Forgotten Australia - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Forgotten Australia — History
Forgotten Australia

Bloody crimes, unsolved mysteries, eccentric celebrities, dark events and bizarre happenings: it’s all here – the stuff you wish they’d taught you in school!

Dive into our strange-but-true history via never-before-told stories, author interviews, weekly flashbacks and the weekly trivia quiz.

Forgotten Australia is created and hosted by Michael Adams, author of the acclaimed true crime books The Murder Squad, Hanging Ned Kelly and They’ll Never Hold Me.

He’s also a regular history and true crime commentator on ABC Nightlife and the podcast Australian True Crime.

Support Forgotten Australia for a few bucks per month to get ad-free early episodes, exclusive bonus episodes, a show shout-out and the chance to win prizes in the special edition trivia quiz episodes.

Get a week’s free trial here:

Patreon: patreon.com/forgottenaustralia

Apple: apple.co/forgottenaustralia

Email: forgottenaustraliapodcast@gmail.com

Check out my books!

They’ll Never Hold Me:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/they-ll-never-hold-me-michael-adams/book/9781923046474.html

The Murder Squad:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-murder-squad-michael-adams/book/9781923046504.html

Hanging Ned Kelly:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/hanging-ned-kelly-michael-adams/book/9781922992185.html

Australia’s Sweetheart:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/australia-s-sweetheart-michael-adams/book/9780733640292.html

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest Episodes:

Interview with Allan Duncan — First Police Responder to Woolies Xmas Bomb Threat 1980 Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

On Christmas Eve 1980, young constable Allan Duncan responded to the Woolies Town Hall bomb threat and would be inside the building when the device detonated.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Woolworths Bombings — Part One: Christmas Eve 1980 Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

On Christmas Eve 1980, the Woolworths’ head office in Sydney gets a phone call from the man already responsible for two regional store bombings in the past week. An explosive device has been placed in the flagship variety store opposite Town Hall. It's going to detonate in 10 minutes. What follows is like something out of a Hollywood movie. But with its Holden utes and safari suits, beer carton bombs and pub rock gigs, this true-blue true-crime yarn could only have come from Australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's First Sporting Heroine — The Marvellous Mrs Douglas: Part Two Dec 16, 2020

Show notes

On Christmas Eve 1859, Margaret Douglas and Beverley Howard started their epic 1500-mile walking match in Melbourne — which the city’s newspapers did their very best to ignore. Despite such hostility at home, our first sporting heroine would be appreciated by English reporters when she performed her walking feats in London and Liverpool. In this episode we also trace Margaret’s likely identity — and learn how she inspired a rival in Emma Sharp (pictured), who in turn nearly 150 years later inspired a distant relative to undertake a stirring long-distance charity walk in Canberra.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's First Sporting Heroine — The Marvellous Mrs Douglas: Part One Dec 11, 2020

Show notes

Melbourne’s Margaret Douglas was an endurance pedestrian every bit as remarkable as her Sydney contemporary The Flying Pieman. After stumbling upon a passing reference to her in an 1878 newspaper, I took a deep dive to shine a light on her completely forgotten achievements and examine how she was deliberately excluded from many newspapers of the time and then from a seminal history book that provided a chronology of pedestrianism. In part one we look at the colourful history of women who walked long distances in England and America, the abundance of coverage given to a man who walked 1000 miles in 1000 hours in Melbourne in 1858 and how Victoria's newspapers treated Margaret’s attempts to conquer the same challenge in the city six months later.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's First Sporting Hero — The Flying Pieman: Part Three Nov 27, 2020

Show notes

Having made his dazzling pedestrian comeback, The Flying Pieman takes another tilt at politics in typical comedic fashion before jolting the Sydney establishment with one last audacious stunt. Feeling his mortality as he enters old age, William Francis King makes a public pledge of love — only for heartbreak to follow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's First Sporting Hero — The Flying Pieman: Part Two Nov 22, 2020

Show notes

In September 1847, after crashing out during the challenge to walk 192 miles in 48 hours non-stop, The Flying Pieman takes a second tilt at this epic feat of pedestrianism. But he won’t stop there because he has much bigger dreams that include walking 250 miles in 250 hours, spilling his soul in lectures on social issues and finding a damsel he can call Mrs Pieman.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's First Sporting Hero — The Flying Pieman: Part One Nov 17, 2020

Show notes

In the 1840s Australia was amazed by the epic pedestrian feats of William Francis King, who was known far and wide as The Flying Pieman. Our first sporting hero, this eccentric celebrity was every bit as famous for his non-stop talking as for his non-stop walking. In this episode we delve into his incredible accomplishments, the larrikin streak that saw him lampoon colonial politics and the tragedies that turned his life into legend. We begin with The Flying Pieman taking on his greatest challenge — walking 192 miles in 48 hours… without stopping for a moment.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Digger Who Survived His 'Beheading' Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

75 years ago this week, the Japanese surrendered and WWII was over. After these celebrations came horror at what POWs had suffered. Of the many accounts of surviving atrocities, one stood out: Changi prisoner AIF private Colin Fleming Brien had lived through his attempted beheading. This front-page story shocked Australia and his testimony would help convict Japanese war criminals. In a special Forgotten Australia episode, we'll hear Colin's story in his own words.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Plague Of 1900 — Part Two: Lockdown, Washdown... Knockdown Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

By mid-autumn 1900, dozens of people in Sydney had died from Bubonic Plague – many within a day of showing symptoms. Yet the CMO’s rat-killing recommendations were initially ignored and it’d be up to a future PM to stand up for poor people on the front lines of the lockdown, washdown and knockdown policy. Despite lessons learned from the 1900 outbreak, the Black Death would recur through the first quarter of the 20th Century in Australia – with hundreds more dying... before one final lonely and forgotten fatality.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Plague Of 1900 — Part One: The Rats Must Die Jul 12, 2020

Show notes

It's New Year's Day 1900 and Sydney is celebrating on this sunny day. But Dr Ashburton Thompson, NSW's chief medical officer, knows that darkness is coming over the horizon in the form of Bubonic Plague. Once the Black Death strikes, he'll be in charge of Sydney's defences — and have to convince the populace that fleas from infected rats are to blame for the pestilence.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Related Podcasts