Grave Tales Australia: the series

Dying young, Sylvia McArthur would make her mark, documenting in letters to a newspaper's children's page what life in rural Tasmania around the turn of the 20th century was like.

Some bushrangers became folk heroes, others were opportunistic thieves, but the Clarke Brothers were murderous thugs who hanged on duel gallows.

Madam Weigel's patterns dressed the women of Australia for nine decades but in the large cemetery plot bought for three, there are no bodies.

Mark Jeffrey lived with the 1100 or so deceased residents on the Isle of the Dead, tending his own plot. But how did he avoid being buried there?

Little did Professor Theodore Flynn and his wife, Lily, of Sandy Bay, Tasmania, know that their son, Errol Flynn, would become Hollywood's favourite son from the early to mid-20th century and die too soon at the age of 50. This is the story of the Flynns of Sandy Bay.

A story that has passed into folk law – how bushman Bernard O'Reilly put his mind to finding a missing aircraft with seven people on board when no-one else could.  

In the days when ‘freak shows' were entertainment, Mrs Augusta Rewald, a Queensland resident, was exhibited as the ‘biggest woman in the world'. But did she really want to be on show, or was she cruelly exploited by her husband?

For more than a century, Sam Knott was one of the best-known faces on advertising billboards. But how did this unconventional man find himself fronting a beer poster?

On a beautiful summer’s eve, January 1924, in the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, five people's lives were about to change. A gunman was on the loose. A true-crime story from the 'Grave Tales: Melbourne Vol.1' book.

If it wasn’t for a persistent father, Walter Lindrum might never have risen to World Champion. He was nicknamed the ‘Don Bradman of billiards’ and they had to change the rules to beat him! This is Walter's story.

On a Sunday afternoon in February 1921, 13-year-old Chrissie Venn left home to run an errand for her mother. Two days later Chrissie’s body was found in a hollowed-out stump 3.5 metres off the ground. No one was ever charged for her murder but did a killer walk free or was the wrong man prosecuted?

The man in a suit looked like he was resting in the sun on Somerton Beach, Adelaide, in 1948, until a couple of good Samaritans checking on him, discovered that he was dead. He had nothing on him that identified who he was but Police soon discovered a secret pocket in the man's trousers with a piece of paper rolled tightly, bearing two strange words.

He was the Holocaust survivor saved by Oscar Schindler – this is the story of Leo Rosner, a talented Jewish musician who made a post-war life in Melbourne. We remember him and speak with his daughter Anna. 

Many Australians know the story of the execution of Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant and Peter Handcock—but there were other Australians charged with them, and one of them wanted to be shot as well but was sentenced to life in prison. This is George Witton's story.

Years of isolation, deprivation and often the loss of children, even a case of madness; who were the stoic ladies who accompanied their husbands at the Cape Otway Lighthouse Station?

Sudden deaths from a plague caused panic in Sydney involving quarantining, demolitions and disinfecting. The year was 1900 and the nervousness will feel very familiar today.

Alice Anderson was one of Australia’s first female mechanics and her ideas and inventions were ahead of her time. But Alice’s life came to an untimely end on a Friday evening in the back of her garage, with a gunshot to the head. Was it an accident or suicide? We speak with Loretta Smith, author of ‘A Spanner in the Works: The extraordinary story of Alice Anderson and Australia’s first all-girl garage.’

An unspeakable crime – two women murdered, a third left for dead, and a young killer on drugs on the loose. In Autumn 1964, the community of Coorparoo, Brisbane, lost their innocence. We speak with those who were there and remember to this day. 

On Monday 31 July 1972, the residents of Ipswich in Queensland were awoken by a blast that destroyed the Box Flat Colliery and killed 17 miners. But what happened to the men of the mine who remained entombed on the site?

What’s the real story of the bohemian who broke out of an asylum and was known for her ability to quote any passage from Shakespeare for money?

Three men went into a pub … no it is not the start of an Irish joke, but it was the start of a syndicate that would turn racing on its head. This is the story of ‘three bushies’ and a publican who bought a bargain basement priced horse that turned out to be a champion. You may know the grey mare as Gunsynd.

Mental asylums were often regarded as feared places of suffering – but for one young girl and her family who lived at the asylum, the inmates provided a fascinating glimpse into the other world of the people who were sent there.

Dan Kelly, brother of Ned, died in the 1880 Glenrowan shoot-out with police. So, who was the man living in Ipswich who claimed in 1933 that he was Dan Kelly?

It was school holidays, December 1921 and 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke left home to run an errand in the heart of Melbourne. She was found the next day murdered. The man accused of her murder, Colin Ross, was hanged after witnesses, who pocketed rewards, lined up to add their testimonies. Eighty-six years later, in 2008, DNA results would find a different conclusion. This is Alma and Colin’s story and how they crossed paths on that fateful day.

The winged keel wonder – Australia II and the eccentric mind behind it – Ben Lexcen was the man who engineered the only win over the USA at their own game in 132 years.

Queensland’s oldest cold case – three Murphy siblings from Gatton were slain late on Boxing Day, their bodies left for all to see. The investigation was hampered by the public destruction of clues, mishandling of evidence and the numerous suspects.

The drowning of two little girls who were attracted by water lilies in a pond at Walloon, near Ipswich, inspired Henry Lawson to write his classic 1891 poem, The Babies of Walloon. With so much of our art, music and literature sharing the stories of missing youngsters, this story asks the question is Australia the land of lost children?

How did an unarmed stretcher bearer manage to capture 18 armed German soliders in the trenches of France in World War One? You won't believe it!

A $15 million prize was hijacked in what was the nation’s most brazen and probably biggest cash robbery ever. And despite the ruthless criminals involved, no-one was killed in the heist. But when the robbing was over the killing began.

The woman who escaped him was called the ‘uncemented bride’. But those who loved him called him the gentlest of lovers. Several of them were buried under the hearthstone...

This is the story of the down-and-outer from a rough childhood who found redemption and why he spent his life writing the word ‘Eternity’ on Sydney streets.

It was only his second sea journey, and a sailor's life is meant to be an exciting one on the ocean’s waves – adventure, mateship and the mysteries of far off places… but not for Jack.

Who really lies in a humble grave marked with a white cross in a Melbourne cemetery? Is it the woman they call the ‘Pyjama Girl’, Linda Agostini… or does the evidence suggest it’s not her at all?

The newspaper declared ‘startling disclosures’ would be revealed at the trial of Martha, 24, charged with killing her sister, Bertha, 14. Was it a jealous rage, or was a male intruder responsible?

A farmer’s wife inspired the design of the Australian ute, and its designer, Lewis Bandt, would take his last breath in it.

Overpaid, oversexed and over here – US soldiers during World War II. This is the story of one GI who killed innocent Australian women to possess their voices.

Was Robert Francis Burns our first serial killer? Using the solitude of the bush, Burns hid his victims’ bodies, but when found guilty of one murder, he told the hangman about some more!

The inexplicable story of a mother who murdered her husband, her three young girls and her new fiancé’s brother with poison… and how one final cup of tea would seal her fate.

The three ladies, Grace, Rose and Meta, retired for the night on 22 March 1964 in the residence at the back of their little shop. After midnight, the residents of Coorparoo, Brisbane, were woken by the sounds of emergency vehicles heading to the Wood’s premises. But the fire brigade found much more than they bargained for – this was not a house fire, it was the scene of a murder … and the fire was lit to hide evidence.

His namesake is famous in AFL circles… yet Charles Brownlow played much of his footy for Geelong under an assumed name. This is the curious story of why the name ‘Brownlow’ almost wasn’t famous at all.

Nothing strikes fear into the heart like the words 'black death' – a plague that can wipe out a whole town and can be passed on by a sneeze! When five children from one family died from Pneumonic Plague in 1905, the city of Maryborough feared the worst, but two nurses helped save the city!

Mollie Thompson went missing early one morning – no-one knew where she was until her body was found 10 days later in an impossible to get to water tower that had been searched three times.

Thirty-eight-year-old journalist Juanita Nielsen remains on the Australian Missing Persons Register. What happened to the feisty Sydney journalist who stood up for the residents of her area when developers wanted their inner-city homes?

Heading home from work in 1896, Grace, 27, was seen walking slowly towards the river... she missed the first ferry and decided to wait for the next one. Harry, 21, ran his father's business in the city... he and his aunty boarded the very same ferry. Grace and Harry were both on a ferry named the Pearl.

Could deserted bride, Eliza Donnithorne, be the role model for Charles Dickens' Miss Havisham from Great Expectations? Five years before Miss Havisham was created, Eliza, a Sydney woman, became a recluse after she was left at the alter; the wedding feast was left to rot and the clocks were stopped.

Could a serial killer who so cold-bloodily murdered five women now rest on a leafy hillside in a Brisbane cemetery? That may well be the case. Was Walter Porriott Jack the Ripper or just Australia’s greatest fraudster?

A love that was meant to be? It was a maritime tragedy when the Loch Ard was shipwrecked near Port Campbell in 1878 with 54 passengers onboard. Only one young man and one young woman survived. Everyone hoped they would get together…

Who was the owner of the human arm that a shark spat up in front of a crowd at a Coogee Aquarium? The twisted tale of the Sydney’s strangest murder hunt.