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Australian Story Season 23 Episodes
Season 23 Episode Guide
36 Episodes 2018 - 2018
Episode 1
Here Come the Brides
31 mins
An exclusive behind-the-scenes invitation to the wedding not everyone in the family wanted, as former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster marries her partner Virginia Flitcroft.
Episode 2
Long Journey Home
29 mins
When scientist Jim Bowler discovered an ancient skeleton in outback New South Wales 44 years ago, he had no idea it would change history. But Mungo Man's descendants have been fighting for the return of his bones ever since.
Episode 3
Leap of Faith
29 mins
From Sydney's Western Suburbs all the way to London's Covent Garden, Australian dancers Steven McRae and Alexander Campbell compete for the ultimate prize in the world of dance.
Episode 4
The Man in Bed 10
27 mins
When medical student Dinesh Palipana was left a quadriplegic after a horrific car accident, he was told he would never become a doctor. Now he's one of the top young medicos in a busy hospital.
Episode 5
Final Call
30 mins
Outback nurse Gayle Woodford was working alone at night in the remote community of Fregon when she vanished. This investigation reveals the issues behind her disappearance and the dangers for medical staff in the outback.
Episode 6
The Matildas: Pitch Perfect
26 mins
The Matildas women's football team is riding high after a year of headline-grabbing wins. But the team's success has been decades in the making; players have battled for equality and recognition for 40 years.
Episode 7
Channelling Mr Woo²
29 mins
Eddie Woo first came to prominence with "Wootube" - his free YouTube maths channel. In the year since Australian Story profiled Eddie Woo, he's gone from suburban high school maths teacher to award-winning celebrity.
Episode 8
The Enemy Within
30 mins
Justin Yerbury's family history of motor neurone disease inspired him to swap a basketball career for a science degree. Now a world expert on MND, his search for a treatment has taken on a terrible urgency.
Episode 9
When the War Is Over
28 mins
When a war-torn commando takes on an uncaring defence establishment he has little idea of the backlash to follow. After an intensely personal battle, Mick Bainbridge is now helping other young soldiers take up the fight.
Episode 10
Dear Emma
29 mins
A young woman grapples with a deadly diagnosis while waging a campaign against the biggest cancer killer of her generation.
Episode 11
The Justice Principle Part 1
31 mins
Dassi Erlich and her two sisters are a formidable force. Their ongoing battle to extradite former headmistress Malka Leifer from Israel to face sexual abuse allegations in Australia has made headlines across the globe. But despite the public attention, the personal stories of the three sisters have remained largely private. In the first program of a two-part special, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper give their first Australian interviews and, together with Dassi, speak candidly about their time at the Adass Israel school in Melbourne. The program also features extracts from Dassi Erlich's teenage diary which provide a haunting account of her traumatic childhood.
Episode 12
The Justice Principle Part 2
30 mins
Concluding the story of Dassi Erlich and her two sisters, who are fighting to extradite their former headmistress from Israel to face sexual abuse charges. After the alleged abuse against the three sisters came to light in 2008, principal Malka Leifer was stood down by the Adass Israel school which facilitated her immediate departure to Israel. Although Australian authorities have been trying to extradite her for several years Malka Leifer convinced the Israeli courts she was too mentally unwell to face a hearing. That prompted an undercover operation to prove her mental fitness which recently resulted in Malka Leifer's return to jail. For Dassi and her two sisters - Nicole and Elly - justice finally seems closer than ever before.
Episode 13
Baby Steps
29 mins
Twenty months after Claudine Fitzgibbon underwent groundbreaking surgery to help her unborn child, Australian Story checks in to see how baby Harvey is progressing.
Episode 14
The Choirmaster
27 mins
A charismatic choirmaster takes a group of women from central Australia to Germany on an unlikely and remarkable road trip.
Episode 15
The Massimo Mission
30 mins
When baby Massimo Damiani was struck down by a mystery disease, his father set out to discover its genetic origins. After a stunning scientific breakthrough Stephen Damiani is now helping to develop a radical new treatment.
Episode 16
Blood on the Tracks Part 1
28 mins
When the body of Mark Haines was found on the train tracks near Tamworth in 1988, police quickly dismissed any idea of foul play. But after a 5 year investigation, journalist Allan Clarke believes he may have found the truth.
Episode 17
Blood on the Tracks Part 2
31 mins
When the body of Mark Haines was found on the train tracks near Tamworth in 1988, police quickly dismissed any idea of foul play. But after a 5 year investigation, journalist Allan Clarke believes he may have found the truth.
Episode 18
Running from Empty
30 mins
For the first time, celebrity chef Matt Golinski speaks about overcoming the unthinkable - the loss of his wife and three daughters in a house fire - and through his long and painful rehabilitation how he found love again.
Episode 19
From Behind Bars
36 mins
Serving a 30-year prison sentence for killing four of her young children, Kathleen Folbigg speaks for the first time about her case. As she seeks a judicial review, an independent forensic pathologist reviews the evidence.
Episode 20
Leading the Way
30 mins
One of the toughest jobs in town comes up for grabs at Sydney's Wayside Chapel when pastor Graham Long decides to retire. Having ministered the homeless and vulnerable for the past 14 years, who can he find to fill his shoes?
Episode 21
Meet You in Paris
29 mins
In June last year, Mark and Julie Wallace were forced to face every parent's worst fear when their 21-year-old daughter Sara Zelenak went missing after a terror attack in London. For three days, their desperate calls and messages to the young nanny went unanswered as they found themselves caught up in the world of international terrorism, dealing with Scotland Yard, phoning hospitals and navigating the news media from their Redland Bay home. They were en route to London when they received the news that Sarah had died. A year after their daughter's death, Sara's parents are making sense of the senseless act of terror by focussing on building a fitting legacy to Sara. They're working towards building "Sarz Sanctuary", a healing retreat to help others facing unimaginable grief and trauma.
Episode 22
Out of the Woods
29 mins
From a homeless alcoholic living in the wild to academic success and a book deal, Out of the Woods tells the inspiring comeback story of forest-dweller Gregory Smith. When he left school at 14, dogged by the crushing assessment that he was "functioning at the lower level of the dull range", Gregory Smith had already endured a violent upbringing and months in an orphanage after the break-up of his family. At 35, struggling with a lifetime of trauma, he opted to escape into the wild with no desire to return to the society that had failed him so dismally. Exhausted by years of living off the land and sleeping rough, Gregory emerged from the forest ready to change his life, and gained an undergraduate degree and then a PhD at Southern Cross University. His story offers hope for the most damaged amongst us. "Gregory represents the capacity for transformation against all odds and a real triumph over adversity," says one of his students, Kerry Pritchard. "How to take the crap in life and grow beautiful things out of it.
Episode 23
The Teacher's Wife
30 mins
She was a wife, a mother, a sister and a daughter. Lyn Dawson had everything to live for, so why did she disappear without a trace 36 years ago?
Episode 24
The Show Must Go On
30 mins
Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins looks back over the most challenging year of her life and speaks exclusively about her health problems, marriage breakdown and plans for the future.
Episode 25
The Town that Saved Itself
29 mins
The town of Whyalla, SA was facing extinction when the owner of the local steelworks went bust. Desperate to save their jobs, employees voted for a pay cut which was rewarded when billionaire Sanjeev Gupta came to town.
Episode 26
The Skin You're In
28 mins
Taryn Brumfitt is the Adelaide mother-of-three behind a global movement inspiring women to make peace with their bodies. Like many mothers, Taryn loathed her post-baby shape and threw herself into dieting and bodybuilding to attain the 'perfect' body. Realising it was an impossible ideal, she made the choice to love her body instead and posted a photo of her "real" body online - and the response was extraordinary. Taryn started a movement, made a documentary and is now knocking on Hollywood's door to spread the message that women should embrace the skin they're in.
Episode 27
The Story of Samuel
29 mins
Samuel Symons led a quietly inspirational life. Diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour at age four, he spent most of his life in and out of hospitals. But Samuel's witty personality always shone through, despite the seemingly endless and gruelling treatments. Samuel grew up with his two brothers, Raphael and Joel, mother Elly and his television and radio personality father, Red Symons. But his parents never spoke publicly about Samuel's illness. That was until Australian Story started filming with them in 2006 and continued tracking Samuel's progress for three years for an intimate and raw look into the journey of childhood cancer. Samuel passed away on October 3, 2018, age 27. His mother Elly introduces this story which looks back on Samuel's remarkable life.
Episode 28
Unbreakable
31 mins
Prince Harry spoke exclusively to Australian Story before the Invictus Games. We follow the extraordinary story of recovery by Garry Robinson, a former commando who narrowly survived a helicopter crash and competed in Sydney.
Episode 29
Hope Springs
30 mins
Over many years, Australian Story has followed the efforts of farmer Peter Andrews to drought-proof the land. His unorthodox approach, which involves planting weeds and installing 'leaky weirs', was once considered heretical but a growing band of supporters has taken up his cause At Mulloon, outside Canberra, Tony Coote and a group of like-minded landholders set out to prove that the Andrews method works. Now, during one of the worst droughts in living memory their results are cause for hope and have attracted the eye of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Episode 30
No Surrender
31 mins
The extraordinary ongoing story of Justin Yerbury, a world expert on motor neurone disease who has developed the condition himself. Despite complications from major surgery in January, his achievements continue to amaze.
Episode 31
Call Me Harrison
28 mins
When former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and his wife Judy learned that their young son was autistic, they were told he would probably never have a job or live independently. But Harrison Fischer, now aged 25, has defied everybody's expectations. Harrison has a job helping primary schoolers in Wodonga, is paying tax and has his own home. As his father Tim Fischer, one of Australia's most-loved politicians, battles a life-threatening illness, Harrison's growing independence is a source of joy for the Fischer family.
Episode 32
Close Contact
30 mins
By the time this year's Queensland schoolboy rugby union season was over, four teenagers had broken their necks, their lives changed forever. Two of them, Conor Tweedy and Ollie Bierhoff, should have competed against each other. Instead, after separate accidents a week apart, they found themselves side by side in the Spinal Injuries Unit contemplating quadriplegia. In hospital, both boys threw themselves into their recoveries. One had a recovery deemed 'miraculous'; for the other, the road back is much steeper.
Episode 33
Hell's Angel
29 mins
As Western Australia reels in shock from a succession of family mass murders, Perth advocate Dr Ann O'Neill offers a powerful message of hope. Twenty-four years ago, Ann's estranged husband killed their two children and left her an amputee. She turned her grief into good and rebuilt her life to become one of the country's leading trauma experts. In this update of a powerful episode from 2004, we follow Ann as she works with the Margaret River community in the wake of May's horrific mass killing. As she helps those struggling with sudden loss, Ann offers hard-won wisdom about how to carry on in the face of sadness and grief.
Episode 34
Independent's Day
32 mins
When celebrity TV doctor Kerryn Phelps first spoke about her same-sex relationship on Australian Story in 1998, it was revolutionary. 20 years later we catch up with the newly-elected Wentworth MP and her journey to Canberra.
Episode 35
The Burning Question
30 mins
As another terrible bushfire season approaches, Australian Story looks at the tragic case of Black Saturday arsonist Brendan Sokaluk and asks what lessons we can learn.
Episode 36
Inside Story
33 mins
A candid and eye-opening account of filmmaker James Ricketson's time in a Cambodian prison on espionage charges, the ordeal for family members trying to negotiate his release and family tensions that remain.
