Arthur Benjamin was born on this day in 1893 — and it was also on this day in 1950 that he was in The Sun newspaper slamming Sydney as a backwater. Stumbling on this article led me to wonder about this then-famous pianist and composer. Scratching the surface was to find a man whose rich life saw him write a tune for a future Queen’s special day, nearly die at the hands of a future Nazi war criminal and help a hot young director become the future master of suspense films. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1935, taxi driver John Smillie (cousin of William Smillie, the razor gangster of the 13 July episode) was shot dead in Sydney. It'd be six months before an arrest was made. His alleged killer? A boy named Boyd Sinclair, who'd be held without trial... for more than a decade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1973, the deal was done — Australia was the proud new owner of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. The price? $1.3m — the most ever paid for an American artwork. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this weekend in 1992, two bodies were found in Belanglo State Forest in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The discovery triggered the hunt for the man who'd become known as Australia's worst serial killer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1944, Australia's most famous war cameraman — whose film Kokoda Front Line! had won us our first Oscar the previous year — was killed while filming American Marines trying to retake a tiny Pacific island held by the Japanese. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1956, Channel Nine executive Bruce Gyngell uttered these famous words. While TV was a modern marvel, its genesis in Australia dated back to the 1880s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
125 years ago today, Mark Twain, acclaimed as the world's funniest man, steamed into Sydney Harbour — and started cracking jokes to a newspaper reporter before he even got off the boat. For the famous visitor, his trip to Australia was more than the first stop on a world tour. It was Mark Twain’s chance to redeem himself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Rod Taylor was our biggest movie star of the 1960s, beloved by generations of Australians for his knock-about persona and success in Hollywood films such as The Time Machine and The Birds. But a chance discovery in an Australian newspaper database a few days ago revealed a far darker ‘success’. That was: rewriting the history of his first marriage to erase any mention of his horrific behaviour. ** Australia On This Day will return with new episodes soon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day a century ago, Captain Percy William Snell thrilled Brisbane by performing aviation stunts in a biplane right over the centre of the city. After seeing an ad for his 1920 joy flights, I went down the rabbit hole and discovered a man who rose from childhood tragedy to be a Great War fighter ace — but who may also have committed wartime atrocities. After he came back home, Percy Snell introduced thousands of his fellow citizens to aviation, entertained a future King of England and was pilot to a socialist state premier on an aerial election campaign tour that ended in what may have been the first political assassination attempt against an Australian politician in our history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day 80 years ago, the SS Dunera steamed into Sydney Harbour. Aboard were more than 2000 men — most of them European Jews who'd fled the Nazis. Having been declared "enemy aliens" in England, they'd been transported to Australia, only to endure two months of brutality on the voyage at the hands of sadistic British soldiers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1908, Australia's most beloved and popular poem saw print for the first time. Dorothea Mackellar's "My Country" — with its line, "I love a sunburnt country" — would soon be an important part of our national identity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This was the 24 hours of Australia's war from the first shot of the war fired to the mass internment of 300 people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1901, the Australian flag was raised for the first time after the winners of the competition to design our national ensign were revealed. But in years to come, a myth about who’d won the competition would spread far and wide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day 50 years ago, Sydney's vice squad swooped on a clear, present and wholly fictitious danger to society: Alexander Portnoy. He was the protagonist of Philip Roth's raunchy satire Portnoy's Complaint, which had been banned in Australia despite being a critically acclaimed worldwide bestseller. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1934, the pyjama-clad body of a young woman was found near Albury in NSW, triggering one of Australia's most baffling murder investigations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Australian silent movie star Lotus Thompson was born on this day in 1904. Before she turned 20 she'd arrived in Hollywood and made her name with a shocking act that called into question the movie industry's priorities. Or... did she? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1824, two desperate convicts fled the brutality of one of Australia’s most notorious penal settlements to take their chances in the wintry Tasmanian wilderness. It did not go well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1973, young thug Archibald McCafferty — fueled by drugs and supported by a gang of youthful misfits — began a killing spree that'd see him dubbed "Australia's Charles Manson". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this day in 1966, Gurindji stockmen and their families — led by elder Vincent Lingiari — walked off the job at the Wave Hill station in the NT in protest against poor pay and conditions — and for the return of their traditional lands. What followed was an epic eight-year battle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This was the day that Australian punters went to the movies for the first time – and it happened at Melbourne’s Opera House just nine months after the French Lumiere brothers got le punters to pay to see the moving pictures in Paris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alison Wonderland
this is terrible. her husband was psycho 😒