ABC Documentaries

Dr Philippa Uwins is currently battling a hostile international scientific community, desperately seeking funding for vital research and yet continuing to make breakthroughs in what has been called the 'Jurassic Park' of bacteria. Working on a routine consulting project for a petrolium company, Dr Uwins stumbled across mysterious structures measuring mere millionths of a millimetre in her rock samples. When she discovered the structures were not mineral, but biological, her nanobes became instant media celebrities. Is Dr Uwins on the trail of a revolutionary new life form, or are her "nanobes" literally too small to live? In years to come, will she be hearlded as a pioneer who unravelled a key to the secret to life, or just another in a long line of scientific 'crackpots'?

Fortress Australia uncovers one of the most extraordinary chapters in Australia’s history - the brazen attempt by successive Australian governments to fortress their nation with atomic weapons. Recently released top secret documents finally allow this astonishing story to be told. They reveal a web of intrigue, in which Australia’s nuclear industry became inextricably linked to a quest for atomic weapons technology. Set against a backdrop of cold war paranoia and fear of Asian aggression, Fortress Australia explores the motives of the politicians, defence chiefs and scientists who set out to buy, then ultimately build, a nuclear arsenal. From uranium exploration and guided weapons research to A-bomb tests on Australian soil, the film shows how Canberra aided both Britain and the United States in the hope of sharing their nuclear secrets. But it proved to be an extraordinary double-game in which both allies and enemies treated Australia with mistrust. This groundbreaking film penetrates the murky world of atomic espionage and counter-espionage. It exposes KGB infiltration of crucial political offices, which almost thwarted Australia’s nuclear ambitions. It also brings to light the secret role of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission in the quest for nuclear weapons — in particular, the ill-fated Jervis Bay Nuclear Reactor Project, which could have enabled Australia to build as many as 30 nuclear weapons a year.

The most controversial series in test cricket history. https://wayback.archive.org/web/20050320213240/http://abc.net.au/bodyline/

The journey of renowned Australian military photographer Sir Hubert Wilkins in a rusty WW1 submarine to the North Pole in 1931 truly is of the worlds greatest stories of adventure never told. It was an adventure that would be the crowning glory in an extraordinary life of exploration, science and discovery. Long before nuclear powered vessels would even contemplate such a voyage, Hubert Wilkins set out from New York aboard the outdated O-Class submarine Nautilus, of which he leased for a single dollar, towards the last unknown, the Arctic Ocean. The Nautilus expedition was a triumph of imagination and courage, decades ahead of its time. But it ended in mutiny and personal tragedy for Wilkins, destroying his reputation and sending him from the headlines to footnotes of history, his boat eventually scuttled off the coast of Norway. Only now, after two years of extensive research into a journey both amazing and tragic can the mysteries of the Nautilus expedition and Wilkins last great expedition finally be revealed. Complied from more than 20 hours of stunning archival footage, 250 still photographs and new footage filmed in the US, the North Pole, Norway, beneath the Arctic ice and in the Australian Outback, Voyage of the Nautilus is expertly narrated from Wilkins own personal journals by acclaimed actor Sam Neill to deliver a moving, inspirational and remarkable film experience.