Stories in Australia's History

Here is a video collection of stories about Australia, which are primarily historical in nature. Some are more dramatic than others, and some are more weird than others. Nevertheless, the stories are fascinating as well as informative. Enjoy!

The Story of Australia -- Parts I and II

History of Australia

This video provides a handy overview of Australia's history.

Captain James Cook: The incredible true story of the World's Greatest Navigator and Cartographer

Captain James Cook, a British navigator, cartographer, and explorer was one of the preeminent sailors and innovators of his age. Today, he is a controversial figure for Indigenous cultures who see him as the instigator and symbol of European colonial expansion and genocide. However, the real James Cook was actually quite a different man to what has been imagined. Coming from abject poverty in rural Yorkshire England and raised among the pacifist and hard working Quakers, he dreamed of sailing to far off lands in the pacific since he was a boy. Working as an apprentice aboard a grubby Whitby Cat collier, he soon proved himself a hard working and competent sailor. He was later to join the Royal Navy and sail to Canada, taking part in the siege of Louisburg and Quebec. At this time he he learned the cartography and surveying skills that were to revolutionize the Navy from that time on. James Cook circumnavigated the globe three times, charted approximately a third of the unknown coastlines of the globe beginning with his first voyage aboard the Endeavour. He was the first man to sail below, and above the 70th parallel, and his regime of hygiene and fresh food revolutionized the management of scurvy while at sea. In all three of his major voyages over 20 years, he never lost one crew member to the disease. 

Eerie Mysteries That Still Haunt Australia 

Simon Whistler, a YouTube history podcast star, features 10 Australian mysteries that continue to go unsolved. Here is the 12:30-minute video.

A Dingo's Got My Baby

A family camping at Uluru in August 17, 1980 suddenly discovered that their baby, Azaria Chamberlain, disappeared. The baby had been in the tent and when the mother, Alice Lynn Chamberlain, went to get her, she discovered that the baby was gone. She  screamed: "a dingo's got my baby." When evidence couldn't be found, investigators then accused the mother of killing her baby with a sharp object. She was sentenced to prison. After three years, however, the baby's clothing was found and it was confirmed that a dingo had indeed killed her baby. The woman was released from prison and exonerated of the crime. However, people refused to believe that the dingo did it. This case became controversial--and a media circus ensued. People made jokes about the line: "A dingo's got my baby." Some people saw the case as the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian criminal history. Here is a 14-minute report on the case.

In 2020, a team from Australia's 7NEWS Spotlight unearthed the secret police tape recordings never broadcast--and that tries to set the record straight. Here is the link for this news story titled: "The Lindy Tapes: the mystery behind the famous quote: 'A dingo’s got my baby' "(56 minutes)

 

Lasseter's Reef

Harold Lasseter, was an Australian gold prospector who claimed to have found a fabulously rich gold reef in central Australia. He perished in the desert near the Western Australia–Northern Territory border in early 1931 after he separated himself from an expedition that was mounted in an effort to rediscover the supposed reef. His body was found and buried in March 1931 by Bob Buck, a central Australian bushman and pastoralist sent to search for Lasseter. The body was later re-interred in the Alice Springs cemetery. An online copy of his diary, recovered by the search party, is available through the State Library of New South Wales. 

Meanwhile, Fred Blakeley, leader of Lasseter's 1930 expedition, branded Lasseter a charlatan who ripped off his investors in a clever scheme to convince them that such a gold reef existed. With a plethora of contradictory statements over the years, it is now difficult or impossible to separate history from myth with regard to Harry Lasseter. Here are two videos on this mysterious man.

Australian author Ion Idriess published Lasseter's Last Ride in 1931 telling the story of the 1930 expedition and Lasseter's death. The book is based on interviews and Lasseter's letters. Here is a video based on the book.

Bush Tucker Man investigates the mystery of Lasseter's Bones

 

Disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt

 

On 17 December 1967, Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, disappeared while swimming in the sea near Portsea, Victoria. An enormous search operation was mounted in and around Cheviot Beach, but his body was never recovered. Holt was presumed to have died, and his memorial service five days later was attended by many world leaders. Here is a 42-minute news report:

 

Remarkable Secrets of Ngukurr -- Bush Tucker Man

Major Les Hiddins of the Australian Army heads to Arnhem Land on a mission to record the many bush foods and medicines of northern Australia. He travels to the closed Indigenous community of Ngukurr where locals share some remarkable bush tucker secrets. 'Bush Tucker Man: Arnhem Land' originally aired in 1988. If you are like me, you will get hooked on Bush Tucker Man. Other episodes are listed. 30 min.

 

Australia's Dark Secret: The Inhumane Treatment of Indigenous Peoples | ENDEVR Documentary   

Utopia is a rare and powerful insight into a secret Australia, and breaks what amounts to a national silence about the Indigenous first people--the oldest, most enduring presence on Earth. Utopia reveals that apartheid is deep within Australia's past and present and that Aboriginal people are still living in abject poverty and Third World conditions, with a low life expectancy and disproportionately high rate of deaths in police custody. An epic film in it's production, scope and revelations, Utopia explores Australia's suppressed colonial past and present. 90 minutes.