Episodes

  • High-country living, the Coolamine Homestead - Kosciuszko National Park [AH012]
    Mar 15 2023

    Coolamine Homestead is a wonderful example of a heritage homestead and it can be found on the Cooleman Plains in Kosciuszko National Park.

    It is a rare, surviving example of a permanent pastoral outstation that retains hand built slab buildings and yards.

    National Parks info - https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/historic-buildings-places/coolamine-homestead

    Artisans of Australia, film about the restoration work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoTnER4Efg

    All modern photographs of the site © Andrew Hennell, used with permission.

    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • NSWGR 6029 Beyer Peacock Garratt steam locomotive [AH016]
    Mar 13 2023

    6029 is a four-cylinder, simple, non-condensing, superheated, articulated 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt steam locomotive, of the AD60 class, built by Beyer, Peacock and Company, Manchester, England, for the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR).

    Show More Show Less
    8 mins
  • Destroyed - The rise and fall of Australia's Wonderland theme park [AH015]
    Mar 13 2023

    Australia's Wonderland officially opened on 7 December 1985. Over the next 18 years it grew to be one of Sydney's most popular and loved attractions, before the new owners simply closed it. Find out how and why, and leave a comment if you ever visited Australia's Wonderland.

    Show More Show Less
    10 mins
  • War comes to Australia - the Japanese attack on Sydney and Newcastle [AH014]
    Mar 12 2023

    In late May and early June 1942, during World War II, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines made a series of attacks on the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.

    Visit Australian War Memorial - https://www.awm.gov.au/visit

    Royal Australian Navy Naval Heritage Centre - https://www.navy.gov.au/ran-heritage-centre

    Fort Scratchley - https://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/fort-scratchley/fort-scratchley-home

    More information

    Navy - https://www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/japanese-midget-submarine-attack-sydney-harbour

    Sea Museum - https://www.sea.museum/2017/06/14/midget-submarine-attack-on-sydney-31-may-1-june-1942

    ANZAC Memorial - https://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/our-stories/our-stories/japanese-submarines-sydney-harbour

    Woolahra council - https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/library/local_history/world_war_2/stories_from_woollahra/shelling_of_the_eastern_suburbs

    A brilliant book on the subject is 'A Very Rude Awakening - The Night The Japanese Midget Subs Came To Sydney Harbour' by: Peter Grose - https://amzn.to/3HrFJy0

    Show More Show Less
    7 mins
  • From sheep farm to leading astronomy centre - Parkes radio telescope [AH013]
    Mar 11 2023

    The CSIRO's Parkes Radio Telescope was commissioned on a former sheep farm in 1961. It was the most advanced radio telescope on the planet at the time, with many innovative features that have since become standard in all large-dish antennas, and it has maintained it's cutting edge technology and research ever since.

    Based in part on an article by John Sarkissian, CSIRO, first published in The Conversation, and on our own research.

    Visitors Centre - https://www.csiro.au/en/about/facilities-collections/atnf/parkes-radio-telescope/parkes-observatory-visitors-centre/hours-location

    How the Parkes dish works - https://research.csiro.au/pulseatparkes/parkes-radio-telescope/

    Parkes shire visitors centre - https://www.parkes.nsw.gov.au/tourism

    Show More Show Less
    7 mins
  • Canberra Bushfires 2003 – how it happened
    Jan 28 2023

    The 2003 Canberra bushfires caused severe damage to the suburbs and outer areas of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, during 18–22 January 2003. Almost 70% of the Australian Capital Territory's (ACT) pastures, pine plantations, and nature parks were severely damaged, and most of the Mount Stromlo Observatory was destroyed. After burning for a week around the edges of the ACT, the fires entered the suburbs of Canberra on 18 January 2003. Over the next ten hours, four people died, over 490 were injured, and 470 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, requiring a significant relief and reconstruction effort.

    With actual video of firefighters dealing with the firestorm as it hit.

    Show More Show Less
    8 mins
  • The day NASA hit Australia
    Jan 28 2023

    12 July 1979, the burning wreckage of a space station the size of a three-bedroom house hurtled towards the west coast of Australia.

    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • Australia's homegrown fighter that couldn't fight, the CAC boomerang
    Jan 28 2023

    The Commonwealth Boomerang was designed and built in Australia in response to the impending Japanese invasion of the Australian mainland. It's main issue was that it sucked as a fighter! But it could attack the ground, and found a use in the war.

    Show More Show Less
    7 mins