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- The Wiggles are running their own TV network, with lots of help from Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus.
- Arthur has begun asserting himself far too strongly since he met his new girlfriend. Maggie considers his morality in question, and decides to leave home and live with Robert, much to Robert's consternation.
- Liz and Robert have arrived to collect Maggie for a picnic, but she refuses to go unless Arthur joins them. She wants to relive the family picnics of the boys' childhood, but things don't quite work out as planned.
- Maggie receives a letter from the government suggesting reasons why she hasn't been cashing her pension cheques. She is worried that if the government finds out how much money she has, they'll stop sending her the cheques.
- Maggie is sure that the woman next door is spying on her. Worse than that, she's foreign and doesn't speak English. Arthur's attempts to heal the breach aren't too successful, but it's amazing what a universal language a soap opera can be.
- Robert comes to take Maggie for a drive (or so he says). Arthur is suspicious but delighted, as it allows him to do the laundry. But on the outing, Robert reveals his ulterior motive when he stops to visit at his new lady friend's house.
- Best of Relationships: This week's program is all about relationships. There's Betty & Me, the moving story of a marriage trying to come to terms with the burden of Alzheimers Disease. (See Program 8 - 17th July). This is followed by Dante's Inferno, an extraordinary tale of a group of strangers battling the elements to stage an outdoor theatre production, under the direction of Neil Cameron. (See Program 1 - 29th May) The program finishes with a montage of several of the many characters who've shared their lives and relationships with Australian Story over the past six months.
- The Good Life: Greg Donovan sprang from obscurity to stardom two years ago when he became one of the big winners on the long running television quiz show Sale of the Century. He was as unlikely a contestant, let alone a winner, as it was possible to imagine. He had no television; he lived with Lucy, his partner, in a very basic house in the bush without electricity; and his "mutton chop" sideboards presented a rather unkempt appearance. He was persuaded to have a go at Sale after he saw the show at a friend's house and found he could answer all the questions. What followed rapidly became television history, as Greg cleaned up night after night in front of a television audience of millions. But two years later did fame and fortune change Greg Donovan and his partner Lucy? What happened to the cash, the car, the sofas? .... Do they still believe in the simple life? Has Greg's dream run with one of the supreme icons of materialism changed his values? Some surprising answers on Australian Story. PLUS: Spirit of Arnhem Penny Tweedie is a renowned British born freelance photographer who has covered wars and natural disasters in some of the most remote and difficult corners of the planet. We find her in Arnhem Land where she is completing an ambitious year long odyssey through remote regions photographing and recording the lives of families she first met twenty years ago. Ms Tweedie's stunning images of landscapes and people are supplemented by beautiful and joyous footage captured by the ABC camera crew.
- Selling the family farm has become a familiar tale in rural Australia, one which is very close to home for Sydney journalist Sally Loane.
- The story of Barry Cable, AFL's legendary "Little Master", who nearly died in a tractor accident but overcame terrible injuries to write himself into another set of record books.
- For two decades the Halvagis family worked hard to get everything they ever wished for, four happy and healthy children and a thriving business. But in a few frenzied moments, it all came crashing down.
- After sending Maggie out for some milk 3 hours ago, Arthur discovers Maggie has been faking a broken wrist to get meals on wheels for free.
- Everyone knows you can't buy friendship, but Arthur's going to give it a go anyway. Maggie obviously needs someone, and maybe Wilma will do the ironing as well. Anything's better than living with the friend Maggie found for herself.
- Arthur's uncle dies, and not even a funeral can keep peace within the family. After Maggie buys a bag of oranges and drops them accidentally into the open grave, Arthur's other uncle visits him and Maggie...with an unexpected situation.
- Maggie is determined to do her civic duty and report for jury service on the same day that she's promised to make 18 dozen lamingtons for charity. The court is disrupted and it isn't Maggie who stays up all night to do the baking either.
- It was a nice thought of Aunty Lorna's to take Maggie on a trip to Britain. Arthur certainly thinks so. He can hardly wait. But when sibling rivalry flares, it looks like Maggie will be staying home after all.
- Sam Newman has become the man Australians either love or hate - a walking one man soap opera sometimes known as "Mr Controversy".
- Arthur, desperate for a break from Maggie, plans a two week holiday with a girlfriend, to exciting Wellington, New Zealand. He keeps it secret from Maggie lest his plans be foiled.
- 1996– 27mTV EpisodeTrail Blazers: A group of young boys who had lived on the streets and in the refuges of Sydney were taken on a cattle drive through the Riverina. The aim was to teach them life skills and to raise money to help other kids. PLUS: Cecelia & Justin: Cecilia and Justin is a story about friendship and affection between an elderly lady and a teenage boy. Brisbane icon and monarchist Cecilia McNally wants to pass her wisdom and her views to the younger generation - represented by Justin Le Blond. PLUS: The Chant of Tommy Lewis: A profile of actor and musician Tommy Lewis. Tommy talks about the early days of his life - hiding from the white bureaucrats who wanted to take him from his mother. He attained fame and success in The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith but then faced a bout of alcoholism. He has survived and found new success as a musician, travelling all over the world.
- Goodbye Mary: The daughters of the Australian literary figure Dame Mary Durack are attempting to document their mother's life. The story features fascinating archival material and ranges from Perth to The Kimberly. PLUS: Slow Business: From Melbourne the story of a Czech immigrant who has made a successful business from marketing pests - she's taken the common garden snail and put it on the menu in restaurants around the country. She says she gets very attached to them, but when they have to go, at least they only go to the very best establishments. PLUS: The Butcher's Pen: We move between Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Queensland's Gold Coast to chronicle the life of Bob Barrett. Bob was a butcher until a lump of meat fell on him and damaged his back. He took up writing and is now the best selling crime novelist in the country. He is highly entertaining, buckets the literary world and is decidedly politically incorrect.
- Men's Business: Like a lot of mining towns, Moranbah is a mecca for people wanting to make big money. They are prepared to endure the hardship and isolation in order to set themselves and their families up for life. Often the dream turns sour. Lack of work opportunities for women, the long hours worked by the men and the prevailing male pub culture put a lot of pressure on relationships. Many of the men are left by their spouses and are forced to contend with the child support agency- a good idea, badly administered, they say. They claim their experiences have caused unnecessary hardships and left them feeling angry. A group of them have formed the Lone Fathers Association to provide friendship and support for each other and to lobby for changes to the Child Support Agency. We see the story through the eyes of Mick McGee who came to Moranbah with his family seven years ago and now finds himself alone and broke. He talks openly about his loss, confronting suicidal thoughts, and the friendships he has made with other men. This story challenges the stereotypes of the Australian working class bloke. PLUS: The Nun's Story: Sister Ella is an 80 year-old Perth nun who won't retire. When she was 60 she felt she was being called to go and work with Mother Theresa in Calcutta. Since then she has travelled to India many times, working with poor children. When Sister Ella is home in Perth she's busy raising funds and talking to school children about her travels. She now feels she's too old to go back to India but she is making one more trip in November and then she hopes to go on to revisit Ethiopia. PLUS: The Hard Sell: Pat Stewart has a magnificent obsession - collecting. He's even collected an entire museum along the way. But times are tough and his family have convinced him that the collection must be sold. Auction day has arrived and Pat must part with his treasures.
- Mother & Child: The story of a mother and daughter, separated for more than half a century, finally rediscovering each other. Norma Pearsons was only sixteen when she was raped by a stranger. She subsequently found she was pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in a Salvation Army home. Norma adored her baby but was forced by family pressure to give her up after six weeks. 51 years later her daughter, Jan Scott finally tracks her down and Australian Story witnesses the highly emotional reunion. PLUS: Personal Best: This is the story of Hamish McDonald, a young runner and shot putter preparing for the Atlanta Para-olympics. We observe him through the hardships and pressures of training at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra in the last few days of training before departing for America. Hamish has cerebral palsy which effects the function of his legs but he has become one of the best para-olympians in the world. Hamish was among the gold medal winners in Atlanta.
- Caroline Jones introduces Australian Story's first half hour special. Thirteen years ago a South Brisbane boarding house was destroyed in a blaze. It's a day Wendy Webster can never forget - her mother was one of the two killed in the fire. The day is also etched forever in the mind of Kevin Doherty. He lit the fire deliberately and for profit. Neither of their lives would ever be the same. Wendy spent years in desperation unable to accept what had happened. She found work and relationships impossible to manage. It wasn't until 6 years later, when someone was charged with the crime, that Wendy realised her mother had been the victim of murder. Kevin had spent the intervening 6 years expecting to be caught at any moment and doing battle with guilt and alcohol. His arrest came as a relief to him; he needed to be punished. Wendy felt that she could not go on with her life until some of her questions had been answered and only Kevin could do this for her. "I knew I had to see him, to know what he looked like". She contacted the prison and spoke with Gerald Palk who was with the Catholic prison ministry and later became a project officer with the restorative justice program; a program of mediation between victim and offender. After much consideration by the prison authorities, it was decided to allow Wendy and Kevin to meet. Wendy describes that first meeting: As I got up to him, I looked into his eyes for about 4 seconds and I saw this look of sheer terror .. a look I never want to see ever again, and I got my hands and held onto him and looked into his eyes and said - "It's okay, it's okay" and he broke down and cried and said - "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry". The story of this amazing relationship and the freedom that forgiveness brings to both Wendy and Kevin is the subject of this most unusual Australian Story.
- Medicine Man: This story is about Dr Miles Little who has just retired from his medical practice and as Professor of Surgery at Sydney University. Dr Little's approach to medicine was completely turned on its head after an encounter with a young teenager called Belinda. Little had to tell her that she had inoperable cancer. She sat up in bed, wept, put her arms around him and said, "Well doctor, what are WE going to do about it?". From that moment they had a partnership and together they beat the disease. Belinda is now a healthy young woman and we see her being reunited with Dr Little. Little wants to project the message of "scientist as poet" and of the absolute need for doctors to focus totally on their patient and what that patient is really saying and really needing. PLUS: Acting Up: This is a story about the township of Wynyard in Northern Tasmania and the residents' production of the annual concert. The doctor becomes the director, the electricians, shopkeepers and housewives become the stars, set designers and costume makers. It's all great fun and in the end, highly professional. We see the rehearsal, first night and the sad burning of the sets when it's all over for another year.
- Calling the Tune: Our program begins with an incredible story of one of Australia's most high profile Asian women. She is Donna Tsang, wife of the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney. Donna, who came to Australia from Taiwan at the age of 16, is the driving force behind Sydney's successful East West Orchestra, bringing together musicians from every possible background. Her story is inspirational because she describes herself as someone who used to be "afraid of the whole world". Now she says her husband says "the whole world is scared of me, because I drive them crazy". Donna also talks candidly about traditional Asian cultural values and her transformation from a submissive role to a liberated "western" lifestyle..something of which her husband has been very supportive, even though it's meant major changes in their marriage. PLUS: The Match Maker: Our second story is about thirty-five year old Simon Stein, who runs a picture framing business in Sydney's Marrickville. But for the last nine years, Simon has had an unpaid sideline...getting couples together by acting as a matchmaker. He has been phenomenally successful, claiming dozens of ongoing relationships, twenty five engagements and several marriages. Simon is motivated by his desire to see Jewish people marry within their own community and maintain their faith. He travels all around the country at his own expense organising meetings and dinners. He is an amusing and extroverted character...with a mass of anecdotes about the sensitive business of getting people together.
- Portrait of Mick Our first story is introduced by actor, Bill Hunter. One of Australia's best known and most controversial aboriginal leaders tells his own personal and painful story for the first time in a powerful and moving edition of Australian Story. Mick Dodson is a lawyer, best known through his work as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Social Justice Commissioner. He is a familiar figure on news programs where he is characterised as an angry and vocal spokesperson for the aboriginal cause. But he has never previously divulged very much about his own background and upbringing .. the key events in his life that have fuelled his anger and motivated him towards a key role in aboriginal affairs. Mr Dodson, and other family members, talk about the impact on the young Mick of the deaths, first of his father and then three months later, his mother, when he was just nine years old. He actually witnessed the shooting death of his father. "It fills me with sadness when I recall it, but I think the effects of that sort of trauma are lifelong and the secret is to come to terms with it, and know how to address it so that it doesn't dominate and dictate how you live your life .. but the hurt's still there, the pain's still there." Mick and his brother Pat were separated and fostered out to various relatives. Later they became the first and only aboriginal students at a boarding school in Victoria. "There were some tough times, particularly the first 18 months to 2 years. I had a really rough time there. I wanted to fight every bugger that called me names and stuff like that .. references to my ancestry." Pat went on to become a priest and later chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Mick became a lawyer and later director of the Northern Land Council. His public persona is often characterised as that of an "angry" or "difficult" man but Australian Story has captured a very different side as well. We have filmed him at home and at play with his young son and his wife, who is an anthropologist. We see him playing cricket and we join him as he has his portrait painted for an entry in the Archibald competition. We also join him in the Northern Territory on a visit to the family who raised him after he was orphaned. He talks about his regret that he doesn't know more about his own people and his own traditions. PLUS: A Woman's Voice Christine Johnston is a singer/performer with a talent for using her voice in an unconventionally way. Her performances range from putting her own dramatic spin on songs by the likes of Laurie Anderson, to vocally interpreting works of art, sculptures and peoples' hair styles. Christine takes much of her inspiration from the performances she and her siblings put on as children for family, school friends and neighbours. Christine never speaks during performances and has a high sense of drama, underscored subtly by an outrageous sense of humour and childs' play. A tall, striking woman, her attire is often hauntingly medieval - her hair usually teased into some grand and outrageous shape. Behind Christine's rather bizarre style of performance we discover a warm character, a nurturing family and her triumph over childhood shyness. She communicates with a charming and generous spirit conveying a gentle integrity that audiences find very refreshing.
- For the first time, Gina Rinehart, the only child of mining magnate Lang Hancock provides a candid insight into the multi generational family saga that has long fascinated Australians. She reflects openly about her childhood as the only heir of the man who was known as the King of the Pilbara .. at that time the richest man in Australia... and of being groomed to take over his business empire. She also canvasses the rift that developed when her father married Filipino socialite Rose Lacson and the reconciliation that occurred in the last few months of his life. She claims that her father was very unhappy and alone in the time leading up to his death. She says he revealed to her that his marriage was very unhappy. "I was always concerned about my father. I don't know what else I can say my reaction was. But I was certainly concerned for Dad. I wanted somebody in his life that would love him and would be a very good trustworthy friend and companion for him." Also interviewed, for the first time, is one of the new heirs, Mrs Rinehart's oldest son, 21 year old John Rinehart. John, back from several years overseas, is now being groomed to take over the family business in much the same way as Gina was by her father. At the time of Lang Hancock's death, his business affairs were in disarray. Mrs Rinehart talks about her restructuring of the "House of Hancock" over the last five years and her confidence in the future.
- Lady Jane: Racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse introduces the story of "Lady Jane" - Jane Slack Smith the twenty six year old girl from the bush who has become the first woman qualified to run an open cut coal mine in New South Wales. She earns $100,000 a year and when she's not in grubby overalls deep underground, she listens to Beethoven, owns a racehorse and does fund raising for the Royal Blind Society. The coalminers in the Hunter Valley dubbed her Lady Jane because of her flaming red hair and her posh private school background. Her parents, who breed thoroughbred racehorses on a farm outside Dubbo, were horrified when she first chose to take up mining engineering. So why did she want to work underground? Because, she says, she'd been told she couldn't do it. Until 1989 it was actually illegal for women to go underground in New South Wales and one of her university lecturers had said "women shouldn't be in mining". At first she met a lot of resistance. Some men refused to work with her and their wives were hostile too. But in time, Jane won acceptance and became a sort of unofficial counsellor and social worker among the miners, helping to organise things like open days for families. Now she's making her way up the corporate ladder at Ulan Mines near Mudgee in the Hunter Valley. As a graduate, she was always destined for management, but she has just spent ten months on the nightshift as one of the regular crew on the coalface. This is a profile of a truly remarkable and very engaging, young Australian woman on the cutting edge of social change. PLUS: The Good Sport: The story of Bill Brown, who along with Sir Donald Bradman is the last survivor of the famous Australian Ashes team of the 30's. Now in his eighties, Bill remains the embodiment of the old sporting virtues of modesty, fair play, and team spirit.
- Her Excellency: Australian television viewers who've enjoyed the behind-the-scenes action in the British documentary series The Last Governor get a rare chance to peek behind the velvet curtains of one of their own Government Houses. Queensland's outgoing Governor Leneen Forde relaxed normally strict protocols to allow Australian Story to film an intimate portrait which provides some illuminating and, occasionally, amusing insights into the role and lifestyle of a State Governor in the 1990s. Mrs Forde is only the second female Governor in Australia ... and the first woman to take on the role in Queensland. It was a controversial appointment. "I suspect there were some very conservative elements in this state that didn't approve of a woman having the position. It was a job that did belong to certain parts of society, and where had I come from, for goodness sake." Never afraid of speaking out on social issues, Mrs Forde has overcome some formidable hurdles in her unusual and colourful life. Born in Canada, she grew up near the Australian Embassy in Ottawa. A chance meeting on the ski slopes led to marriage to the son of a former Australian Prime Minister. "I always thought that my ambition in life was to marry Prince Charming and to live happily ever after." But Gerry Forde became ill and died leaving Leneen alone, at the age of 31, with five young children to care for. "I soon learned that I wasn't just mother to the children any more. I was mother and father. I had to make decisions that I formerly would have left to Gerry. I am much more like Gerry Forde used to be than I am like Leneen Cavanagh ... because I had to be both." At a time when women were still a rarity in the professions, she obtained a law degree and was eventually offered a partnership with a leading Brisbane law firm. With quiet determination and an irreverent sense of humour, Mrs Forde has consistently pushed the boundaries for women in public life. Also interviewed for this profile is the 'Vice-Regal Consort', retired NSW detective superintendent Angus McDonald. While Mrs Forde was the second female Governor in Australia, Mr McDonald was the first male spouse. Angus sees himself as part of a very nineties phenomenon ... retired, "unreconstructed" men whose wives now enjoy high professional status. Mrs Forde describes her second husband as her "bonus in life". They met in unusual circumstances, when he was involved in investigating the murder of her niece. PLUS: The Makeover Man: The outrageous story of Richard de Chazal, fashion designer, stylist, photographer, and Glamour Guru. Richard has forged an international reputation, winning fashion awards and making over celebrities such as Joan Collins. But his teenage years were spent in more modest circles. After a childhood in what was then Rhodesia, Richard was transported to remote, aesthetically-challenged Mt Isa. His obsession with glamour began as a rebellion against the laissez-faire approach to fashion in the outback. As a 16-year old school boy Richard shot to notoriety with his first fashion parade, held in the Mt Isa Civic Centre (our story will show surviving video footage of this seminal moment). Today, every bit as outrageous, he still sweeps back into town twice a year, when he administers back-to-back makeovers for the enthralled women of Mt Isa. Richard says he is perversely grateful to Mt Isa - by teaching him what true ugliness is, he learnt to appreciate beauty. Now he repays the town by transforming its ordinary citizens into paragons of glamour.
- A Wing and a Prayer The inspirational story of Marion McCall, wife of the Anglican Bishop of the Willochra area in South Australia. Her husband's diocese takes in nine tenths of the state. Three years ago as the youngest of her five children approached adulthood, Marion decided she needed a new challenge. Her husband was away a lot of the time driving round his vast diocese. So she hit on the idea of becoming a pilot so she could be with him and fly him around the bush. The idea captured the imagination of the local community who came up with the idea of purchasing shares in the Bishop's wife to raise the $10,000 or so needed for flying lessons. At first Marion was "scared to death" and convinced she was going to die every time she landed or took off. But now she is a qualified pilot and has obtained her night licence. Marion's next plan is to raise funds to buy a plane for the diocese. A charming but candid portrait of the life of the rural clergy and their continuing importance in the bush. PLUS: His Own Trumpet Singer and trumpeter Vince Jones is one of Australia's best known jazzmen. He's been performing and recording for years but has rarely talked about his private passion... the environment. Our story reveals a surprising serious side to Vince Jones ... not the Mr Cool of the late night jazz clubs but the committed greenie who puts his principles into practice ... sometimes at considerable personal cost and risk.
- The headlines spelled it out bluntly. "The public hanging of a rugby union coach" ... "Wallaby coach jumps ... before he was pushed." The epitaphs were being written for Greg Smith, the Shakespeare loving former English teacher, whose two year reign as coach of the national rugby union team had just come to an abrupt and ignominious end. But as the drama peaked, a team from Australian Story had already been behind the scenes filming for three weeks. The story they wanted was the universal, human story of a man and his family undergoing an agonising ordeal in the public spotlight against the backdrop of national sporting expectations and a very hostile press and public. Surprisingly, given the pressure he was under, Smith readily agreed to being shadowed by our team, here in Australia and overseas, as the Wallabies played two crucial matches (against the All Blacks and the Springboks) in the countdown to the ARFU Board meeting which was due to decide Smith's future. The result is a close up and intensely personal profile which reveals a very different Smith from the press caricatures. And for the first time, some of the personal stresses Smith was under in that critical three week period are revealed. Our story is not a sports profile, but a close up look at a man undergoing an agonising ordeal in the public spotlight against the backdrop of national sporting expectations and a very hostile press and public.
- The Comeback King: The World Masters of Business Conference in Australia last month attracted front page publicity all over Australia ... not least because of the presence of General Norman Schwarzkopf and other international guest speakers. But the best story of all was the one that wasn't told ... the story of the convicted bank robber who organised the whole extravaganza. His name is Graeme Alford. His story almost defies belief. Mr Alford was a successful Melbourne barrister but a weakness for alcohol and gambling brought him undone. Soon he was drinking 30 or 40 pots of beer a day, gambling away his money, and eating his way to a weight of nineteen stone. His need for money for his gambling debts led him to commit fraud and eventually armed robbery. At his lowest ebb, a prison psychologist described him as a tragic figure. He'd even been diagnosed with brain damage. He was a hopeless case. But it was actually in jail that he started to make his way back. He analysed what had gone wrong. He set himself goals and came up with a personal philosophy he called "mental toughness" ... a merciless regime of self improvement. He got his weight down, he got his IQ up, he kicked his alcohol dependency. The real struggles began when he got out of jail. But a decade or so later, Graeme Alford has made it back to the top of the heap. He's now remarried, prosperous, and in demand as a businessman and motivational speaker. PLUS: Out of the Blue: The amazing story of Dave Hole ....West Australian blues musician who has become a cult hero in America and Europe after spending most of his life in obscurity.
- Upon a White Horse: South Australian rider Gillian Rolton entered the history books at the Atlanta Olympics last year when she rode to gold in the three day event despite suffering fractured ribs and a broken collar bone in two falls on the cross country course. Her raw courage won the admiration of millions all around the world. But on Australian Story this week Gillian reveals the extent of a personal crisis that, this year for the first time, made her seriously consider abandoning the sport she has loved all her life. Gillian's close friend Anna Savage was killed at a three day event in May. Gillian was riding in the same competition and also had a fall that day. But while she survived unscathed, her friend was killed. "The realisation of Anna's death really made me for a few days sit down and reassess where I was coming from and what I was doing," she says. "For a few days there I certainly did think of giving it away but Greg (husband) and I talked about it and spoke about it and we thought, well Anna certainly wouldn't want us to not keep going." Ms Rolton also reveals the tough tactics of her coach, Wayne Roycroft. She discloses that he alone was unimpressed by her gallant ride at Atlanta. "He came up to me and he was absolutely like thunder. He said 'well, you couldn't help the first fall but why the (expletive), (expletive) did you come off the second time.' And I just sort of pulled my shirt back and there was this bone sticking up and he said 'oh mmm, you better get to the hospital then. But don't take any drugs, we'll probably need you to ride tomorrow." Roycroft says: "I didn't realise she was quite as seriously injured as she was until the doctor picked up her arm and I could hear her collarbone crunching, so then I felt a little bit bad about what I said to her." Gillian also talks about setting her sights on "a perfect round" at the Sydney Olympics even though her superb white horse Peppermint Grove will be too old to compete again. PLUS: As Time Goes By: Barclay Wright, owner of the only factory in the world which still makes piano rolls for pianolas in the traditional way. Barclay is so completely committed to keeping the tradition alive that he even sold the family home to keep the business going and turn it into a living museum.
- The story of David Byrne is one of the great untold stories of recent Australian history. David Byrne is the former Augustinian monk and Liberal Party politician, who in partnership with Noel Pearson, created the Cape York Land Council and changed the face of black politics in Australia. Until now Byrne has firmly refused to tell his own story but on Australian Story he recounts, for the first time, the details of his amazing journey from the monastery, through Parliament House and onto the wilderness of Cape York. In part, it's a great adventure story ... complete with hardship, strandings, encounters with crocodiles, culminating in Byrne's yacht running aground off Thursday Island. But at the heart of the story is the unlikely friendship between David Byrne and Noel Pearson .. the friendship that was to become the foundation for the immensely influential Cape York Land Council.
- The story of the embattled Melbourne waterfront.
- Colin Reynolds is an "ordinary" Sydney bus driver who has been on an extraordinary journey for the last few years.
- The story of a man, estranged from his tycoon father, who had the drive and talent to build an empire of his own but who, in the last few years, has managed to lose everything including his good name.
- Joe Bugner is one of the last survivors from the great days of boxing, when Muhammad Ali was King and Bugner was one of the few men to go the distance with him.
- Two years ago Lance Corporal Gerry Bampton was on board one of the Black Hawk helicopters which collided and crashed during a night counter terrorism exercise near Townsville.
- Actor Tom Burlinson introduces the story of the search for the "real" "Man from Snowy River", the poem which has become our best known and best loved piece of literature.
- Tony Cooke is the Secretary for the WA Trades and Labor Council. He is known to be a skilled moderator. Yet, for the past 35 years, Tony has lived with the knowledge that his father was the last man to be hanged in Western Australia.
- A young man who has been cutting million dollar business deals since he was in short pants.
- The Fishmonger's Son is the stranger than fiction story of a broadcaster and author Sandy McCutcheon. It is the story of one man's search for his real identity - and his eventual reunion with his long lost family.
- Two stories: Dame Rachel Cleland and one of the last drive-in theatres in Australia - The Heddon Greta Drive-In, outside Newcastle.
- Arthur gets a sitter for Maggie when he wants a night out with his ex-wife, Deirdre. Maggie scares the sitter away and she and Arthur quarrel. He still goes out, but so does Maggie, and she ends up at the same place as Arthur and Deirdre.
- Maggie arrives home in a garbage truck. Arthur, concerned for her welfare, asks Robert for financial assistance for someone to look after her during the day. Meanwhile, Maggie finds herself in a predicament at the police station.
- Arthur is planning a birthday dinner for Maggie and is shocked to discover there will be an additional guest, her boyfriend, Lionel. The ensuing dinner party is full of surprises.
- 1996– 28mTV EpisodeA Soldier's Story: Sir William Keys reflects on his use of Chinese medicine to combat his cancer. PLUS: Wild Stallion: Glen Innes farmer Robert Watchirs applies natural horsemanship techniques to catch and train a wild stallion in the bush. PLUS: Dante's Inferno: From Canberra, a look behind the scenes of Neil Cameron's spectacular production of Dante's Inferno featuring a huge amateur cast and real fire. The cast and crew overcome adverse weather to stage their poetic and inspiring work in an outdoor setting.
- The story of the famous McPherson family.