Grave Tales Australia: the series

A story that has passed into folk law – how bushman Bernard O’Reilly put his mind to finding a missing aircraft with seven people on board when no-one else could.  

In the days when ‘freak shows’ were entertainment, Mrs Augusta Rewald, a Queensland resident, was exhibited as the ‘biggest woman in the world’. But did she really want to be on show, or was she cruelly exploited by her husband?

For more than a century, Sam Knott was one of the best-known faces on advertising billboards. But how did this unconventional man find himself fronting a beer poster?

On a beautiful summer’s eve, January 1924, in the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, five people's lives were about to change. A gunman was on the loose. A true-crime story from the 'Grave Tales: Melbourne Vol.1' book.

If it wasn’t for a persistent father, Walter Lindrum might never have risen to World Champion. He was nicknamed the ‘Don Bradman of billiards’ and they had to change the rules to beat him! This is Walter's story.

On a Sunday afternoon in February 1921, 13-year-old Chrissie Venn left home to run an errand for her mother. Two days later Chrissie’s body was found in a hollowed-out stump 3.5 metres off the ground. No one was ever charged for her murder but did a killer walk free or was the wrong man prosecuted?

The man in a suit looked like he was resting in the sun on Somerton Beach, Adelaide, in 1948, until a couple of good Samaritans checking on him, discovered that he was dead. He had nothing on him that identified who he was but Police soon discovered a secret pocket in the man's trousers with a piece of paper rolled tightly, bearing two strange words.

He was the Holocaust survivor saved by Oscar Schindler – this is the story of Leo Rosner, a talented Jewish musician who made a post-war life in Melbourne. We remember him and speak with his daughter Anna.  

Many Australians know the story of the execution of Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant and Peter Handcock—but there were other Australians charged with them, and one of them wanted to be shot as well but was sentenced to life in prison. This is George Witton's story.

Years of isolation, deprivation and often the loss of children, even a case of madness; who were the stoic ladies who accompanied their husbands at the Cape Otway Lighthouse Station?

Sudden deaths from a plague caused panic in Sydney involving quarantining, demolitions and disinfecting. The year was 1900 and the nervousness will feel very familiar today.

Alice Anderson was one of Australia’s first female mechanics and her ideas and inventions were ahead of her time. But Alice’s life came to an untimely end on a Friday evening in the back of her garage, with a gunshot to the head. Was it an accident or suicide? We speak with Loretta Smith, author of ‘A Spanner in the Works: The extraordinary story of Alice Anderson and Australia’s first all-girl garage.’

An unspeakable crime – two women murdered, a third left for dead, and a young killer on drugs on the loose. In Autumn 1964, the community of Coorparoo, Brisbane, lost their innocence. We speak with those who were there and remember to this day.  

On Monday 31 July 1972, the residents of Ipswich in Queensland were awoken by a blast that destroyed the Box Flat Colliery and killed 17 miners. But what happened to the men of the mine who remained entombed on the site?

What’s the real story of the bohemian who broke out of an asylum and was known for her ability to quote any passage from Shakespeare for money?