner, tape recorder in hand, grabbing sounds for a radio documentary. A short, energetic little fellow wandered up and said, ‘Hello son, what are …
Both families were miners. Together they created musical gold
Last edition we met Sis McRae, the all-night fiddler from the early part of the 20th Century. Sis had just one child, Margaret McRae, who married Jim Coad. Both families had mining backgrounds. With Margaret and Jim this cont...
More Naughty Norman, then tales from Granny McRae, the All-night Fidd…
There are two distinct parts to this episode: first, more revelations about an early aviation legend. Then, we visit Ada (Sis) Mcrae, born 1889, who recalls the hardships and joys of life in a small Outback town. SIR NORMAN B...
‘I made all the rules, and I followed every one of them’. Some ’naugh…
‘They wouldn’t let Brearley look at the bodies. A women said it was the first time she’d ever seen a man cry.’ World War One dogfighter Major Norman Brearley was the first off the ground with an airline in Australia, …
From WW1 ace fighter pilot, to starting Australia's very first airline
Within a few short years after the First World War, over the heads of horses donkeys camels and bullock teams, a new sound could be heard in Australia’s interior: the droning and spluttering of aircraft. First it was the 'bar...
Chasing opals since the 1920s, while paddling his own dusty canoe
Opal miner Franko Albertoni was born in 1883. He was 88 when John Francis interviewed him in 1971, but still jumping around in the crushing heat like a little pixie. In 1920 Franko and his brother were among the very …
Cranky camels, murderous mules, and a swarm of swaggies
It was 1919, and Charlie Gill was 12 when he started work on a cattle station east of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. It was a tough but joyous life for a boy. Charlie was an acute observer, with …
RED DUST TAPES trailer
Are you intrigued by Australian oral history? You’ll really love RED DUST TAPES. Soak up the voices and the stories of Outback old-timers who were born over 130 years ago. Here's a quick trailer of RED DUST TAPES, which wi...