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- Celebrating 10 years on air, ABC's award-winning Australian Story pays tribute to the hundreds of remarkable people who have told their poignant, funny and inspiring stories on the program over that time.
- A girl from a broken family lives a double life, running illegal immigrants from the Mexican border by night while holding down a regular job by day, until the illegal side takes over and a run gone wrong drives her to turn her life around and be the difference that brings closure to her own family.
- This week we're continuing our fifteenth anniversary countdown of some of the most memorable and popular episodes of Australian Story. We're featuring one story from every year and bringing you up to date with what's happened to people. This week, we conclude with the years 2003 to 2010. As you would expect, there's some laughter and some tears - but there are some big surprises too.
- A telemovie special on Mediacorp Suria which boasts an awesome lineup of talents from the Singapore Malay industry. An ensemble of 3 stories of individuals trying to fulfill their resolutions before the year ends. In search of love, redemption, aspiration and hope.
- "4: Clean Island" follows the story of "4," who dreams of immigrating to the Clean Island, which is the cleanest place in the world, as she shares the story about a special pig at a strange immigration checkpoint where people have to confess their sins in order to pass through.
- The story of historic 'Wooleen' and the young couple who live there drew a big reaction from viewers three years ago.
- Melissa Holland thought she was "lucky" when a last-minute seat became available for a getaway break on King Island with five nursing colleagues. It turned out to be the start of a tragic turn of events that changed her life forever.
- Ballina-based former police officer Lance Ferris dedicated his life to fixing the plight of the pelicans.
- When 74-year-old Caren Jenning smuggled a bottle of poison into Australia she had no idea of the horrors that would unfold. Did she and friend Shirly Justins participate in an act of mercy or murder?
- Continues the story behind one of Australia's most controversial murder trials - the trial of Caren Jennings and Shirley Justins for the death of Alzheimer's sufferer Graeme Wylie.
- When official investigations into the plane crash which killed his daughter Sally left questions unanswered, Shane Urquhart set out on a single minded mission that took him to the most powerful forums in the land.
- A lawyer and host broadcaster Susanna Lobez, well known in the legal fraternity as the host of ABC Radio National's "Law Report".
- Fred Hyde is an 81 year old dynamo from the Queensland bush who has single-handedly set up and maintained an organisation which is providing schools for thousands of children in the poorest area of Bangladesh.
- Embroiled in a campaign of war profiteering, the pirate Theolen Al-Amir encounters a sect of machine-venerating cultists led by the priestess Heironomyia Bosch. Fascinated by each others' motivations, ideological differences will test their alliance as the cultists' pilgrimage draws closer to their promised land - the holy world of Mars.
- Cold Wind in August centres on the baffling death of 15 year old Sydney schoolboy Eric Wilson in 1997.
- Getting on for a decade after his death, the legendary businessman Kerry Packer remains an intriguing and puzzling figure. Building on his father's success in the media industry, he dominated Australian TV and became the nation's richest person. His own son James is now following in his father's footsteps, extending the reach of the Packer empire around the world. But beneath the famous bravado and bluster of Kerry Packer, was there actually a very complex personality, at odds with the public image? Was he, as some say, a deeply conflicted man 'at war with himself'? In Monday's Australian Story, some of those who knew the tycoon well share their candid insights into the Packer paradox, the demons that drove him, and the 'deeply sentimental' side that was kept well out of the public gaze. The program features a wealth of rarely seen archival material and photographs.
- The legendary businessman Kerry Packer. Beneath the famous bravado and bluster was he actually a deeply conflicted, emotional man who spent his life 'at war with himself'? The program explores puzzling questions around a fatal road accident some sixty years ago that nearly ended Kerry Packer's life when he was just eighteen. It traces the decline of a man once seen as indestructible and tracks the spectacular rise of his son James under the strict tutelage of his father. Do the strong patterns of the past provide clues to the future of the Packers in the 2lst Century?
- Episode: (2014)2011–TV EpisodeFilmmaking legends Paul Thomas Anderson and Jonathan Demme pay tribute to Robert Downey Sr.'s cult classic Greaser's Palace, followed by an interview with Academy Award winning filmmaker Andrew Napier about his short film, Grandma's Not a Toaster, where a whiskey-guzzling mother-to-be aims to enlist her neurotic brother in attempt to thieve from their ailing grandmother's fortune. The short film plays after Napier's interview.
- Brooke Phillips is a weirdly happy serial killer who is being followed with a film crew to document her day-in-the-life story. As they continue with her throughout her day she is seen killing different people based on the logic that they are selfish and killing someone selfish isn't so bad. This is a bad example of someone gaining a true awareness but expressing their own selfishness as a solution.
- Marian Watson was a respected and high profile Canberra professional. She had been awarded the Order of Australia medal for her work as a drugs rehabilitation campaigner and administrator. But Marian Watson was living a double life.
- The Australian bush welcome extended to two families fleeing the troubles in Zimbabwe.
- When young trainee nurse Kylie Labouchardiere disappeared from Sydney five years ago, the lives of the people she left behind fell into disarray.
- The conclusion reveals the devastating impact of one man's crime and manipulations on Kylie Labouchardiere's family, his own wife and child, and an innocent policeman and his wife.
- Murray Rose was an inspiration for generations of Australians, in and out of the swimming pool where he won six Olympic medals. Yet despite his role building up the 'golden era' of the Australian swim team in the 1950s and 60s, the stories that emerged last year in the aftermath of his death surprised many younger people who had barely heard of him. Murray Rose personified many of the virtues of the Australian athlete: a good sport, a calm and collected mind under pressure and a consistent race winner. But it was his interests outside the pool that he claimed gave him a winning edge and helped focus his mind. He was a vegetarian and a follower of an Indian philosopher, long before such 'new age' ideas became fashionable. Before he died, Murray Rose was working on a candid memoir and in this program, some of the sport's biggest names and his close family members offer an insight into a man who, it transpires, was much more than a fast swimmer.
- Agony, ecstasy and unintended hilarity as a group of ordinary policeman are driven to the limits of endurance. They are attempting to become members of the Special Operations Group.
- For almost 10 years, Amaryllis Fox worked as a CIA operative in the Middle East fighting the war on terror. Now, Fox is a peace activist determined to return to the region without any government affiliations. Her goal is to make headway in ending the conflict there for good. Risking her life with every peace mission to Iraq, she leaves behind an 8-year-old daughter when she travels. For Fox, creating a safer world for her daughter to inherit may come with the ultimate sacrifice. This Great Big Film was made by Peter Berg's Film 45 and presented by CNN Films.
- The small rural community of Mingoola on the New South Wales-Queensland border was facing a bleak future. The population was in decline and the local primary school was about to close. Julia Harpham and other locals vowed to do something about it. Meanwhile in Western Sydney, refugee advocate Emmanuel Musoni saw problems affecting people in his community who'd come from war-ravaged countries of central Africa. Many of them had rural backgrounds and were struggling to adapt to an urban lifestyle. When Julia and Emmanuel were put in contact late last year, they saw a solution to both their problems. The Mingoola community set about renovating several abandoned farmhouses and arranging job opportunities, and in April the first African families moved to the area. Emmanuel describes it as a "meeting of dreams". For the Africans it offered a return to their roots; for the farmers it would provide an injection of life into their community. Many now believe the Mingoola model could be used to help struggling rural communities across the country.
- Australian Story goes to the Victorian city of Bendigo, which has been the flash point for a series of protests against the building of a mosque. Colourful local business identity, Margot Spalding is leading a campaign to support Bendigo's small Muslim community and to "fight back against intolerance and hate". A former Telstra Business Woman of the year, 62-year-old Spalding, who co-founded Jimmy Possum furniture has known both personal tragedy and early business hardship. Today she is the matriarch of a multi-million dollar company that employs more than 100 people. Spalding is known as much for her flamboyant style as she is for her philanthropy. Despite being the target of hate mail and having her home under police surveillance, Spalding says she will continue to campaign for the rights of Muslim people to have their own place of worship.
- Simon Tedeschi is famous as Australia's pint-sized piano prodigy.
- Former Olympian Raelene Boyle introduces this Australian Story, about long time friend and surfing legend Kim McKenzie.
- As one of Australia's first Indigenous doctors Mark Wenitong combines his skills as a physician and a musician to fight ill health in Far North Queensland, including a looming Ice epidemic. His greatest role model was his mother Lealon who in the 1950s and '60s fought against the odds to become a pioneering Indigenous health worker. Despite his dedication to his medical work, Mark Wenitong describes himself as primarily a musician, a talent he has passed on to all his children. Daughter Naomi rose to prominence as half of successful duo Shakaya while eldest son Joel is also a successful musician. But a terrible car crash plunged the family into crisis. Naomi nearly died and the trauma for Joel, who'd been driving, led him to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor. Australian Story follows the Wenitongs as they continue to work in music and medicine within both the Indigenous and wider community.
- A League of His Own: This story is an unusual and revealing look at the personal side of a normally very private individual. Ken Cowley is Rupert Murdoch's top man in Australia for News Limited, and is the chairman of Ansett. We join him in the Queensland outback where he talks about his passion for the bush, his love of roses, and his long-standing friendship with the legendary R.M Williams. He reveals major turning points in his life, and provides insight into his business life and his relationships with Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan. The guest presenter for this story is Lachlan Murdoch. PLUS: Twilight Rebel: This is a story about a man who could not be more removed from the corporate manouverings of News Limited. His name is Harry Reade. He's a pensioner and he lives on a small boat. Reade is a passionate old leftie...a former cartoonist, children's author and revolutionary who went to Cuba to fight with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
- Women have been playing Australian Rules Football in local clubs for decades but that's as far as they've been able to go. Now this is all about to change, with the launch of a National AFL Women's League in February 2017. A driving force behind this revolution is Western Bulldogs vice-president Susan Alberti. The businesswoman and philanthropist has been a tireless advocate for women's AFL and a vocal critic of those she considers disrespectful to women. Susan Alberti is a great supporter of female players and one of the stars of the game she has come to admire is marquee Collingwood player, Moana Hope. With her signature pearls and designer handbag, Susan Alberti would seem very different to the tattooed, shaved-haired Moana Hope. But as Australian Story reveals, the two women have more in common than meets the eye.
- Richard Flanagan is a Rhodes Scholar, an adventurer, and an internationally acclaimed author. But in his own home state of Tasmania, he's been accused of treachery because of his environmental activism.
- When Lisa Poulos stepped into a Melbourne taxi six years ago, she had no idea how her life was about to turn upside down. To that point she appeared to her friends to be the woman who had everything. But when her taxi was involved in a minor accident that day in Melbourne, it set off a dramatic series of events, eventually revealing a dark truth that nobody knew was there. It gave Lisa Poulos the idea to turn her bad fortune into something positive. As a prominent player in the fashion world, she decided to use her contacts to create a project which would help other women facing the same difficulties. But first she had to get used to the idea of laying her life bare.
- Michael Willesee dominated Australian current affairs television for nearly three decades. For a long time everything he touched, inside and outside the media industry, turned to gold, seemingly without much effort on his part. In the late eighties, after a couple of highly publicised controversies, he walked away from his on camera life and pursued a number of outside business interests including a thoroughbred horse stud. The son of a Whitlam Government Cabinet Minister, Sen. Don Willesee, young Michael says he fell into journalism by accident. Now in his late fifties, twice divorced, father of five and grandfather of one, Michael Willesee seems to be engaged on his own search for meaning. He is increasingly committed to making documentaries about subjects he considers important.
- A little known horse breeder from Gunnedah - Bridget "Bud" Hyem - the woman behind two of Australia's most successful horses.
- For three decades Peter Dawkins was the man Australian singers relied on to turn their music into chart-topping, record-breaking hits.
- When Rosie Ayliffe's only child, Mia Ayliffe-Chung, was murdered last August in a Queensland backpacker hostel it made headlines around the world. The 20-year-old was killed along with fellow British backpacker Tom Jackson, who heroically came to Mia's aid. Both had embarked on the 88-day farm work scheme in order to secure a second year in Australia on their 417 visa. Not long after Mia died, Rosie discovered widespread sexual, financial and psychological exploitation on the scheme and felt the need to act. She does not want Mia's death to be futile and is campaigning to make the 88-day farm work scheme safe for backpackers. She wants to ensure that no other parent lives through what she and the Jacksons have endured. We follow her story from the rolling hills of Derbyshire in the UK to the tiny Queensland town of Home Hill as she makes an emotional return to the hostel where her daughter died.
- Andrew 'Boy' Charlton was only 16 when he sliced two minutes off the world record for the 1500m freestyle, and won Australia's first gold medal in that event at the Paris Olympics in 1924.
- An Olympic champion so seemingly without ego that even his son and grandsons knew very little of his fame. Andrew 'Boy' Charlton was a hero who stamped his name across the world, with feats so marvellous he forged Australia's national spirit at a time when the nation was beleaguered by the Depression and the losses of the Great War. At just 16, he sliced two minutes off the world record for the 1500m freestyle, and won Australia's first gold medal in that event at the 1924 Paris Olympics. It was the beginning of a dynasty of Australian swimmers - Murray Rose, John Konrads, Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett - who later made the 1500m 'Australia's event'. But then at the height of his fame, and when Hollywood movie offers were there for the taking, 'Boy' Charlton retired to the bush, with no desire to perpetuate his name. Now a new generation is rediscovering this great Australian - a man called 'Boy'.
- Wayne Bennett is coach of the Rugby League Premiers, the Brisbane Broncos and is generally regarded as one of the most interesting and enigmatic figures in Australian sport.
- The days of collecting the morning paper from the front lawn are ending. News of all kinds is available anytime on dazzling digital platforms. For some it's a new world of boundless opportunity; for others, the end of a proud tradition. Australia's oldest media outlet, the Fairfax owned Sydney Morning Herald, is facing the most turbulent period in its near 200 year history. Amidst financial upheaval and serious job losses a new business model is emerging. This week's episode goes inside the Sydney Morning Herald as staff wait for the white redundancy envelopes which will reveal who is staying and who's out the door. Caught at the centre is veteran reporter Malcolm Brown, a man who has covered some of the biggest stories of the last four decades, but now finds himself somewhat out of step with the times.
- Captain Hec Waller and Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean both saw service during the darkest days of the Japanese advance towards Australia during World War II. Despite their heroism neither was ever nominated for the Forces' highest accolade, the Victoria Cross.
- When the young thespians of Jefferson Middle School discover their staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" falls short of the avant-garde brilliance showcased by a rival performing arts academy, they embark on a madcap journey to overhaul their production on the fly.
- Four popular and talented veterans of Australian Story get together to stage a once in a lifetime concert.
- Federal Labor MP Belinda Neal, speaks about the events of of the last few months, her reputation, and her marriage.
- Award winning television journalist Sara James was living the dream as an anchor and foreign correspondent for American network NBC. She'd lived in New York for fifteen years and reported from around the world including the war zones of Somalia, Sudan and in the Middle East. Then she met and married another high flyer, Australian journalist Andrew Butcher, who worked closely with Rupert Murdoch as his corporate affairs manager. But with the birth of their second daughter came a curve ball. Baby Jacqui didn't cry and was having multiple seizures. 'Your baby has a bad brain' said the medical specialist. A nurse took Sara aside and said 'they don't always know you know. Your baby has bright eyes. Don't give up.' To the amazement of their friends, the Butchers abandoned Manhattan, scooped up their family and moved to the Macedon Ranges outside Melbourne. There they embraced an entirely new way of life as they started to unlock the mysteries of Jacqui's distressing and taxing condition.
- When Tan Le was just four years old she fled Vietnam in a boat with her mother. They endured a dangerous and terrifying voyage before eventually being accepted into Australia as refugees. They had no money, no possessions and no male breadwinner. But both Tan Le and her mother Mai have achieved personal success. Mai was last year voted mayor of Maribyrnong. Tan is in the last year of a law degree. Both have made outstanding contributions of their local community as volunteer workers. Tan is an enthusiastic AFL supporter and is the Bulldogs No.1 ticket holder. Receiving her Young Australian of the Year Award, Tan paid tribute to the acceptance she and her family had received in Australia. "I accept this award as a young Australian on behalf of all Australians and on behalf of all those who have been welcomed and on behalf of all those who continue to welcome," she said. "We are all Australians. We can all be proud of it and work towards a country that accepts everyone, not for the way they look or because they are wealthy or successful but, because of the person they are. And when we have that as a fundamental benchmark I think Australia can be a much better place." PLUS: Top Brass: One hundred years ago Bill and Charles Downing forged a business that has been passed from father to son, and relies solely on good, old-fashioned values and quality workmanship. Alderice Brassfounders survived the Depression, and two world wars, and recently the company held its Centenary celebrations in Warrnambool, Victoria. The business has occupied the same building since 1920, with virtually no modern equipment and only the occassional lick of paint - even the receptionist has been with Alderice for 52 years. This is a lovely story about an enduring family tradition, defying the forces of economic rationalism.
- The story of former model and TV presenter Patrice Newell and her decision - together with her partner, Phillip Adams - to move to a ten thousand acre beef cattle property in the Hunter Valley, where they now also grow olives.