Australian Story

Saul Griffith is a prolific inventor, an engineer and a successful entrepreneur. His bold ideas on energy caught the eye of the US president and helped shape the ground-breaking climate legislation that passed there late last year. Now he’s returned home after two decades in the US and has joined with his community near Wollongong, south of Sydney, in an ambitious project to electrify homes in his suburb and power them with renewables. If successful, the pilot project will prove that household electrification is a potential solution to an urgent problem.

Many parents will tell you they’re worried their children are spending too much time playing video games and are desperate about what to do.   Wayne Warburton, a plumber-turned-psychologist, reckons he can help.  Together with German researchers, Dr Warburton, from Macquarie University, has devised a three-month program to help the  minority of teenagers who are gaming excessively. Australian Story has gained exclusive access to follow two teenage boys as they embark on the program, the first of its kind in Australia, and  try to take control of their gaming habits and their lives. But will it work? 

Underwater explorer and trailblazing conservationist, Valerie Taylor’s life has been one big adventure. The woman in the pink wetsuit burst onto our TV screens in the 1960s, stunning viewers with rare images of the ocean world. Valerie’s work with sharks is legendary and her advocacy relentless. She’s swum with the most feared sharks in the world and on the rare occasions she’s been bitten, has dived right back in. With her cinematographer husband, the late Ron Taylor, Valerie famously worked with director Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jaws, capturing thrilling images of great white sharks in the wild. This two-part special takes a deep dive into Valerie’s remarkable life, revealing precious home movies from Valerie’s childhood and behind the scenes footage from her most influential films.

Continuing the story of the remarkable life of Valerie Taylor, the celebrated underwater filmmaker and shark conservationist. By the 1970s, Valerie and her cinematographer husband, the late Ron Taylor, had an international reputation for filming with dangerous sharks and were hired by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg to film great white sharks for the blockbuster, Jaws. Behind-the-scenes footage tells the story of how Ron captured dramatic pictures of a great white and how the film's stuntman came close to dying. But Jaws' mega success was bad news for sharks and threatened to undo Valerie's message that they weren't the enemy. Even after her first serious shark bite, which we see on film, Valerie stepped up her campaign to protect the grey nurse and other marine animals. Now 87, Valerie is still fighting to protect the marine world and her work is inspiring a new generation of ocean lovers.

At 50, actor and producer Claudia Karvan is at the peak of her powers. She’s currently getting rave reviews for her first stage performance in 25 years and is working on a new season of the award-winning TV show, Bump, which she co-created, co-produces and stars in. Karvan has been in the public eye since her first movie at the age of 10. But behind the scenes of her long and successful career, Karvan has also been managing a sometimes chaotic family life. A remarkably candid Karvan talks about growing up around her mother and stepfather’s King Cross nightclub and her transition from childhood actor to adult star. She also reveals the mental health issues in her family and speaks publicly for the first time about her difficult relationship with her biological father, who died last year.

When the Taliban took back power in Afghanistan in 2021, a mother and son in suburban Sydney embarked on an audacious and improbable rescue. Mahboba Rawi and her son, Sourosh Cina, were desperate to evacuate children and staff from the orphanages they founded in Afghanistan. They were certain their association with Australia and their advocacy of women’s rights would make them a target of the Taliban. Australian Story was on the spot to record dramatic scenes in the family’s lounge room, as the pair’s attempts to remotely engineer a high stakes rescue collapsed at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Finally, more than a year after the Taliban victory, they’ve managed to successfully transfer almost 100 children and carers to Australia.

Mick O’Dowd has survived the unthinkable. Four years ago, he contracted a sepsis infection and nearly died. He paid a high price to live: the amputation of his limbs. Three years since first speaking with Australian Story, Mick O’Dowd and his family reveal how far they’ve come: Mick is gradually gaining some independence, chaperoning the kids to their after-school activities and learning to drive again. And he’s back doing some of the things he loves - swimming, scuba diving and even sailing!

When Jessica Watson sailed back into Sydney Harbour in 2010 after completing her solo non-stop voyage around the world, she was still only 16 years old. But the huge public attention her feat attracted would change her life forever. Not entirely comfortable with fame, Jessica worked hard to create a normal life away from the spotlight and built a new career as a management consultant. Meeting her partner Cameron while sailing the Sydney to Hobart yacht race meant she was no longer travelling solo and the couple built a life together in Melbourne. But in 2021 tragedy struck and Jessica had to negotiate her grief by drawing on some of the lessons learned during her epic voyage.

From accidental activist to Parliamentary liaison, young farmer Kate McBride has come a long way in four years. In 2019, Kate alerted the world to mass fish kills in the Darling River via a video she filmed of her distressed father holding a dead Murray Cod. To Kate’s surprise, she soon became the face of efforts to save the Darling River and was tipped as a future leader. Now aged 25, Kate McBride has left her family farm near Menindee in western NSW and taken a job with a public policy think tank in Canberra where she’s an advocate for the bush. Kate has also been dealing with a personal dilemma – questions around the succession of her family’s property. It’s been brought on by generational differences over how best to manage the land in a time of climate change.

At 64, acclaimed actor Heather Mitchell is enjoying some of the biggest roles of her career. She recently reunited with friend and long-time collaborator Hugo Weaving in the successful TV series Love Me. Mitchell's performance as the late US Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in the play RBG: Of Many, One was a sell out and won her standing ovations. But behind the scenes, as Australian Story found out, Heather's life has taken many dramatic twists and turns.

One woman’s decades-long quest for justice. Beth Heinrich was permanently changed by what she experienced as a teenager. Now in her 80s, she’s spent almost half her lifetime chasing the Anglican Church to right past wrongs.

It's not every day a mother volunteers to give birth to her daughter's child. But that's the gift 52-year-old Jasmina offered to her daughter Michelle and husband Jono. Incredibly, Jono's sister Sophie, a mother of three, also stepped up to be a surrogate for the couple, who've battled with infertility for years. They resolved to help after Michelle lost a baby boy at 19 weeks, and nearly died during childbirth. Commercial surrogacy is illegal in Australia meaning it's only possible if somebody volunteers. Michelle and Jono, both 31, are now the proud parents of two baby boys, who were born within 6 weeks of each other. They want to share their story in the hope of opening up a conversation about infertility and the trauma that goes with it.

A remarkable look behind the scenes of Australia's first psychedelic-assisted therapy trial. Lindy Bok is one of 35 participants in a Melbourne study looking at whether psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, combined with psychotherapy, can relieve mental anguish in the terminally ill. Lindy, who has stage four breast cancer, is filmed as she undergoes an intense psychedelic experience under the care of two therapists, Dr Margaret Ross and Dr Justin Dwyer. For Lindy the experience was confronting, emotionally exhausting but ultimately life changing. Ross and Dwyer explain why they believe psilocybin is so effective but caution that this treatment must be managed carefully.

On Easter Saturday, 95-year-old artist John Olsen made the final touches to four paintings and feeling unwell, laid down his paintbrush for the last time. A stroke had finally felled the old master. On the day of his state funeral, Australian Story revisits the Olsens, a family forged by their father's passion and drive for painting. As John became a darling of the art world in the 60s and 70s, his obsessive focus on dedication to his work often cast a long shadow on those around him. Months after his death, the Vivid festival of light will pay tribute to John Olsen, projecting his art onto the "greatest blank canvas on earth" — the sails of the Sydney Opera House. His children, Tim and Louise Olsen, will be there to marvel at his achievements and celebrate the life that has shaped them.

Mick Curran and Jamie Teh are lifelong friends who share a love of music and technology. They're also blind. Both computer programmers, the pair saw an injustice they wanted to fix: vision-impaired people have to buy expensive screen-reading software to access computers and the online world. Their screen-reader is now used across 175 countries and has been translated into 50 languages. And despite the potential to cash in on their innovation, they've kept it free for all.

Once dubbed Australia’s worst female serial killer, Kathleen Folbigg has now been set free after a decade-long campaign by friends, lawyers and scientists. She has always claimed her innocence. Australian Story has followed the twists and turns of Folbigg’s story since she was convicted of killing her four children in 2003. In 2004, in a two-part series we spoke with the two detectives who investigated her case and with Folbigg’s friends and family. In 2018 Australian Story produced a program which helped kickstart the scientific research which ultimately freed her. After numerous appeals and two independent inquiries, former NSW Chief Justice Thomas Bathurst this week found there was a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Ms Folbigg for each of the offences for which she was tried. She was pardoned.

Confronting family secrets can be difficult but for Hugh can Cuylenburg, it was the key to setting him free. Hugh is known as the founder of the Resilience Project and co-host of the hit podcast, the Imperfects. For years he’s helped students and sports people learn simple strategies to prepare them for life’s ups and downs, winning fans with his self-deprecating storytelling. Underpinning Hugh’s work was his own family’s experience with mental illness; his sister Georgia battled an eating disorder from her early teens. Then Hugh hit his own mental health hurdle and he realised he had to untangle his complex relationship with Georgia and make amends.

When Megan Davis was 12 years old, her mother brought home a second-hand book with a copy of the Constitution at the back. The Indigenous girl in the housing commission home fell in love with the document. 30 years on, Megan, now a lawyer, is one of the driving forces behind the Voice referendum, a proposal to enshrine in the Constitution the right of First Nations’ people to have a say on laws that affect them. Megan believes having a Voice to Parliament will give her people the power to improve their lives. As the campaign picks up pace, she knows the stakes are high.

A woman of the wild, a beacon of resilience, a force of nature. Gina Chick's formidable skills and fearlessness captured the attention of the public when she spent 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness and won the SBS series Alone Australia. Now the 53-year-old unlikely TV star shares how connecting with nature helped her through life’s darkest moments, including the devastating loss of her daughter, Blaise. Gina says that connecting with nature helps build the skills to live a more fulfilling life. And her message is striking a chord with the public. She now runs bush retreats for adults and children. Australian Story documents a mini Alone, a retreat where women spend days by themselves in the bush with water and bedding and nothing else but their thoughts.

Erica Packer reveals a mystery plaguing her family – will she be the next woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer? Doctors say Erica is right to be worried. A family tree highlights the majority of women on her mother’s side have died from the disease, but no-one knows the cause. Her sister, Jo Hunter, was diagnosed at the age of 39, the same year their mother died after 12 years of treatment for breast cancer. She also lost her aunt and grandmother and many cousins in the older generations. The ex-model is the former wife of James Packer, one of Australia’s richest men and they share three children. Erica and her sister are supporters of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which funds scientific research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. There, scientists and doctors are looking at pinpointing the hereditary genes responsible for breast cancer plaguing thousands of Australian families.

Foreign correspondent Dean Yates had a reputation for being indestructible. But reporting from war zones came at a personal cost, and his own family became collateral damage. When two of his Baghdad staff were gunned down by American soldiers in 2007, Dean’s robust exterior started to crumble. In the years after Wikileaks ‘Collateral Murder’ video exposed the truth about the men’s death, Dean’s mental health deteriorated. He was diagnosed with PTSD and a “moral injury”, the harm caused when there’s a moral dimension to a person’s trauma. Dean is now determined to share his experience of trauma in the workplace to raise awareness and bring about a permanent change in attitudes.

When three Newcastle schoolboys became overnight rockstars in 1994, their world exploded. And Silverchair, one of Australia's most successful bands, was born. At the age of 15, best mates Daniel Johns, Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou were living the dream — touring the world, topping the charts, winning awards. The band played for more than 15 years and won more ARIA awards than any other Australian band. Five albums reached number one. But their fame and success came with intense pressure and scrutiny. Old friendships became strained. Until now, much of the spotlight has been on former frontman Daniel Johns. In this first of two parts, Ben and Chris tell the Silverchair story as they see it.

In part 2 of the Silverchair story, it’s 2007 and the hit rock band from Newcastle is back at the top of the charts with a new album and hit single. But as they tour their fifth album, the relationships between band members are stretched to breaking point. Finally, in 2011, the band calls it quits. Drummer Ben Gillies and bass player Chris Joannou struggle to adapt to life after Silverchair. Chris is running a restaurant when he is hit with a devastating diagnosis. Ben confronts his alcoholism and gradually conquers his anxiety. Now the duo has co-written a book and say the process has helped them heal some of their old wounds.

Five years ago, Sam Elsom shocked his friends and family when he quit his job as a fashion designer to set up a seaweed farm in Tasmania, inspired by the potential of a special strain to radically reduce methane emissions in livestock. Two weeks ago his company was named as a finalist in one of the world’s most prestigious environmental prizes, Earthshot, founded by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough. The dividend, a year’s mentoring by billionaire Michael Bloomberg and the chance to compete for the big prize in November. And the global recognition has come at just the right time. Having built a state-of-the-art lab, trialled his special seaweed-based feed and had it adopted by a national burger chain, Sam has now reached a crunch point. With a million doses on the shelf, can he generate enough interest to get farmers and government on board?

Fiona MacDonald knows that time is running out, but she's not sitting still. Against all advice, the former TV personality set off earlier this year on a "Thelma and Louise" style road trip around Australia with her sister Kylie Thynne. Almost two years ago, at the age of 64, this bubbly extrovert was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, an illness which robs its victims of speech, mobility and eventually their lives. It's a disease with no cure. Determined to make the most of what time she has left, Fiona is raising awareness of the disease and money for MND research as she circumnavigates the country. Australian Story follows the sisters on this heart-warming, funny and emotional journey of a lifetime.

Acclaimed actor Sam Neill was at the top of his game when a sore neck prompted a visit to the doctor. A shock diagnosis followed, with Sam rushed into treatment for an aggressive blood cancer. Now in remission, Sam reveals the experience forced him to confront his mortality. He put pen to paper to document his life, hoping to capture his memories for his children and grandchildren. Now his biggest fear is the ‘r’ word. Sam is now back acting and making wine at his beloved New Zealand vineyard.

When broadcaster and comedian Sami Shah met academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert through a dating app, they were both piecing their lives back together. She was coming to terms with her recent release from an Iranian prison and the discovery her husband had left her for one of her colleagues while she was in detention. He was recovering from being dumped from his ABC Melbourne radio show and the collapse of his second marriage. Thrown together by Melbourne’s long Covid lockdown, they both had to learn to trust again. But love blossomed and they recently celebrated the birth of a baby girl.

Gregory Smith’s story is a powerful demonstration that no matter how desperate a person’s situation may seem, redemption is always possible. When Australian Story first filmed with Gregory Smith in 2018, he had just completed a PhD, a stunning achievement for a man who had spent much of his life homeless and addicted to alcohol and drugs. Five years on, his remarkable transformation continues. He works as a university lecturer and advises a number of organisations on issues around homelessness, contributions which were recognised this year when he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. He has also found love and lives with his new partner in Orange, NSW. In 2022, at the age of 66, he welcomed a baby son into the world.

What ever happened to Elle McFeast? The trailblazing comic character burst into football locker rooms and onto our TV screens in 1991 on the ABC’s Live and Sweaty program, shocking audiences with her mix of saucy humour and rollicking social satire. The anarchic alter ego of entertainer Libbi Gorr, McFeast was born from a desire to push back on the Elle McPherson supermodel stereotype of what a woman should be. As McFeast’s reputation grew, she became one of the first female tonight show hosts in the country. But in 1998, Libbi Gorr’s career took a tumble when her live interview with self-confessed killer Mark ‘Chopper’ Read triggered a wave of outrage. In a candid interview, Gorr talks about that notorious interview, the identity crisis that followed and why, at the age of 58, she’s embarking on a new adventure as morning host of a new digital radio station.

It’s not as though Brett Yang and Eddy Chen planned to turn their act, TwoSet Violin, into a global disruptor of classical music. They barely had a plan at all. But when they threw in their coveted jobs as violinists with two of Australia’s leading orchestras in late 2016, they knew they wanted to do classical music differently. Blending their impressive performance talents with comedy, the pair began to make videos for YouTube, inspired by their experiences of the highs and lows of life as a musician. They’ve now amassed millions of social media fans, are playing sellout concerts around the world and bringing new audiences to classical music.

When Elly-May Barnes was born into rock music’s most famous family, she was 14 weeks premature and given only a 50/50 chance of survival. At 3, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. She’s endured a lifetime of medical procedures which she thought would limit her musical career to being a backup singer for her father. Now at 34, Elly-May Barnes is stepping out as a solo cabaret artist – and an advocate for people with disabilities.

After her father’s death, comedian Annie Louey finds his old briefcase and uncovers a decades old secret. Inside are hundreds of black and white photographs, passports, letters and library cards belonging to two girls who looked a lot like her. It didn’t take long to realise her father had a secret family. Angry he kept this part of their family hidden, Annie is driven to find her half-sisters and make peace. She may be her fathers’ daughter, but unlike him Annie has chosen to live life like an open book. The stand-up comedian uses the stage to laugh off family secrets and uncomfortable truths.

It is risky and untested treatment. It could shorten his life or make it a whole lot worse. But it’s a risk Professor Richard Scolyer is willing to take, desperate to try and save his own life. As the world’s top melanoma pathologist, Richard is an expert in diagnosing skin cancers, and helped revolutionise immunotherapy treatment for advanced melanoma patients, removing the death sentence so many once faced. But now the acclaimed doctor is facing his own mortality. Richard had a choice, prepare for the worst or put his hand up to be patient zero as his colleagues design a high stakes experiment to fight his brain tumour, using the very treatment they have pioneered for melanoma.