Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 7 of 7 It’s the middle of the 1960s, up on the Victorian high country, in a cattlemen’s hut. Seventeen-year-old John Lovick wakes on the top bunk with a pair of hands around his throat. Whatever comes down off that bunk with him, his father’s cattle dogs won’t go near it. That night, for the first time in his life, Jack Lovick bolts the door. Fifteen years later, the police ring the family to ask an interesting series of questions about that night. For Halloweek, this is a true story from the Lovick family, told by the people who were there. Hear the Lovicks tell their tales in their own voices - https://open.spotify.com/track/2UWS9g8OPDUcDsmNpHWrLy?autoplay_ok=1 Merrijig Muster - https://www.facebook.com/reel/2260357574508044 Help keep the high country’s history alive - https://www.highcountryhalloffame.com.au/ Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 6 of 7 A motorcyclist is heading for the cherry harvest, riding through empty country in the small hours. He passes a dark farmhouse where about ten people stand in a line out the front, silent and perfectly still. They aren’t watching him. They’re all looking across the road at something he can’t see. He rides on for half an hour without passing a single car, then pulls into a rest area to make camp. It's during that stop that the earlier experience shifts from being weird, to downright horrifying. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast⁠⁠ Strewth social media links - ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast⁠⁠ Contact me - ⁠⁠strewthpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠ Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/w0dsve/have_you_encountered_an_eeriespooky_place_in/

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 5 of 7 Tonight's tale comes from an amazing Strewth listener, Elise. She was one of six volunteers spending a week on South Solitary Island, a rock off Coffs Harbour when this terrifying encounter occurred. On the second-last night she hears and feels something in the old lighthouse keepers cottage that she'll never forget. As you'll find out, she's not the only one who has left the island with a macabre story to tell. . . Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - ⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast⁠ Strewth social media links - ⁠https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast⁠ Contact me - ⁠strewthpodcast@gmail.com⁠ Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Death of Miss Lydia Gow. (1912, November 23). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate , 5. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/135759652 Friends of South Solitary Island Lighthouse. (n.d.). South Solitary Island lighthouse history . https://friendsofsouthsolitaryislandlighthouse.com.au/lighthouse-history/ The late Miss Lydia Gow. (1912, November 26). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate , 6. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/135758591 Lighthouses of Australia Inc. (n.d.). South Solitary Island Lighthouse . https://lighthouses.org.au/nsw/south-solitary-island-lighthouse/ Martin, M. (2019, August 10). South Solitary Island Lighthouse haunted by ghost of girl buried in bathtub, former residents say. ABC News . https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-10/lydia-gow-buried-in-a-bathtub-and-covered-with-concrete/11395174

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 4 of 7 New South Wales, Woodford, Blue Mountains It’s four in the morning on the Great Western Highway when a young woman and her father see a figure running towards them in their headlights. They think someone is in trouble. Then they see the height of it, the shoulders, the arms hanging past its knees, the hair covering its body. They turn the car side-on and follow it for almost a kilometre, keeping the spotlight on it. It stops when the light finds it and runs when the light goes off. At the end of a row of houses, it plunges into the bush, and the treetops sway as it goes. They had it in clear view for at least four or five minutes. This is her story. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Source: https://www.thefortean.com/2018/10/07/the-monster-of-the-blue-mountains/

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 3 of 7 Anyone who has camped in the bush knows its night sounds after a while: crickets, a possum in the branches, the tick of a fire burning down. Each one has an explanation, and when a new sound turns up, you find an explanation for that as well. In the mid-1990s, a family camped alone near Sydenham Inlet, at the end of a four-wheel-drive track outside Bemm River. During the night, their eleven-year-old woke his mother because there was a humming outside the tent. It came back three times, closer each time, and then it stopped. Once the kids were zipped back into their sleeping bags, the parents walked back to their own tent, and that's when things started to get really strange. Original story: Ghosts of Gippsland presents Fireside Friday - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4eGznBDbLpzHGD9ocKuflp Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Australian Yowie Research. (n.d.). Bemm River, Victoria, 2013. Yowie Hunters. https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/victoria/2095-bemm-river-victoria-2013 Keel, J. A. (1970). UFOs: Operation Trojan horse. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 2 of 7 It’s past midnight on a friend’s cattle station, and the man by the campfire has only his dog for company. When she sits bolt upright and growls, he tells her to settle. Then, out in the dark, a match flares and a cigarette is lit. Half an hour later, the smoke drifts into camp. When a second flame appears a hundred metres away, he grabs his rifle . . . Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/g7z8h2/what_is_your_creepiest_experience_in_the_outback/ Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Halloweek on Strewth - Tale 1 of 7 Late one night a message comes in on Facebook from a listener who’s just finished our Guyra Poltergeist episode. She knows a story very like it, she says, and it’s a long one. Over the next few hours it arrives in pieces: a young woman with borrowed lungs, a family too frightened to sleep anywhere but one bedroom, and a phone call before dawn. At the end of it all is a hallway, and a fridge that nobody in that house could have lifted, lying on its back against their bedroom door. Halloweek opens with a story that has never been told before. And at the end, the listener has a question for you. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

The Unsolved Disappearance of Bevin and Brad Simmonds On a glassy winter morning in 2003, Bevin Simmonds and his ten-year-old son, Brad, motored out to a shark net off the western coast of Cape York. By late morning the net was still there, half cleared, and they were gone. Up to eleven aircraft searched the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the police officer who ran the search later told a court it was the only one of his career where no trace was ever found, of the people or of their boat. What followed was a feud between two fishing families, an affair, a microphone hidden behind the dashboard of a car, and a murder trial in which one of the most important voices could only be heard on tape. So what happened out at that net? The Cape Documentary - https://www.stan.com.au/watch/revealed-the-cape-2023 Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: ABC News. (2003, June 14). Police searching off western Cape York for father and son . https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-06-14/police-searching-off-western-cape-york-for-father/1870124 ABC News. (2003, December 16). Missing father and son unlikely to be found: Police . https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-12-16/missing-father-and-son-unlikely-to-be-found-police/106748 ABC News. (2005, October 17). Murder trial hears no trace of missing father, son found . https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-17/murder-trial-hears-no-trace-of-missing-father-son/2125960 ABC News. (2005, October 20). Satellite concerns surface at murder trial . https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-20/satellite-concerns-surface-at-murder-trial/2128198 ABC News. (2005, October 21). Gulf murder trial nears end . https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-21/gulf-murder-trial-nears-end/2128990 Australian Missing Persons Register. (n.d.). Bevin & Brad Simmonds . Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/BBSimmonds.htm Cassey, B. (2023, July 1). My 'stills' in brilliant Stan doco "The Cape" . Brian Cassey Photographer. https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/images/2023/07/my-stills-in-emmy-nominated-doco-the-cape/ Croke, L. (2026, September 18). The Block's Jolene's shocking connection to one of Australia's most haunting unsolved murder mysteries . Now To Love. https://www.nowtolove.com.au/entertainment/the-block-jolene-bevin-brad-simmonds-unsolved-mystery/ Ferreira-Rowe, J. (2023, June 18). From Emmy® nominated Michael Ware and Justine A. Rosenthal, 'Revealed: The Cape' is now streaming, only on Stan . Stan News. https://www.stan.news/from-emmyr-nominated-michael-ware-and-justine-a-rosenthal-revealed-the-cape-is-now-streaming-only-on-stan Hui, C. (2026, September 22). Before she was on The Block, Jolene's family was at the centre of a national cold case . Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/the-block-jolene/ Ross, I. (2023a, June 19). New Stan Original documentaries Revealed: The Cape and Revealed: Reefshot tell truly unmissable stories . Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/stan-original-documentaries-review/ Ross, I. (2023b, July 28). A family turf war, double murder, and an affair: The cold case that haunts Far North Queensland . Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/bevin-and-brad-simmonds/

What happened to Harold Holt? On a Sunday in December 1967, the Prime Minister of Australia went for a swim off a beach near Portsea and never came out. More than three hundred people searched the water for him, and no trace of his body was ever found. Fifty-eight years later, depending on who you ask, Harold Holt drowned, was killed by the CIA, ran off with his lover, or was dragged under by Chinese frogmen and carried away to Beijing in a submarine. In this episode of Strewth we work through the theories, from the frankly ridiculous to the one a coroner finally signed off on in 2005, and ask why a man who had nearly drowned off that same beach seven months earlier swam straight back out past the breakers. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: National Archives of Australia. Harold Holt's disappearance , Fact sheet 144. https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/fact-sheets/harold-holts-disappearance Victoria Police and Commonwealth Police. Joint report into the disappearance of Harold Holt, January 1968, including witness statements. National Archives of Australia, A1209, 1968/8063. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4982285 Johnstone, Graeme (State Coroner of Victoria). Finding into the death of Harold Edward Holt, 2 September 2005. Coroners Court of Victoria. (Quoted via ABC reporting below.) Frame, Tom. The Life and Death of Harold Holt . Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2005. https://archive.org/details/lifedeathharoldh00fram Grey, Anthony. The Prime Minister Was a Spy . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1983. Grey, Anthony. Hostage in Peking . Michael Joseph, London, 1970. ABC News. "Inside the disappearance of Harold Holt", 1 November 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-01/disappearance-harold-holt-inside-search-operation-australia/12817236 ABC News. "Harold Holt: 50 years since Australia's first 20th century PM disappeared", 17 December 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-17/harold-holt-50-years-since-prime-minister-disappeared/9259680 ABC News. "Coroner rules Holt conspiracy theories fanciful", 2 September 2005. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-09-02/coroner-rules-holt-conspiracy-theories-fanciful/2094682 Griffiths, Tom. "How Harold Holt was lost". Inside Story . https://insidestory.org.au/how-harold-holt-was-lost/ National Film and Sound Archive. "Allegations and conspiracy theories". https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/98238-allegations-and-conspiracy-theories Australian Screen Online. Curator's notes, The Harold Holt Mystery (1985). https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/the-harold-holt-mystery/notes/ Archives Hub. Anthony Grey Archive, University of East Anglia, including the papers of Ronald Titcombe (embargoed). https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/b33f32ee-49ca-3a61-a1b9-29cc2f69a4b7 Who Killed Harold Holt? Presented by Ray Martin. Nine Network, 20 November 2007. The Prime Minister is Missing . Directed by Peter Butt. ABC Television, 2008.

The Murder of Maria James - Part 2 of 2 In 2013, a council electrician named Alan Hircoe opened a newspaper and saw a photograph of a priest. He recognised the face. Years earlier, he said, while working at the presbytery of St Mary's in Thornbury, he had seen that priest come in from the garden with blood on his face and hands. The priest was Father Anthony Bongiorno, and he had tried to force his way into Maria James's bookshop on the afternoon she was murdered. But he had an alibi, and police believed the DNA had cleared him. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Coroners Court of Victoria. Finding into Death with Inquest: Maria Theresa James (COR 1980 1820). Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English. Delivered 31 March 2022, amended 4 April 2022. Findings index: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/inquests-findings/findings Victoria Police. "Cold case: Maria James." https://www.police.vic.gov.au/cold-case-maria-james Victoria Police. "Reward: Maria James." Published 14 June 2024. https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reward-maria-james Brown, Rachael. Trace (podcast), Season 1. ABC, 2017. Brown, Rachael. "Trace: The unsolved murder of Maria James." ABC News, 21 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/trace-the-unsolved-murder-of-maria-james/8612964 Brown, Rachael. "Trace: Witness saw paedophile priest covered in blood near cold case murder victim Maria James' house." ABC News, 28 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/trace-priest-seen-covered-in-blood-near-maria-james-crime-scene/8652936 "Trace: Police admit DNA bungle wrongly cleared paedophile priest as suspect in cold case murder." ABC News, 12 July 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/trace-police-admit-to-major-dna-bungle-in-maria-james-cold-case/8694870 "Trace: No sign of conspiracy in Maria James investigation, Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says." ABC News, 14 September 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/victoria-police-investigating-trace-case-dna-mix-up/8944596 "Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence." ABC News, 6 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/maria-james-inquest-begins/100436294 "Dead priest had the motive, means and opportunity to commit unsolved murder, detective tells inquest." ABC News, 27 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/unsolved-murder-inquest-hears-of-priest-and-a-murderer/100491298 "Maria James's family calls for a priest's exhumation, if DNA testing doesn't offer answers." ABC News, 4 November 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-04/application-to-exhume-priest-is-unsolved-murder-case/100499632 "Coroner delivers open finding in inquest into the 1980 murder of Melbourne woman Maria James." ABC News, 31 March 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-31/maria-james-coronial-inquest-findings/100943730 "Police offer $1 million reward to solve the cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James." ABC News, 14 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-14/maria-james-cold-case-murder-victoria-police-reward/103972070 "Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Maria James inside Melbourne bookshop." The Guardian (Australia), 14 June 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/14/maria-james-murder-victoria-police-offer-1m-reward-thornbury-melbourne-bookshop "Sons make $1m plea to solve mother's bookshop murder." AAP, 14 June 2024. https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/police-offer-1-million-reward-to-solve-bookshop-murder "Killer's link to bookshop murder examined." AAP via The Canberra Times , 21 September 2021. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7439775/killers-link-to-bookshop-murder-examined/ "DNA unknown when Maria James was killed." AAP via The Senior , September 2021. https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/7435659/dna-unknown-when-maria-james-was-killed/

The Murder of Maria James - Part 1 of 2 On 17 June 1980, John James rang his ex-wife, Maria, at her bookshop in Thornbury, Melbourne. She asked him to hang on. He heard voices and a small scream, and then the line went quiet. He strained to hear the muffled conversation being carried out in the shop. Then the voices became louder, more aggressive. Then she screamed again. Forty-six years and two inquests later, nobody has been charged with her murder. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Coroners Court of Victoria. Finding into Death with Inquest: Maria Theresa James (COR 1980 1820). Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English. Delivered 31 March 2022, amended 4 April 2022. Findings index: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/inquests-findings/findings Victoria Police. "Cold case: Maria James." https://www.police.vic.gov.au/cold-case-maria-james Victoria Police. "Reward: Maria James." Published 14 June 2024. https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reward-maria-james Brown, Rachael. Trace (podcast), Season 1. ABC, 2017. Brown, Rachael. "Trace: The unsolved murder of Maria James." ABC News, 21 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/trace-the-unsolved-murder-of-maria-james/8612964 Brown, Rachael. "Trace: Witness saw paedophile priest covered in blood near cold case murder victim Maria James' house." ABC News, 28 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/trace-priest-seen-covered-in-blood-near-maria-james-crime-scene/8652936 "Trace: Police admit DNA bungle wrongly cleared paedophile priest as suspect in cold case murder." ABC News, 12 July 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/trace-police-admit-to-major-dna-bungle-in-maria-james-cold-case/8694870 "Trace: No sign of conspiracy in Maria James investigation, Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says." ABC News, 14 September 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/victoria-police-investigating-trace-case-dna-mix-up/8944596 "Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence." ABC News, 6 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/maria-james-inquest-begins/100436294 "Dead priest had the motive, means and opportunity to commit unsolved murder, detective tells inquest." ABC News, 27 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/unsolved-murder-inquest-hears-of-priest-and-a-murderer/100491298 "Maria James's family calls for a priest's exhumation, if DNA testing doesn't offer answers." ABC News, 4 November 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-04/application-to-exhume-priest-is-unsolved-murder-case/100499632 "Coroner delivers open finding in inquest into the 1980 murder of Melbourne woman Maria James." ABC News, 31 March 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-31/maria-james-coronial-inquest-findings/100943730 "Police offer $1 million reward to solve the cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James." ABC News, 14 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-14/maria-james-cold-case-murder-victoria-police-reward/103972070 "Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Maria James inside Melbourne bookshop." The Guardian (Australia), 14 June 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/14/maria-james-murder-victoria-police-offer-1m-reward-thornbury-melbourne-bookshop "Sons make $1m plea to solve mother's bookshop murder." AAP, 14 June 2024. https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/police-offer-1-million-reward-to-solve-bookshop-murder "Killer's link to bookshop murder examined." AAP via The Canberra Times , 21 September 2021. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7439775/killers-link-to-bookshop-murder-examined/ "DNA unknown when Maria James was killed." AAP via The Senior , September 2021. https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/7435659/dna-unknown-when-maria-james-was-killed/

The Pilliga Yowie In the spring of 2010, a mother pulled into a roadside rest stop south of Coonabarabran so the kids could swim at Hickey's Falls. The car park was silent. Another car was parked by the trail with every door open, and somewhere up the hill a child was crying. What happened next has become one of the best-known yowie encounters in the country, and it rests on the word of one woman who has never given her name. This is her account, set against the long and strange reputation of the Pilliga and the highway that runs through it. The Interview: Hickeys Falls Revisited Anniversary Edition', Yowie Central , podcast, Acast, May 2026, https://shows.acast.com/yowie-central/episodes/ep185-hickeys-falls-revisited-anniversary-edition Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Australian Yowie Research n.d., Hickeys Falls, New South Wales 2010 , witness report, Australian Yowie Research, viewed September 2026, https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/2176-hickeys-falls-new-south-wales-2010 Australian Yowie Research 2020, Witness Audio Report #159: Hickeys Falls, New South Wales , YouTube, June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbBKDeMpezc Yowie Central n.d., Yowie Central , podcast series page, Apple Podcasts, https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/yowie-central/id1554417233 Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1976 , https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1919-pilliga-new-south-wales-1976 Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1978 (the Torana account), https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1441-pilliga-new-south-wales-1978 Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1979 (AAP report quoting Constable Wayne Warren), https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1440-pilliga-new-south-wales-1979 Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1979 (second transcription of the AAP report), https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1442-pilliga-new-south-wales-1979-sp-19667 Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 2001 , https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1577-pilliga-new-south-wales Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 2003 , https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1443-pilliga-new-south-wales-2003 Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 2010 , https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1444-pilliga-new-south-wales-2010 Ridley, W 1875, Kámilarói and Other Australian Languages , 2nd edn, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, Sydney, digitised by the National Library of Australia, https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1099858783/view

The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 2 of 2 A Queensland carpenter identified off a television screen twenty five years later. A man serving life who was ruled out by the only witness who saw the abductor's face. A friend of the family who was pulled in for questioning and never charged. And an upholsterer with a shack in the mid north whose own grandson wrote forty pages about him from a prison cell. Fifty three years on, nobody has been charged with the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon. What the case has instead is names. In Part two of the Adelaide Oval abductions, we chase down the suspects and present new evidence in this horrifying case. Sleepers Podcast - Bryan Littlely and Max Marten https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise/episodes/688c7609fc150bcf7f24a146 Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon Andrew Rule, "50 years on, the search for a depraved man who abducted and killed two little girls continues", Herald Sun , August 2023. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/50-years-on-the-search-for-a-depraved-man-who-abducted-and-killed-two-little-girls-continues/news-story/28ecaa5f898e6d96f4c03bb566116128 Elizabeth Henson, "Adelaide Oval abduction witness Tony Kilmartin reveals what happened the day Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were taken", The Advertiser . https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-oval-abduction-witness-tony-kilmartin-reveals-what-happened-the-day-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe-were-taken/news-story/91a88591d76f28407092ebd318a990f9 Belinda Jepsen, "The Adelaide Oval abduction", Mamamia . https://www.mamamia.com.au/adelaide-oval-abduction/ "Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon abduction: Adelaide Oval mystery breakthrough", Under Investigation , Nine, October 2022. https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers , season 1, episode 2, interview with Anthony Kilmartin. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers , interview with Alex Bone, recorded November 2024. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise 1973 SANFL season , Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_SANFL_season

The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 1 of 2 Adelaide Oval, the twenty fifth of August, 1973. Norwood versus North Adelaide, a winter crowd. Joanne Ratcliffe, eleven, took four year old Kirste Gordon to the toilets, the way she had done once already that afternoon. Ninety minutes later they were three kilometres from the ground, fighting for their lives, and they have never been seen since. In part one of two, we thoroughly examine the events of that day. Facts that we have believed to be the truth for over 50 years might not have told us the full story. We reveal the new eye-witness testimony that challenges the conventional wisdom on a case that has haunted Australia for decades. Sleepers Podcast - Bryan Littlely and Max Marten https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise/episodes/688c7609fc150bcf7f24a146 Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon , Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon Andrew Rule, "50 years on, the search for a depraved man who abducted and killed two little girls continues", Herald Sun , August 2023. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/50-years-on-the-search-for-a-depraved-man-who-abducted-and-killed-two-little-girls-continues/news-story/28ecaa5f898e6d96f4c03bb566116128 Elizabeth Henson, "Adelaide Oval abduction witness Tony Kilmartin reveals what happened the day Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were taken", The Advertiser . https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-oval-abduction-witness-tony-kilmartin-reveals-what-happened-the-day-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe-were-taken/news-story/91a88591d76f28407092ebd318a990f9 Belinda Jepsen, "The Adelaide Oval abduction", Mamamia . https://www.mamamia.com.au/adelaide-oval-abduction/ "Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon abduction: Adelaide Oval mystery breakthrough", Under Investigation , Nine, October 2022. https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers , season 1, episode 2, interview with Anthony Kilmartin. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers , interview with Alex Bone, recorded November 2024. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise 1973 SANFL season , Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_SANFL_season

The Perth Mint Swindle - The Perfect Crime? In April 1982 somebody broke into a building in Perth, stole a pad of blank cheques, and burnt the place to the ground on the way out. Five weeks later they did it again. Ten weeks after that, sixty-eight kilograms of gold walked out the front door of the Perth Mint in broad daylight. Nobody was threatened. Nobody was hurt. Nobody raised their voice. The thief built the entire robbery out of honest strangers: a clerk, three armoured couriers, a temp on her first morning, and a bloke following instructions over a CB radio. Every one of them did their job properly. Not one of them could describe him. Forty-four years on, the Perth Mint swindle has never been solved. Sources: ABC News 2008, Mickelbergs to receive $1 million ex gratia payment , 16 January, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-16/mickelbergs-to-receive-1-million-ex-gratia-payment/1013980 ABC News 2008, Mickelberg brothers vow to fight on , 19 January, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-19/mickelberg-brothers-vow-to-fight-on/1017342 ABC News 2013, Mickelberg matriarch dies of old age , 28 August, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/peggy-mickelberg/4917362 Mayes, A 2023, The other Perth Mint scandal: The Mickelberg brothers and the great gold swindle , ABC News, 1 April, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-01/the-other-perth-mint-scandal-of-the-mickelberg-brothers-swindle/102113790 Pallaras, S 1999, The Mickelberg Saga and the Public Purse , Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory, Seventh Biennial Conference, Kuta, Bali, 27 June to 2 July, https://clant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/the-bali-conference/1999/Pallaras-Stephen-The-Mickelberg-Saga-amp-thePublic-Purse-BampW.pdf Perth Mint, 2025, Iconic Moments in the Perth Mint's History. https://www.perthmint.com/news/stories/history/iconic-moments-in-the-perth-mints-history Western Australian Government 2002, New evidence on Mickelberg case referred to Police Royal Commission , media statement, 10 June, https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/Gallop%20Labor%20Government/New-evidence-on-Mickelberg-case-referred-to-Police-Royal-Commission-20020610 Western Australian Government 2008, Ex-gratia payment to Ray and Peter Mickelberg , media statement, 16 January, https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/Carpenter%20Labor%20Government/Ex-gratia-payment-to-Ray-and-Peter-Mickelberg-20080116 Wikipedia, Perth Mint Swindle , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Mint_Swindle

The Luna Park Ghost Train Disaster - Part 2 of 2 For years the most talked about aspect of the Luna Park fire was a photograph of a six year old boy standing next to a man in a horned mask, taken hours before he died. People called it the Luna Park demon. But the material that actually mattered was being collated for over thirty four years by the artist who painted the face over the front gate. The contents of this collection inspired an ABC documentary that brought the truth to light in 2021. In this episode we analyse the documents, the witness testimony and the other evidence that has been unearthed to try to answer the question that has haunted a nation: What started the Luna Park Ghost Train Fire? Exposed - The Ghost Train Fire - https://iview.abc.net.au/show/exposed-the-ghost-train-fire Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Anderson, K.S. (Coroner), Fire Inquiry and Inquests: Luna Park Ghost Train , Coroner's Court of New South Wales, Glebe Tiffen, R. and Masters, C., ABC Editorial Review 25: Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire , August 2021. Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Karagic, A. and Balendra, S., "Accident or arson? The mystery of Sydney's Luna Park Ghost Train fire", ABC News, 16 March 2021. Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Balendra, S., Karagic, A. and Barilla, N., "'Luckiest boy alive': Luna Park Ghost Train fire survivor breaks his silence", ABC News, 10 March 2021. Bramston, T., "Allegations Wran involved in Luna Park fire condemned", The Australian , April 2021. Muller, D., "How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards", The Conversation , 2021. "Luna Park Ghost Train fire: Coroner asks police to review evidence", Sydney Morning Herald , April 2021.

The Luna Park Ghost Train Disaster - Part 1 of 2 On a cold Saturday night in June 1979, a rail strike had left Sydney's Luna Park almost empty. Three passengers rode past the imitation fireplace inside the Ghost Train and saw real flames in it. Every one of them assumed it was part of the ride. But in the two and a half minutes that followed, seven people tragically lost their lives. Six of them were children. By three o'clock the next afternoon the police had announced a cause, ruled out anything suspicious and released the site. Nobody had examined the wreckage at all. This is part one of two in which we outline the events of the night in question and the original findings of the coroner. Exposed - The Ghost Train Fire - https://iview.abc.net.au/show/exposed-the-ghost-train-fire Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Anderson, K.S. (Coroner), Fire Inquiry and Inquests: Luna Park Ghost Train , Coroner's Court of New South Wales, Glebe Tiffen, R. and Masters, C., ABC Editorial Review 25: Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire , August 2021. Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Karagic, A. and Balendra, S., "Accident or arson? The mystery of Sydney's Luna Park Ghost Train fire", ABC News, 16 March 2021. Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Balendra, S., Karagic, A. and Barilla, N., "'Luckiest boy alive': Luna Park Ghost Train fire survivor breaks his silence", ABC News, 10 March 2021. Bramston, T., "Allegations Wran involved in Luna Park fire condemned", The Australian , April 2021. Muller, D., "How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards", The Conversation , 2021. "Luna Park Ghost Train fire: Coroner asks police to review evidence", Sydney Morning Herald , April 2021.

The Unsolved Murder of William Mullins The fourth of July, 1913. Four men stand shin-deep in the Tyne River in the north-east of Tasmania, in snowmelt coming off the range, turning a prospector's dish. The method is sixty years old in that valley. Gold came out of Black Horse Gully in the 1850s and every man standing in the water learnt the dish as a boy. But today, they are not panning for gold. There is a bag of ash on the bank beside them, carried down from a hollow on a hillside two kilometres back, and another bag coming. A farmer named William Mullins walked out to check his possum traps a fortnight earlier and did not come home, and this is what is left to look for him with. Six weeks later a jury of his neighbours sat in the Mathinna hall and named the man who killed him. Six weeks after that a Chief Justice in Hobart took the case off a second jury before they were allowed to consider it. This week on Strewth, the Mathinna Mystery. Launceston By Foot - https://www.launcestonbyfoot.com/ Sources: "Ellen Sneezewell: Her Life and Unfortunate Death." From On the Town - Dianne Cassidy (2020) https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55780385-on-the-town "The Mathinna Tragedy. Summing Up of the Coroner. Daniel Jones Found Guilty of Murder. Mrs Jones an Accessory." The Mercury (Hobart), 13 August 1913. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10295662 Trial report, The Mercury (Hobart), 25 September 1913. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10300830 Trial report, The Examiner (Launceston), 24 September 1913. Druce, Alex. "Mathinna murder mystery endures." The Examiner (Launceston), June 2013. "Tragedy in Launceston. Murder and Attempted Suicide." The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW), 9 May 1882, reprinting the Launceston Examiner . https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/851532 "Murder in Launceston." The Mercury (Hobart), 1 May 1882. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9008855 "Execution of George Braxton at Launceston." The Mercury (Hobart), 11 July 1882. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9026073

Wakehurst Parkway - Australia's Most Haunted Road Fourteen kilometres of unlit road run straight through the bush through the bush on Sydney's Northern Beaches. By day it is a commuter route with a flooding problem. After dark it is the most haunted road in the city, and people have been reporting the same young woman on the verge for more than fifty years. What is on the record is just as horrifying. Four very real killings, thirty five years apart, no connection between the people who committed them. So what brings them to the same stretch of road to commit these heinous crimes. In this episode I drive the Wakehurst Parkway end to end. Are you game enough to join me? Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Rozenberg-Clarke, Josephine. "Wakehurst Parkway Ghost: Tales From Sydney's Most Haunted Road." Pedestrian.TV, 22 May 2019. https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/wakehurst-parkway-ghosts/ "Wakehurst Parkway: 'Ghost of Kelly' haunts road on Sydney's Northern Beaches." Nine.com.au , 31 October 2018. https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/haunted-roads-wakehurst-parkway-sydney-northern-beaches-ghost-kelly-halloween-20181031-p5wpbq.html Hla Oo. "Dark Parkway." Hla Oo's Blog, November 2010. http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2010/11/dark-parkway.html "Wakehurst Parkway Ghost: The Hitchhiker of Sydney's Haunted Road." Earth Bound, 10 March 2026. https://earthboundguides.com/blogs/supernatural-sydney/wakehurst-parkway-ghost-the-hitchhiker-of-sydney-s-haunted-road "Wakehurst Parkway Drivers Report Chilling Ghost Sightings In Oxford Falls Stretch." Cromer News. https://cromernews.com.au/wakehurst-parkway-drivers-report-chilling-ghost-sightings-in-oxford-falls-stretch/

The Disappearance of Kath Bergamin - Part 2 of 2 On the evening of Sunday the 18th of August 2002, a woman walking her dog in Wangaratta crossed the road to avoid a parked car with the music up. That put her four or five metres from a stranger's front door, where a man was standing on the step talking to somebody behind the flywire. Margaret Scutt kept it to herself for five years and by the time she picked up the phone, a coroner had opened an inquest into what happened to the woman behind that door. In part two of our two part series into the disappearance of Kath Bergamin, we walk through that Sunday hour by hour. Pulling apart the evidence and scrutinising those around her to try to determine what happened to Kath on that fateful night. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources Record of Investigation into Suspected Death, Case No. 1111/07. Coroner Peter White, State Coroner's Office Victoria, dated at Melbourne 4 June 2008. Australian Missing Persons Register, Kath Bergamin case file. australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/Bergamin.htm. Wangaratta Chronicle , 20 Years since Kath was murdered. 26 August 2002. https://www.wangarattachronicle.com.au/news/police-and-courts/20-years-since-kath-was-murdered-kjfuy8xj ABC News, 10 August 2015. Family seeking the $1m reward increase. abc.net.au/news/2015-08-10/family-of-missing-woman-kath-bergamin-want-reward-increased/6684520 Nine.com.au / AAP, 3 October 2017. "Letter-writer key to Victorian cold case." Det Insp Tim Day. nine.com.au/australia-news/vic/dna-hope-in-missing-vic-woman-case-20171003-p5vxur.html Wangaratta Chronicle, 18 August 2025. "Cold case hope." wangarattachronicle.com.au/news/police-and-courts/cold-case-hope-ganvyycv