Australia On This Day

On this day in 1935, taxi driver John Smillie (cousin of William Smillie, the razor gangster of the 13 July episode) was shot dead in Sydney. It'd be six months before an arrest was made. His alleged killer? A boy named Boyd Sinclair, who'd be held without trial... for more than a decade. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1974, feared and hated criminal Stewart John Regan — nicknamed The Magician for his skill at making people disappear — got his bloody comeuppance on a Sydney street. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1973, the deal was done — Australia was the proud new owner of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. The price? $1.3m — the most ever paid for an American artwork. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this weekend in 1992, two bodies were found in Belanglo State Forest in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The discovery triggered the hunt for the man who'd become known as Australia's worst serial killer. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Arthur Benjamin was born on this day in 1893 — and it was also on this day in 1950 that he was in The Sun newspaper slamming Sydney as a backwater. Stumbling on this article led me to wonder about this then-famous pianist and composer. Scratching the surface was to find a man whose rich life saw him write a tune for a future Queen’s special day, nearly die at the hands of a future Nazi war criminal and help a hot young director become the future master of suspense films. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1944, Australia's most famous war cameraman — whose film Kokoda Front Line! had won us our first Oscar the previous year — was killed while filming American Marines trying to retake a tiny Pacific island held by the Japanese. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1956, Channel Nine executive Bruce Gyngell uttered these famous words. While TV was a modern marvel, its genesis in Australia dated back to the 1880s. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

125 years ago today, Mark Twain, acclaimed as the world's funniest man, steamed into Sydney Harbour — and started cracking jokes to a newspaper reporter before he even got off the boat. For the famous visitor, his trip to Australia was more than the first stop on a world tour. It was Mark Twain’s chance to redeem himself. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rod Taylor was our biggest movie star of the 1960s, beloved by generations of Australians for his knock-about persona and success in Hollywood films such as The Time Machine and The Birds. But a chance discovery in an Australian newspaper database a few days ago revealed a far darker ‘success’. That was: rewriting the history of his first marriage to erase any mention of his horrific behaviour. ** Australia On This Day will return with new episodes soon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day a century ago, Captain Percy William Snell thrilled Brisbane by performing aviation stunts in a biplane right over the centre of the city. After seeing an ad for his 1920 joy flights, I went down the rabbit hole and discovered a man who rose from childhood tragedy to be a Great War fighter ace — but who may also have committed wartime atrocities. After he came back home, Percy Snell introduced thousands of his fellow citizens to aviation, entertained a future King of England and was pilot to a socialist state premier on an aerial election campaign tour that ended in what may have been the first political assassination attempt against an Australian politician in our history. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day 80 years ago, the SS Dunera steamed into Sydney Harbour. Aboard were more than 2000 men — most of them European Jews who'd fled the Nazis. Having been declared "enemy aliens" in England, they'd been transported to Australia, only to endure two months of brutality on the voyage at the hands of sadistic British soldiers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1908, Australia's most beloved and popular poem saw print for the first time. Dorothea Mackellar's "My Country" — with its line, "I love a sunburnt country" — would soon be an important part of our national identity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This was the 24 hours of Australia's war from the first shot of the war fired to the mass internment of 300 people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1901, the Australian flag was raised for the first time after the winners of the competition to design our national ensign were revealed. But in years to come, a myth about who’d won the competition would spread far and wide. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day 50 years ago, Sydney's vice squad swooped on a clear, present and wholly fictitious danger to society: Alexander Portnoy. He was the protagonist of Philip Roth's raunchy satire Portnoy's Complaint, which had been banned in Australia despite being a critically acclaimed worldwide bestseller. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1934, the pyjama-clad body of a young woman was found near Albury in NSW, triggering one of Australia's most baffling murder investigations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1978, more than 100 gay rights activists were arrested in Sydney. It was a travesty of justice that, once overturned, helped pave the way for Mardi Gras as we know it. ** Australia On This Day will be on a short break — new episodes coming soon. In the meantime, please leave a rating and review. Thanks for listening. ** See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Australian silent movie star Lotus Thompson was born on this day in 1904. Before she turned 20 she'd arrived in Hollywood and made her name with a shocking act that called into question the movie industry's priorities. Or... did she? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1824, two desperate convicts fled the brutality of one of Australia’s most notorious penal settlements to take their chances in the wintry Tasmanian wilderness. It did not go well. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1973, young thug Archibald McCafferty — fueled by drugs and supported by a gang of youthful misfits — began a killing spree that'd see him dubbed "Australia's Charles Manson". See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1966, Gurindji stockmen and their families — led by elder Vincent Lingiari — walked off the job at the Wave Hill station in the NT in protest against poor pay and conditions — and for the return of their traditional lands. What followed was an epic eight-year battle. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This was the day that Australian punters went to the movies for the first time – and it happened at Melbourne’s Opera House just nine months after the French Lumiere brothers got le punters to pay to see the moving pictures in Paris. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This day in 1972 marked the final page in the long adventurous life of Ernestine Hill, who, from 1930, roamed for decades to Australia's most remote places, writing hundreds of articles and numerous best-selling books. Oh, and she also had a son who was almost certainly an heir to the Packer media dynasty. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1857, Sydney was visited by disaster when the clipper Dunbar was dashed against rocks on South Head. 121 people would die. One man would survive. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1930, Sydney folk crossed their fingers in the hope that the southern and northern arms of the Harbour Bridge would meet — rather than collapse in a disaster that might further ruin Australia's Depression-wracked economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1950, Australians were on tenterhooks as they awaited news from Bellingen, NSW, where British war bride Betty Sara was giving birth to quads. Quads had never before survived in Australia. The story would be front-page news for days — and a staple of the Australian Women's Weekly for the next quarter of a century. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1889, Tom Roberts and fellow Heidelberg School painters opened their 9 x 5 Impressionist Exhibition, a controversial event that led to much derision but one that forever changed Australian art. If you'd spent a couple of pounds that day, how much would your investment be worth to your descendants today? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1928, Constable George William Murray led a punitive raid against Aboriginal people in Central Australia in response to the murder of dingo trapper Fred Brooks. Five Aboriginal people were shot dead in the attack — and what followed was a series of mass killings that'd last two months and claim 31 lives, though modern historians put the toll at around 170. In this episode, I talk to historian Dr Robyn Smith, who has worked to map this and other mass killings of Aboriginal people in the NT for the University of Newcastle’s Massacre Map project. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

75 years ago today, Australian cities erupted in riotous celebrations because the Second World War was over. Here's how the day unfolded. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day 64 years ago Sydney police learned the truth about the horrific car-bombing double murder that had rocked and shocked the city overnight. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

80 years ago today a Hudson bomber crashed in Canberra, killing four of Australia's top wartime leaders — along with six other men. It was a tragedy that'd lead to the downfall of one Prime Minister and set two politicians on their paths to that top job. But what — or who — caused the crash? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1930, Arthur Stace — hopeless Sydney alcoholic — converted to Christianity and set himself on the path to becoming Mr Eternity, whose one-word message would eventually reach billions worldwide. Australia On This Day will be on a short break until next week. Thanks for listening. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 mass escape – and how he wound up behind barbed wire as the first Japanese POW in the first place, courtesy of a Darwin Digger's odd angry shot and the bravery of an Aboriginal man from the Tiwi Islands. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

175 years ago today, Australia suffered what is still our worst civil maritime disaster when the emigrant ship Cataraqui struck a reef off King Island and sank in Bass Strait. Of the 409 aboard, just nine were to survive - but fate held a cruel trick in store for two of these men. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1912, William Chidley, radical sexologist and one of Australia’s most eccentric characters, was arrested for being a lunatic – the first use of this power against him in a vendetta that’d eventually make him a martyr to free speech. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1986, one of Australia's strangest and funniest crimes was committed when Pablo Picasso's masterpiece The Weeping Woman — valued at $2m — was stolen from the National Gallery of Victoria and held to ransom by a mysterious group calling themselves Australian Cultural Terrorists. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 via an act of parliament. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Australia suffered what is still our worst industrial disaster when an explosion ripped through the Mount Kembla mine on 31 July 1902. Strikingly, lead rescuer Henry MacCabe had 15 years earlier been acclaimed a hero of the 1887 Mount Keira explosion, which was our previous worst industrial catastrophe. Yet Henry's legacy isn't quite black and white. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pioneering Australian pilots Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm and Bert Hinkler are household names for their aviation feats and tragic fates. Eric Hook is forgotten — not even a Wikipedia entry. But in mid-1930 his England-Australia flight was a front-page story as the world awaited news of what had happened to him in Burma. Hear his story in today's episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the 24th of May 1917, famous Aussie boxier James Leslie “Les” Darcy died in America. Just over two months later in Western Australia, his namesake, jackaroo James Darcy, would unwittingly become the one to really alter history when he came off a horse in the remote Kimberley and suffered terrible internal injuries. His only hope was surgery — done by a postmaster being instructed by a surgeon 1200 miles way in Perth — via Morse Code telegraph messages. What came later, saved countless lives. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1950 in Cairns, amateur herpetologist Kevin Budden caught a Taipan to start Australia’s anti-venom program for that deadly species. He died in the process. But his sacrifice saved the lives of many people — at least one of whom then saved other lives. Today’s episode tells the story of this forgotten hero — and includes an interview about Kevin’s legacy with Brendan James Murray, author of Venom: The Heroic Search For Australia’s Deadliest Snake. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1909 the SS Waratah, voyaging from Australia to England via South Africa with more than 200 people aboard, vanished without a trace. This is a story that includes a one-armed double murderer, a scientific genius who'd reshape the way we see the universe and a buttoned-down business chap whose life was saved by a series of terrifying premonitions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1919, boxer George Mendies won the Australian Flyweight Title — and it was a crown he'd defend successfully again and again. Despite this being a period of racism and anti-Semitism, this Jewish-Portuguese-Chinese Australian champion was hugely popular — and his fate was every bit as tragic as those of Les Darcy and Dave Sands. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day 110 years ago, two scientific giants spent a couple of hours hanging out and talking shop in Sydney. One had invented the telephone. The other's inventions had made it possible for men to fly. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

100 years ago today, Raymond Longford's classic silent film On Our Selection had its Australian premiere in Brisbane. This was a bush saga that defied expectations thanks to a new cinematic approach. Hear all about it in today's episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 calculating way the killer had tried to cover his tracks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in 1950, Australia learned that its driest and most inhospitable region had become a huge inland sea — and that it was being explored by the only white man who'd successfully made a living in the Lake Eyre area. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 to its end in another part of New Guinea. Con Page isn’t a name that’s widely known – but it should be. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Eighty years ago today the Battle of Britain was raging. Among those taking on the Nazis in Spitfires was a handful of young Australian pilots on secondment to the RAF. On this day in that desperate time, Brisbane-born Gordon Olive made his mark with his first confirmed Luftwaffe kill — setting himself on the path to becoming one of our few Battle of Britain Spitfire aces. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sixty years ago today, Australia was shocked by our first skyjacking, when a disgruntled young man pulled out a sawn-off .22 rifle and a gelignite bomb on TAA Flight 408 from Sydney to Brisbane. With 49 lives in the balance at 20,000 feet, everything came down to a split-second decision by a brave crew member. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Eighty years ago today, wartime Australia was appalled by the dictatorial powers claimed by Sir Keith Murdoch. The media mogul had just been appointed as Director General of Information by Prime Minister Menzies, but the control he wanted over newspapers, radio and cinema had politicians and newspaper editors comparing him to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.