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Australian Story Season 7 Episodes
Season 7 Episode Guide
39 Episodes 2001 - 2002
Episode 1
Happy as Garry: Garry McDonald
29 mins
From the revolutionary comic genius of "Norman Gunston" to the depths of dramatic pathos in "Jimmy Dancer" to his memorable double act with Ruth Cracknell in "Mother and Son", McDonald has etched himself deep into the national consciousness over the last thirty years. At the heart of most of his famous roles was a very human vulnerability. But Garry's personal anxiety and depression surfaced dramatically seven years ago when he had a very public breakdown in the middle of attempting a "Norman Gunston" comeback series for Channel 7. The Gunston comeback was prompted, in part, by what he describes as a certain "professional jealousy" of his friend, Ruth Cracknell and what he perceived as her funnier role in "Mother and Son". In this week's Australian Story Garry, his family and his colleagues talk candidly about the events that led to the breakdown, the path to recovery and Garry's new life which includes public advocacy for anxiety sufferers as well as several new professional directions.
Episode 2
The Gilded Cage: Peter Hollingworth
28 mins
Dr. Hollingworth, his wife Ann and their daughter Deborah talk frankly and at times emotionally about the school sex abuse scandal that has cast a cloud over his term as Governor-General and sparked strident and ongoing calls for his resignation. Australian Story was given extensive and exclusive "behind the scenes" access at Yarralumla to film sequences and interviews.
Episode 3
Dangerous Liaison: Kirsty Sword Gusmao
29 mins
Former members of the East Timorese resistance have revealed a secret plan to bust their leader Xanana Gusmao from his Jakarta prison cell in the 1990s. Jose Ramos Horta, now East Timor's Foreign Minister, says he planned a commando raid on the prison, using British special forces veterans, when it appeared Gusmao was unlikely to be released. Interviewed for the ABC's Australian Story program, Mr Horta said he had never spoken publicly about the plan, which would also have used veterans from the war in Bosnia. The program profiles Xanana Gusmao's Australian-born wife Kirsty Sword, at the time an undercover agent for the Timorese resistance, and the conduit for the plan to raid the prison. Kirsty Sword spent four years in Jakarta secretly helping the campaign for East Timor's independence, while working for an Australian aid agency and teaching English. She first met Gusmao at Jakarta's Cipinang prison in 1994, and the pair married in Dili after his release in 1999. With Xanana Gusmao tipped to become East Timor's first President after elections in April, Kirsty Sword Gusmao will be First Lady of the newly independent country.
Episode 4
Pride of Place: Kerry Warn
30 mins
Since being hand-picked by film director Stanley Kubrick to work on his final film "Eyes Wide Shut", Kerry Warn has been a close friend and colleague of Nicole Kidman. He will be by her side when she prepares for the Academy Awards' presentation for best actress on March 24. Despite working for films and magazines around the world for more than 30 years, Kerry Warn has never forgotten where he came from - and we join him on his journey from London back to Mt Barker. Along the way we hear about his touching relationship with his father, the local baker, who struggled with his son's desire to learn ballet as a six year-old, as well as his career choice. Nicole Kidman introduces the program and features extensively in the story.
Episode 5
Trash and Treasure: Neville Baggott
30 mins
Neville Baggott, a former opal miner and 'jack of all trades' stumbles across the first chapter of the story on a country market stall. His desperation to solve the riddle and find out how the story ends has taken him on a fascinating hunt around Australia. The first discovery was a set of World War Two flying goggles unearthed on the Port Macquarie rubbish dump. Later there was more... a flight log book, some photos and lines of love poetry to a woman called Sybil. Neville finds out that these fragments belonged to a handsome young Aussie pilot called Charlie McLeod who flew 63 sorties on a Baltimore bomber out of Italy during World War Two. But what happened to Charlie and who was Sybil? And how did these precious remnants of their lives end up on a rubbish tip. What ultimately comes to light is both touching and tragic ...
Episode 6
On Their Honour: Kerry and Kay Danes
32 mins
The exclusive "story behind the story" of Kerry and Kay Danes, the Australian business couple arrested and jailed in Laos and released at the end of last year after Federal Government intervention. But although safely home in Australia, the Daneses are now broke, traumatised and trying to reclaim their reputations in the face of Australian public suspicion that they must have been guilty of something. Kerry Danes was on accumulated leave from his job with the Army when he and his wife and their children decided to move to Laos to manage a security company. But when one of his clients from a gem mining company became embroiled in a web of international intrigue and left the country, the authorities targetted the Daneses, accusing them of stealing jewellery and sapphires. They were arrested and thrown into jail in nightmarish conditions. Eventually convicted of embezzlement, destruction of evidence and tax evasion, the Daneses were sentenced to seven years jail before Foreign Minister Alexander Downer stepped in and negotiated a settlement which secured the couple's freedom - but left them with a one million dollar compensation bill and a criminal conviction. For this episode Australian Story filmed in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth and travelled to Laos to further investigate the saga and interview key players in that country.
Episode 7
The Wombat Boy: Peter Nicholson
29 mins
If you've ever walked by a wombat burrow you've probably looked down that dark hole and wondered what's the old muddle-head doing down there. How does he live and what is his home like? That's the question George Bass posed in his diary 200 years ago and it has remained a mystery to white settlers ever since. That is until 40 years ago when a 16 year old boy produced a piece of natural science that in many ways has not been bettered. His school-boy work is still referred to by most wombat scientists today. Like many 16 year olds, Peter John Nicholson loved animals. He was adventurous and mischievous, but he was also a very observant naturalist. So when HE looked down a wombat burrow, he just didn't stop there. As he said, by the time he'd poked his nose into the hole the temptation was there to poke it in a little further. Nicholson spent a year in the Victorian high country, sneaking out from school to get to know his wombats underground. When he was caught by the headmaster he wasn't punished - in fact he was encouraged. Back then wombats were shot for the bounty on their head and one species - the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat - has all but been obliterated from the face of this earth. This story revisits the adventure and enchantment of that extraordinary school boy who today is one of just a few Australians who have seen that rare ... that special Hairy-nosed wombat. Only 100 remain on this earth - only 20 of which are breeding females
Episode 8
The Quiet Man: Nicky Barr and Peter Dornan
30 mins
At the age of 24, Nicky Barr is chosen to play for the Wallabies. But war breaks out as soon as the squad arrives in England and Nicky immediately signs up to become an RAAF fighter pilot in North Africa. In eight months he shoots down twelve enemy planes and is himself shot down three times and seriously wounded. Nicky escaped from his German captors five times and on the final occasion led a group of fellow POWs on a series of clandestine operations behind enemy lines. After the war, the name Nicky Barr passed into legend. But for sixty years Nicky resisted all offers from all comers - some of them high profile authors - desperate to get his story on the record. Then, at the age of 87, he finally agreed to talk - to rugby union physiotherapist and author Peter Dornan. A special friendship developed between the two men, based partly on their shared Wallabies connection, but also on Peter's obsession with his own father who served on the Kokoda Trail but went to his grave without ever sharing his story with his son.
Episode 9
Finding Frazer: Ian and Sandy Johnson
30 mins
When Ian and Sandy Johnson set out to adopt a little Ethiopian baby, they had no idea where it would eventually lead. After the despair of IVF failure and then four long years on the adoption waiting list, Ian and Sandy finally got the phone call they had been waiting for and within days found themselves on the way to Ethiopia to collect nineteen month old orphan Sophie. Her young parents had died within months of each other from diseases which would have been curable in the west. In foster care, Sophie had earned the name 'the untouchable' because she was so reluctant to be touched by anyone or even to make eye contact. She bonded quickly with Sandy but at first rejected Ian, something he found devastating. Then one day, during a routine welfare visit, the Johnsons discovered that Sophie wasn't an only child as they had believed. She had a four year old brother still in Ethiopia and also in need of a home ... "Finding Frazer" follows Ian, Sandy and Sophie on a sometimes difficult but ultimately heart warming journey into sibling reunion and the creation of a complete, new family of four.
Episode 10
May Day: Chris Mulhall, Sharnelle Cole and Daryl Green
31 mins
For the first time two of the three officers involved in the episode talk publicly about what happened to them on the night of the shooting. And they describe, in graphic and surprising terms, the long term impact of the shooting and provide compelling insights into the nature of police work and police psychology. The three friends have responded in dramatically different ways to what happened. Although they have made full physical recoveries, only one, Sergeant Chris Mulhall has returned to operational duties. But he feels he should have done more to protect his younger colleagues and carries a photograph of the gunman as a "reminder". It started on the night of May 1 - May Day two years ago when the three officers, Constables Sharnelle Cole and Daryl Green and Sergeant Mulhall, were called to a routine disturbance at suburban Hanbury Street in Brisbane's Chermside. All three were shot at close range. Officers Cole and Green were shot in the face several times before the gunman Nigel Parodi took off sparking a prolonged and major manhunt. Parodi, a former private schoolboy from a middle class home, was eventually found dead in bushland having taken his own life.
Episode 11
The Nixon Years: Christine Nixon
28 mins
Australian Story was given exclusive access to Ms Nixon, her husband and family and filmed with her over three weeks of her working life. The day after filming finished Ms Nixon's former boss, NSW Commissioner Peter Ryan suddenly resigned, underlining once again the pressures of being "top cop", particularly in Victoria and New South Wales. Christine Nixon grew up in a police family in NSW with "shotguns under the bed". Her father was an Assistant Commissioner in NSW and one of her brothers was also a police officer. But her father Ross initially strongly opposed her following him into the force. Ms Nixon talks candidly about both her professional and personal life and also discusses some controversies that have marked her first year in the top job - including a decision to take part in a Victorian "gay pride" march and her reforming of the Drug Squad, long tainted by allegations of corruption and theft.
Episode 12
Doctor Dave's Diary: David Hunt
29 mins
Dr Hunt arrived in Walwa as a young 'hippy doctor' 25 years ago and has since become a mainstay of the local community. He is team doctor for the football club and has more than 1800 patients on his books from the surrounding district. The Australian Story film crew had barely arrived in Walwa when Dr Hunt received an emergency call about a horrific road accident ten kilometres out of town. Dr Hunt arrived at the scene to find a motorcyclist dead on the side of the road, after his machine had collided head-on with a utility. As Dr Hunt treated the shocked driver of the utility, it was a graphic illustration of the dilemma that will face the community if all its medical services are gone. But the story also follows the efforts of residents as they rally together to lobby the Victorian and Federal governments for funding to maintain their hospital.
Episode 13
When Harry Met Dawn: Harry Gallagher
32 mins
With Harry Gallagher's guidance, Dawn Fraser became the acknowledged Female Swimmer Of The Century, winning gold at three successive Olympics. And after her retirement Harry went on to achieve virtually the impossible by coaching a very young and inexperienced Australian team to become champions at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Remarkably, almost 50 years later, Harry Gallagher is still coaching. Six days a week he trains 150 young hopefuls at Sydney's Hornsby pool, with some of his young charges showing great promise. Dawn says Harry remains the best sprint and tapering coach the world has ever seen, and, in terms of coaching, attributes 98% of her success in the pool to him. Australian Story gives a real insight into Harry Gallagher's remarkable professional relationship with Dawn Fraser, telling how he tricked and coerced a very difficult Balmain girl into greatness.
Episode 14
The Liberator: Lyn White
28 mins
Former South Australian Policewoman Lyn White was living happily in the Adelaide Hills when she chanced on a magazine article that literally changed her life. The story concerned the capture and mistreatment of Asiatic Black or Moon Bears that are held captive in tiny cages so their bile can be collected for use in traditional Chinese medicine. So after twenty years in the force Lyn is now working with a team monitoring animal cruelty in Asia and they have begun freeing and rehabilitating the bears. They are also working with various Governments to try to educate those who have for generations made their living from the bears. Going undercover, often alone, she faces real risks documenting this illegal and cruel business. But despite the danger Lyn is encouraged by the successful rescue of just some of the Moon Bears and the hope that the whole trade will eventually be shut down. The story features remarkable video shot by Lyn in the markets of Asia and the actual rescue of the bears.
Episode 15
Blood Relations: Jim Gaston and Charmaine Mansfield
30 mins
We occasionally hear of an act of extraordinary generosity when a family member donates an organ to save a life. So how much more extraordinary is it when the live donor is not related, when the gift is based on friendship and an understanding of the life saving difference it will make. This week's Australian Story is about such an act of generosity. Jim Gaston worked with Charmaine Mansfield in the Queensland coastal town of Bowen. Charmaine had a rare kidney disease and her health was failing when Jim stepped in. None of her own family were able to provide a suitable match. However his decision to donate his healthy kidney to restore Charmaine's quality of life was fraught with serious considerations for his own family and their future health. This remarkable story reveals the issues exposed by live organ donation and the remarkable bond now forged by Jim's gift to Charmaine
Episode 16
Blonde Ambition: Jade Hopper
30 mins
Jade is the ultimate expression of the controversial new phenomenon of "hothousing" young sports stars. Her father, Gold Coast tennis coach, Gavin Hopper is an unabashed advocate of early fast tracking for child athletes. He says the only way to reach the top in modern sport is to start very young and establish "neuromuscular patterning". But some experts are worried about the physical and psychological effects of such a gruelling regime on young children. Australian Story filmed with Jade, her parents and her younger sister, also now being groomed for tennis success. The program followed her progress through two major tournaments, one in Alice Springs and one in Florida in the US. In both cases, she was up against older girls nearly twice her size.
Episode 17
Bitter Pill: Jane Fountain
30 mins
In 2001 the only suspect in the paracetamol extortion case, 62 year old invalid Dennis Fountain, hanged himself in jail while awaiting trial. Fountain himself and his wife, Jane, had earlier been among the assumed victims of the mysterious poisoner when they became ill after taking contaminated tablets. Dennis Fountain's subsequent suicide left unfinished business for everyone associated with the extortion saga; the Fountain family who continue to protest his innocence - and the police who were deprived of the opportunity to table their "strong evidence" and secure a conviction. For the first time, a key witness in the case, Fountain's friend, Paul Hudson speaks publicly about his part in the affair. Police secretly taped a conversation between Hudson and Fountain to try to obtain vital evidence. That tape has been given to Australian Story. Also interviewed are family members - Dennis Fountain's children and step-children, all of whom are emphatic that the gentle, law abiding Dennis Fountain they knew was incapable of the crimes of which he was accused. The program also contains tape of a conversation recorded while Dennis Fountain was in jail just before his death. But it's Jane Fountain whose ordeal remains. Could she really have been unwittingly married to a man who gave no hint that he would attempt to murder her, poison others, and hold major pharmaceutical companies to ransom. Or could she be right in her continued belief that her husband was the victim of a miscarriage of justice for which he paid with his life. Of her decision to cooperate with Australian Story, Mrs Fountain says: "I hope one day to put all this behind me, but now I am appreciative of the opportunity to put our side of the story."
Episode 18
Queen Leah: Leah Purcell
30 mins
Acclaimed in Australia as a singer, actor, playwright, author, composer and director, Leah Purcell has appeared regularly on the stage and television and featured in the cast of the hit movie "Lantana". Now her highly successful autobiographical play "Box the Pony" is set to storm the international barricades. After sell out seasons in Sydney and London, the play is to be performed in the U.S. and Purcell's childhood dreams of Hollywood are suddenly within her reach. Australian Story caught up with her as she shuttled between Sydney and New York where another of her projects - a documentary called "Black Chicks Talking" premiered at Robert de Niro's Tribeca Film Festival. It's a long way from her start in life. In turns funny and tragic, "Box the Pony" has been an exorcism of sorts and traces Purcell's own traumatic childhood. She grew up in a family of boxers. Her father was a white man; the local butcher. Although married he had six children with his Aboriginal mistress, of whom Leah was the youngest. Alcohol abuse and violence were daily events. As a teenager, Leah started repeating the patterns of her mother's life until she found the courage to escape to Brisbane where she met the man who would become her partner and help her fulfill her dreams ...
Episode 19
Under My Skin: Prof John Thompson and Michael O'Grady
30 mins
Despite all the public education of the last few decades, Australia still leads the world in the incidence of melanoma. While melanoma is curable if diagnosed early, if neglected it can lead to death within five years. Australian Story was given unrestricted access to a working fortnight at the Sydney Melanoma Unit during which 43 year old Michael O'Grady & 26 year old Amanda Jackson, present as patients with advanced melanomas. We follow them through surgery, follow up treatment and diagnostic scans and we are with them when they find out whether they are likely to live or die. We also meet other patients coming to terms with disfiguring surgery and ongoing treatment. It's confronting, disturbing television but it may provide the wake-up call doctors say we all need.
Episode 20
Enemy Lines: Warren Cowan
31 mins
Saburo Sakai was responsible for the deaths of Pilot Officer Warren Cowan and his crew in the skies over Papua New Guinea. But the Japanese ace couldn't get the gallantry of the unknown Australian out of his mind. In his latter years, he actively campaigned for his dead enemy to receive Australia's highest decoration for valour. It all stemmed from the events of July 22nd, 1942 when Cowan and his Hudson bomber crew did the impossible - engaged in a battle to the death with 9 Japanese zero fighter planes. What resulted has been likened to a single truck trying to outmanoeuvre nine sports cars. For ten long minutes, Cowan and his crew fought the astonished Japanese pilots. "I caught a glimpse of Lieutenant Sasi. His jaw hung open in astonishment at the audacity of the enemy pilot" said Sakai in his autobiography. Historian David Vincent says: "From the account by Sakai, he (Cowan) did remarkable things with airplanes that can't be really imagined how that could have happened, but he did it somehow." Through the family of Warren Cowan, aviation historians and associates of Sakai in America, Australian Story charts the uncovering of Cowan as the unknown hero of 1942 - and Sakai's ongoing efforts to get his enemy recognised...
Episode 21
Courting Hina: Hina Pasha Adil and Kimani Adil Boden
32 mins
It's been compared to the Australian hit film, "The Castle" and in both cases, the lawyers who took on the big end of town were based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Brunswick and struggled without even a photocopying machine. When Kimani and Hina took on their case they had no idea it would dominate their lives for the next two years. They also didn't know they'd have to deal with the birth of their first child and face the prospect of bankruptcy along the way. And despite making headlines when their client was awarded more than one million dollars in compensation for the money lost by a major stockbroking firm, Hina and Kimani have still not seen a cent. Their story is not just about battling the legal odds but also about different cultures and a remarkable love affair.
Episode 22
The Flying Suit: Geraldine Cox
30 mins
She's a former Adelaide secretary who went to Cambodia in the seventies to work for the Department of Foreign Affairs. She fled the country at the time of the Pol Pot takeover but returned in the nineties and now runs an orphanage housing more than fifty Cambodian children. Her story was told three years ago in an internationally acclaimed documentary called "My Khmer Heart" produced and directed by Sydney film maker Janine Hosking. "My Khmer Heart" was awarded the best documentary prize at the Hollywood Film Festival. It was through the documentary that Danny Glover, Matt Damon and other Hollywood figures became aware of Geraldine. Damon, in particular, has become an active supporter of the orphanage and plans to visit later this year. But there was one part of Geraldine's life in Cambodia that was omitted from the documentary - and it is that story which is finally told in tonight's episode of Australian Story. In 1970 Geraldine met a married Cambodian fighter pilot called Major Om Kon and began a passionate love affair with him - with the written consent and approval of his wife. They parted just before the fall of Phnom Penh when Geraldine fled the country. As Pol Pot embarked on his infamous "killing fields" campaign, Major Kon, his wife and children, joined the exodus of refugees on a forced march out of the country. They lost their eldest daughter to illness along the way. Eleven years later Geraldine received a letter from Kon in a refugee camp in Thailand. She flew straight to Bangkok and with the help of Kon's old military flying suit was persuaded American authorities that he was a former Cambodian major. Kon was subsequently able to resettle his family in the U.S. As this week's episode begins, Geraldine, now 56, is preparing to meet Kon again for the first time in twenty years ...
Episode 23
Travels with Muoi: Muoi Trinh
30 mins
Muoi Trinh had been through the Vietnam war, been given away by her parents, survived a perilous boat journey and months in a refugee camp before coming to Australia. Muoi arrived at the Archers Brisbane home as a thirteen year old, speaking no English, and suffering from chronic behavioural problems. It nearly went horribly wrong. Against all odds Muoi settled into her new surroundings and went on to represent Australia in her chosen career. Australian Story follows Muoi and the Archers to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam where the Archers meet Muoi's biological parents for the first time.
Episode 24
Murder He Wrote - Part 1: John Button
32 mins
In 1963 a teenage girl, Rosemary Anderson was murdered. Her elderly parents have never recovered from her death and can't stop hating the man who was convicted of killing her at the time. Earlier this year, this historic case was reopened by the W.A. Court of Criminal Appeal and Rosemary Anderson's death was revisited in a epic legal battle as the convicted man, John Button, attempted to clear his name and lay blame on notorious serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke who hanged in 1964. As the drama unfolded, Australian Story was given exclusive access to the three families involved - the Andersons, the Buttons and the Cookes. Finally, and climactically, all three families are brought together in one room to meet each other for the first time in four decades and confront 40 years of grief, guilt and anger. In the middle is Australia's world recognised restorative justice expert, Terry O'Connell (whose work featured in the ABC documentary "Facing the Demons"). As the conference finally gets underway, 82 year old Jack Anderson, who has a heart condition, suddenly becomes unwell ...
Episode 25
Murder He Wrote - Part 2: John Button
28 mins
The saga of an infamous miscarriage of justice - and the devastating consequences still being played out in the lives of three families nearly 40 years after the event.
Episode 26
Believing in Bilbies: Frank Manthey and Peter McRae
29 mins
When they started working together, Peter McRae was a zoologist with National Parks in Queensland and Frank Manthey was a recently widowed one time roo shooter turned park ranger. As Frank tells it when he first encountered Peter "running around chasing frogs", he thought Peter had "lost the plot" and been sent to the bush to recover. But one night, having a drink together, he accepted Peter's invitation to try to catch a glimpse of the elusive creature that Peter had been researching for 10 years. One glimpse of a bilby in their spotlight was enough to convince Frank that they should do something to save the species before it was too late. Bilbies are listed as endangered in Qld and "threatened" nationally. Only about 700 remain in Western Queensland because of farming activity and attacks by feral animals. Frank and Peter's dream was to create a bilby sanctuary in Currawinya National Park near Charleville. It meant fencing off a 25 square kilometre area with an electrified predator proof fence. But raising $300,000 to pay for it looked impossible - and then there was the issue of what their public service bosses would think of such a seemingly ambitious scheme. But the two men would not be put off and they set out to raise the lot themselves from scratch using everything from bilby information nights to selling bilby T Shirts, they slowly raised the money $20 at a time. And then finally, incredibly, the fence went up... Last month Frank Manthey, the former roo shooter, was named "National Geographic" conservationist of the year.
Episode 27
Into the Light: Alex Lyall
30 mins
Lighthouses feature in Alex's highly regarded paintings, exploring what she describes as an essential paradox - that lighthouses "saved the lives of mariners while destroying the lives of the people who lived and worked in them". Alex Lyall had never been to Gabo Island (off the coast of Mallacoota on the NSW-Vic border) but she grew up acutely aware of its influence on her family. Alex's mother Stella would never talk about the tragedy on the island - a series of events that tore her family apart. Stella would only say that she and her three siblings were living on the island with their parents looking after the lighthouse when their mother suddenly and mysteriously died aged only 34. Confronted with a recurrence of breast cancer a year ago, Alex resolved to finally unlock the secrets of Gabo and its lighthouse keepers. She started researching the past and, finally, together with her mother returned to Gabo ... For Stella it's made a big difference "It's made me, in the latter years of my life, feel I've had a mum and dad too".
Episode 28
Breakfast at Taffy's: Annabelle Abbotts
30 mins
Annabelle lived in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs working as a fine art auctioneer and valuer while for the past 12 years Taffy Abbotts has run a property in the Kimberley, Western Australia. In Hollywood terms it's like Bridget Jones meeting Crocodile Dundee. Taffy has been married three times before and is more than 20 years older than Annabelle, but her family have now got over the initital shock of the whirlwind relationship. "It wasn't what we'd imagined for Annabelle ... but I guess you can't plan your children's lives," says Annabelle's mother Lucille Sandes. Despite the great changes Annabelle says she is now much happier in her new home "Dingo Palace" than her flat in Darling Point, Sydney. Leaving behind her close circle of friends and family in Sydney has not been the only challenge Annabelle has faced. A serious car accident earlier this year brought home the isolation of the Kimberley. It took 12 hours from the time of the crash before the injured man received adequate medical help. Annabelle is now campaigning for improved rescue services. She is also working on her art and planning a long and happy life with Taffy in one of Australia's most beautiful and remote areas.
Episode 29
Being Allan Fels: Allan Fels
28 mins
Chairman of the ACCC, Prof. Allan Fels is one of the most powerful men in Australia. He has copped a lot of flak from big business which fears the country's best known regulator. For the ordinary consumer he's a hero. This week Australian Story delves into the unusual private life of an enigma. For the first time, Professor Fels tells of the impact his professional life has had on him and his family.
Episode 30
Dear John: John Marsden
29 mins
John Marsden's books have won a huge number of awards both in Australia and overseas and he's now one of the best selling young person's writers in the country, credited with turning book haters on to reading. Some say he's the best thing since that's happened in education in a long time. His critics say he's a dangerous influence on impressionable minds. Marsden says he's not courting controversy - just trying to help a generation with problems. His success has meant great financial rewards including owning one of the largest areas of private bushland in Victoria, but it has come at a cost. His own childhood was troubled and he has a history of depression culminating in a nervous breakdown and hospitalisation. But he has an uncanny ability to get inside teenagers heads - and they love him for it.
Episode 31
The Gatekeeper: Philip Ruddock
30 mins
The son of a Liberal Party politician, Philip Ruddock's career was almost preordained but there have been bitter battles along the way. Seen by many as a 'hard liner', Ruddock is also a devoted member of Amnesty International. His personal life is one dominated by strong women and lawyers, namely his wife and two daughters. He is also a man with a sense of humour as you'll see in rare footage from a Young Libs review from the early 70's of Philip Ruddock - stand up comedian.
Episode 32
Captain Sarah's Odyssey: Sarah Parry
30 mins
Sarah Parry spent more than forty years as a man called Brian Parry. Brian served as a naval diver in Vietnam. He was married and his work on building the square rigger Windeward Bound earned him recognition as Hobart's Citizen of the Year in 1998. But not long after completing Windeward Bound, Brian decided to become Sarah. She now lives in a steady relationship with Hobart pharmacist and mother of three, Jennie Kay, who first fell in love with Sarah when Sarah was Brian. Sarah and Jennie and their family and friends talk candidly, movingly and humorously about the long and sometimes difficult journey to acceptance.
Episode 33
The Big Chill: Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey
31 mins
Based on their own teenage years and on the real lives of others aged just 13 to 16 Puberty Blues told of sex, sun and sand and what really happens in the back of panel vans. Twenty years on, Kathy and Gabrielle are still writers but their lives have taken very different directions. The one time best friends fell out in the aftermath of "Puberty Blues" and don't even talk to each other any more. Kathy Lette is now a wealthy, celebrity author in London married to the even more famous human rights lawyer and TV personality Geoffrey Robertson. Gabrielle Carey admits she would like to be "more comfortable" materially. She has moved from a failed romance with a prisoner to a subsistence existence in a Mexican village and back again to Sydney where she continues to write "serious" novels. But as Australian Story discovered, there are now signs of a thaw in the long chill between the two. "Puberty Blues" is about to be republished in the U.K. and Australia - and for the first time in decades Kathy and Gabrielle are talking again ...
Episode 34
Once Were Soldiers: Les Hiddins
31 mins
Former army Major and Vietnam veteran, Les Hiddins, wants to help the growing number of one-time soldiers who are now suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Hiddins and more than 100 mostly Vietnam veterans recently occupied a defunct Cape York cattle property known as Kalpowar Station. Les Hiddins says it could be described as a type of land claim, although the veterans don't want to actually own the land. They want it put in trust by the Queensland government for recreational use by war veterans who need a place to rest and recover. But the Queensland government says the veterans are technically squatting, and they have failed to take into account an Aboriginal land claim over the same area. Australian Story also looks at Les Hiddins' own experiences in the Vietnam war, and tracks down the former Army film director who first spotted the Bush Tucker Man's potential as a television presenter.
Episode 35
Rock Heart: Grahame Walsh
30 mins
The beautiful and elegant Bradshaw paintings are estimated to be older than 17 thousand years. Grahame Walsh is a researcher who's spent the last 25 years searching out the paintings in the rocky outcrops of the Kimberley. He has outraged the academic establishment by suggesting that the paintings were created by a mystery race - quite separate to the Aborigines. But it's not just academics who are offended by Walsh's work. He now finds himself caught in the crossfire between conflicting aboriginal interests. The value of Walsh's data, and his passion for the work, are undisputed. He is recognised internationally as the leading expert on the paintings. But his methods have alienated many. Now he is running out of supporters, money and time and soon he could be denied all access to his beloved Bradshaws. Australian Story joined him on what could be his last trip to the Kimberley...
Episode 36
Field of Dreams: Michael Crossland
29 mins
Major League baseball coach and scout Greg Morris says: "The odds of Michael Crossland getting picked up like that and offered a scholarship are ten thousand to one ... he just happened to be in the right place at the right time and he happened to play well ..." But what the Americans didn't realise was that Michael had been overcoming huge odds for most of his young life. That he is alive at all is a bit of a miracle; that he is fit enough to play world class baseball is remarkable. When Michael was a small baby, he was diagnosed with neuro blastoma - a huge primary cancer that explodes through the body. He had more than a dozen tumours through his body. The doctors said he had only a ten per cent chance of surviving. On his first birthday he started chemotherapy. The aim was to keep him alive long enough to operate. The family were warned the treatment could kill him. Michael did survive but the chemo left him with permanent and serious damage to his heart, his lungs and his immune system. It was while he was in hospital as a little boy that someone placed a velcro glove and a bat in his hand - and his unstoppable love affair with baseball began...
Episode 37
Regarding Raphael: Vanessa Gorman
30 mins
For the first time this week one of the program's team of producers is stepping in front of the camera to tell her own story. She's Vanessa Gorman and during her time with Australian Story she has produced some of the program's most acclaimed stories. They have included "Man for All Seasons" with Wayne Bennett, "Raising the Rafters" with Pat Rafter's family and this year "Happy as Garry" with Garry McDonald. Vanessa GormanBut behind the scenes Vanessa was undergoing an ordeal of her own. Despite the opposition of her then partner, she was determined to become a mother. Two and a half years ago she lost her longed for baby daughter shortly after birth. That experience was turned into a powerful and moving one hour independent documentary "Losing Layla" which screened on the ABC. Vanessa says: "After Layla died I just wanted to read stories about this happening to other people and the message that I kept coming across was that people didn't see it as a big death. And I thought I've got this film footage. I can do something here to let the community know that this is actually as a big a death as any other death in your life." "Losing Layla" generated a massive and heartfelt audience response but it left many viewers wanting to know more and, in particular, wanting to know what had happened to Vanessa in subsequent months. "Regarding Raphael" provides the answers. It's the story of Vanessa's life after "Losing Layla". It tells of the break up of Vanessa's long term relationship with her partner Michael Shaw in the aftermath of the death of their baby. And it tells of a new relationship, another pregnancy ... and finally a healthy baby boy, Raphael.
Episode 38
Crossing the Khyber: Mahboba Rawi
30 mins
At the age of 15, Mahboba Rawi fled Soviet occupied Afghanistan and came to Australia as a refugee. In Australia there was further heartache when she lost her young son in a drowning at the Kiama Blowhole. In recent times she has worked single mindedly and single handedly to try to help orphaned children in refugee camps in Pakistan. For Mahboba the journey to Afghanistan is an emotional homecoming. But for the women who accompany her it is a quite different experience. They are from affluent, professional backgrounds and are apprehensive about the risks involved in visiting countries listed as unsafe by the Australian authorities. But they have all become passionately involved in Mahboba's fund raising efforts and they are determined to visit the camps and the schools and see the results of their work. One of the group, Marie Cullen, has never been to any kind of developing country before. She has a very personal mission of her own; she wants to adopt an orphan in Afghanistan, something she knows will be difficult and controversial..
Episode 39
The Cape Crusade: Noel Pearson and Gerhardt Pearson
32 mins
Over the last two years, a group of high powered corporate backers, philanthropists and politicians have been rallying behind Noel Pearson, his brother Gerhardt and other indigenous leaders and invested millions of dollars in cash and resources in a revolutionary attempt to reverse Aboriginal fortunes. Noel Pearson The strategy is based on the ideas of Noel Pearson, once hailed as a future Prime Minister, who several years ago dropped out of Aboriginal politics and largely out of the limelight, frustrated by what he saw as an epidemic of social problems. But with growing support, things are starting to change. On Australian Story, the Pearson brothers, and their supporters, unveil the early results of their fledgling "Indigenous Enterprise Partnerships". They say small industries and training programs are thriving, people are saving money for the first time, and, in the pilot area, juvenile recidivism has been drastically reduced. The Pearsons and their supporters acknowledge their approach - with its denial of the culture of welfare, blame and victimhood - is highly controversial. But they claim everything else that has been tried over the last thirty years has failed and this is the "last chance" for indigenous people throughout Australia. They are, however, poised for a "bitter battle" - from opponents among their own people - and from vested interests in the white bureaucracies ...