ABC Rewind

When Nell and Caitlin moved into a century-old shop in the historic suburb of Stockton in Newcastle unexplainable things started happening; a lady with a bouffant hairdo appeared in their loungeroom, books, clothes and electronic gadgets were disappearing, there was the acrid smell of unwashed old men in the kitchen. This paranormal activity went on for years, until they called in a ghostbuster.

Our expert panel - sceptic Adam Spencer, psychic Kerrie Irwin and agnostic producer Greg Appel put their claims to the test.

It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever.  

When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision.

He’d sparked up a conversation with a Dutch hiker named Geert van Keulen, and he decided to follow Geert up a mountain the following morning.

It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change both their lives forever.  

Paulina always knew she had half- siblings around the world. They all shared the same Tongan father. Finding them was the best thing she ever did.

Jim Everett puralia meenamatta - born on Flinder's Island in 1942 - is a man of many selves – philosopher, fisherman, scholar, activist, poet, soldier, filmmaker. When he was sixteen years old, he discovered a hidden part of himself.

When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.

There’s a government file about my life. A file full of reports. The reports date from 1985 to 2003. That’s 18 years. File 105538.

No, I’m not a terrorist or a spy. From two weeks old, to the day I turned 18, I was a foster child.

I do not own the file about my life. It belongs to the state of Queensland. 

But when I turned 18 I wanted answers.   What I found rocked me to my core.

This is my story.

The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made. At the start of the 1980s the Fairlight caught the eye of synthesiser pioneers likes Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. By the end of the 1980s it had caught the ear of millions of people around the world, even if they didn't know it.

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. 

It's 1865 in remote central west NSW. A police office is fatally shot by a man he believes is a Chinese bushranger. But all may not be as it seems. A bushranging tale with a twist

What if the most remarkable of all your ancestors was the one left out of the family tree? Historian Kacey Sinclair and two of Fanny Finch’s direct descendants reconstruct the life and legacy of a  Victorian goldfields trailblazer, a woman of colour whose story was hidden for generations.

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. The kangaroo dog was there at key moments in Australia's colonial past - from hunting dog that fed the colony, to bushrangers best mate - to battle dog in the Frontier wars, and family member. The kangaroo dog has seen a lot. What happens when we see history through a dog's eyes?

Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video?  This episode unravels the story of a prison playwright and his muse which led Jack to utter those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”

Who is the man behind Australia's most iconic internet meme, who famously said “What is the charge? Eating a meal, a succulent Chinese meal? Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest"?

In this extra episode Sisonke Msimang tells stories of First Nations Australians, Rugby and the fight to end Apartheid.

When Aboriginal Rugby player Lloyd McDermott refused to declare himself an honorary white for the Wallabies tour of South Africa in 1963 he began a tradition of First Nations Australians using the sport to get under the skin of the country’s regime. But when Glen Ella from the famous Aboriginal Rugby Union playing family joined a Rebel Rugby 7s tour of South Africa in 1985 he broke the sports boycott and almost tore his  family apart.

Then Rug...

After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is free and the anti-apartheid movement is full of hope. 

But as apartheid legislation is repealed and South Africa starts transitioning to democracy, not everyone is happy. Right-wing Afrikaner groups take to the streets with guns and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party inflicts terrible violence within the black community. There are mass killings and peace talks that keep falling apart; will the country make it across the finish line to free and fair elections? 

There's an entire system to dismantle and wounds to heal. There’s so much work to b...

The 1980s see South Africa spin out of control as defiance to apartheid and the regime’s crackdown builds. A cultural boycott of South Africa sees international musicians refuse to play there until Paul Simon controversially records his album Graceland with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The world finally gets to hear the vibrant sounds of Zulu music but at what cost to the anti-apartheid movement?

It's 1984, and in Dublin, Ireland, 21 year old shop assistant Mary Manning refuses to sell a South African grapefruit. Her action draws world attention to the campaign to hit Apartheid where it hurts, by crippling the South African economy. At the same time a young Australian seaman starts a global ban on shipping oil to South Africa.

How South Africans won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime, and the Australians who helped them fight for it. 

How South Africa won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime and the Australians who helped them fight for it.

A new leader emerges in South Africa, a young man with radical ideas. Steve Biko’s ‘black consciousness’ movement inspires a generation.  His murder at the hands of authorities is a moment of reckoning. 

When the children of Soweto township are forced to study in Afrikaans, the language of their oppressor, they rebel and set the country on fire with their resistance. Hundreds of them are killed by the regime. 

Steve Biko’s murder in a...

By the 1970s the anti-apartheid movement is growing around the world as protesters find ways to hit the South African government where it hurts most. In Australia, the action takes place in a very public way, by heading onto the sports field.

Seven former Wallabies rugby players refuse to compete against the South African Springboks when they tour Australia. As mass protests divide the country, Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen declares a state of emergency in Queensland. First Nations activists join the fight, and even Aussie cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman gets caught up in the action.

How South Africans won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime and the Australians who helped them fight for it.

It’s 1990 and Sisonke Msimang is glued to the TV, watching Nelson Mandela, the world’s most famous political prisoner, walk free after 27 years. She’s weeping with joy for a country she knows and loves but has never seen.

Since 1948 South Africans have been divided along race lines, called Apartheid. Blacks, Indians and ‘coloured’ people are separated from white people, and cannot marry them, earn the same wage, or get the same education as whites. Bl...

How South Africans fought to win their freedom, and the Australians who helped them fight for it.

It's 1990, and the world is watching as Nelson Mandela walks free from his prison cell after 27 years.

The global movement to end the racist policy of Apartheid in South Africa is finally on the brink of victory.

Host Sisonke Msimang grew up in a family of South African freedom fighters, and in this series, she talks to South Africans who risked their lives in the struggle to end apartheid. She also meets Australians who used sport...

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.

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?

The home of gripping narrative history series.

Forty years ago this January, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated on its way into orbit. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

In the days after the tragedy, the world wanted answers. What really caused the shuttle to explode? And should the launch have been stopped altogether?

For season five of Science Friction, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Fiona Pepper investigate how the Challenger disaster unfolded — and what that has meant for space exploration from 1986 to now.

The Challenger Legacy is a five-part series from Science Friction. Out NOW — search Science Friction and The Chal...

The man who stole the atomic bomb. And why he did it. 

Klaus Fuchs was a talented scientist - but he was also a Soviet spy. He worked on the British American atomic bomb project, whilst handing nuclear secrets to the Russians. Host Rosa Ellis uncovers the double lives of Klaus Fuchs and her great-aunt Ursula.

The world’s most dangerous spy? 

A young scientist’s journey into espionage. From a German pacifist family to a Soviet spy ring. Physicist Klaus Fuchs flees Nazi rule for England and joins the race to develop an atomic bomb – whoever gets there first wins the war. Presenter Rosa Ellis discovers how Fuchs’ double life begins. 

The fate of the world is decided: Klaus Fuchs joins a top-secret atomic mission. The race to build the bomb is on. In Birmingham, England, Klaus Fuchs is working on “TUBE ALLOYS” – the codename for the British atomic bomb project. But at the same time, he’s slipping secrets to the Soviets. Host Rosa Ellis finds out how he did it. 

The spy meets his spymaster - presenter Rosa Ellis' great-aunt Ursula. She's a housewife and mother living in the English countryside. And she also works for the Soviets. Fuchs and Ursula have a secret list of information that Russia urgently needs to win the nuclear race. Together, they could be the most dangerous spies on the planet. 

A double life gets more dangerous. Fuchs joins America's bomb project and the race with Russia is on. But as the nuclear mission ramps up, security tightens too. Now at the heart of the mission, his skills in science and espionage are tested to the limit

Lives are on the line. The Fuchs family is drawn into the espionage as the atomic bomb project takes a deadly turn. Klaus is at the covert Manhattan Project laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. In this desert terrain, he has lost contact with the Soviets. As the countdown to detonation begins, there's only one person who can be trusted. 

The interrogation of a spymaster. Ursula is questioned as Klaus Fuchs returns to England. Secrets threaten to be spilled and loyalties are tested. The war has ended, and the physicist could have a promising future. But will his past catch up with him? Could British intelligence services be on to him? 

The spy catchers close in. Klaus Fuchs is caught in the crosshairs. Spymaster Ursula has outwitted the interrogators - but can he? As he settles down in England, British intelligence services are following him at every turn. He is caught in a web of surveillance - and his faith in the Soviets is faltering. How long can he run for? 

A double life implodes. Klaus Fuchs faces judge and jury, but will he confess? A future as an eminent physicist is slipping away. And the friends who took him in as a young scientist are blindsided - they want answers. But first he must face the court. 

Jail awaits - Klaus Fuchs is going down. But will he take his spy handler Ursula with him? British intelligence wants names. As Fuchs is forced to face his past, Ursula tries to run from hers. Series host Rosa Ellis questions how their actions have shaped today's nuclear tensions. 

In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977. 

So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day? 

Please listen with care - this episode contains graphic content. 

Guests:

She’s one of Australia’s most prolific and popular designers, and yet not many people know her name, let alone her audacious life story.   

Florence Broadhurst was from regional Queensland but people who met her later in life,  thought she was English aristocrat. She reinvented herself many times throughout her life.   

Today she’s known for her wallpaper designs that cemented her in Australian design history. 

But a shadow lingers over her legacy; her unsolved murder in 1977.

Guests:

The ABC's biggest investigative true crime podcast Unravel has just dropped their new season, Huntsman, and it's already rocketing up the podcast charts.

You might remember when former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn was convicted of murder in the High Country. The story made headlines when Lynn admitted to burning the campers' bodies to cover his tracks.

But behind the scenes, people who knew him years ago began talking and sending messages.

It sparked an ABC investigation that uncovered the full story of his dark past and his abusive relationship with his first wife...

When journalist Annika Blau learns of the discovery of two tea chests of highly valuable letters under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she begins to uncover secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.

When two tea chests full of letters are found under a house in Sydney, they're identified as one of the most important finds in Australia's postal history. But for journalist Annika Blau, they also expose family secrets, silences and shame, as more startling truths are revealed about who her family really is and where they come from.