ABC Rewind

When Bill Garner began exploring his family history, a puzzling gap in the family tree led him to discover a most extraordinary ancestor: Fanny Finch. Finch was a well-known and controversial figure during the Victorian gold rushes. A London-born woman of African heritage, she pushed a wheelbarrow from Melbourne to the goldfields in 1852, where she became a sly grogger and restaurateur. She actively resisted police corruption, supported women and children against domestic violence and in 1856, cast a vote in municipal elections, decades before women were granted suffrage. And yet her story was not passed down to her descendants.

When Bill met historian Kacey Sinclair, who had been researching Finch’s life, a fascinating and sometimes challenging conversation began.

In Finding Fanny Finch, Sinclair joins Finch’s direct descendants, Bill and his daughter Alice, in a theatrical reconstruction and reflection on the life and legacy of an unforgettable woman.

Credits

Written by Bill Garner and Sue Gore

Based on research by Kacey Sinclair

Performed by Kacey Sinclair, Bill Garner and Alice Garner

Music by ‘Friends of Wendy Cotton’: Briony Phillips, Stephanie Carson, Nicole Simirenko, Christine Webb, Anthony Webb

Original music recordings by Casey Rice

Sound engineering by Angie Grant

Additional music mixing by Brendan O'Neill

Adapted for radio by Miyuki Jokiranta

Laya Semler was the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany, in 1945. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf was sent to slave labour for not denouncing her.  Both survived. Now, Wennigsen has invited their Australian family back, to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s incredible story of courage and love.  In Part 1, their great-grandchildren discovered a town perhaps finally ready to accept the extent of its role in the Nazi regime. In Part 2, they will experience that history face-to-face.

They experience that history face-to-face -- when they visit the slave labour camp, only recently unearthed, where Adolf was held.  And where they must reckon with horrors that will shock even the German historians guiding them.    

Michaela Kalowski, Joanna's husband John Hempton, Joanna Kalowski and Rick Kalowski

Guests:

• Joanna Kalowski - internationally recognised mediator and granddaughter of Laya and Adolf Semler
• Michael Wittich - historian for the town of Wennigsen
• Christina Muller - city councillor in Wennigsen
• Jutta Henza - historian of the Stolen Gustav slave labour camp

Credits:

Writers: Rick Kalowski and Michaela Kalowski

Presenters: Michaela Kalowski and Rick Kalowski

Producer: Claudia Taranto

Sound Engineer: Hamish Camilleri

Research assistance : Tadhg Kalowski

In 1945, Laya Semler became the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany.  Her non-Jewish husband Adolf chose slave labour rather than abandon her.  They both survived. In 2022, the village of Wennigsen invited their Australian family back to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s bravery. Told by their great-grandchildren, Laya and Adolf’s story is testament to the power love has to bridge even the greatest differences.  But it’s also the story of a town only just coming to terms with the truth of its past.  A truth that, as Laya and Adolf’s descendants discover first-hand, not everyone in the town is ready to accept...

Joanna Kalowski at the opening of the new street in Wennigsen, Germany, named after her grandmother Laya Semler

Guests:

• Joanna Kalowski - internationally recognised mediator and granddaughter of Laya and Adolf Semler
• Michael Wittich - historian for the town of Wennigsen
• Franz Blazek - former mayor of Wennigsen
• Silke Stremlau - resident of Wennigsen

Credits:

Writers: Rick Kalowski and Michaela Kalowski

Presenters: Michaela Kalowski and Rick Kalowski

Producer: Claudia Taranto

Sound Engineer: Hamish Camilleri

Research assistance : Tadhg Kalowski

Fifty years ago, in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy killed 66 people and decimated the city of Garramilla/Darwin. Afterwards more than 30,000 residents were evacuated, many never returning to Darwin. 

Writing down memories of the event helped some survivors of the cyclone process the experience. Hear a handful of these stories, set in crumbling houses, airborne cars, a busy restaurant and an overcrowded hospital, all set to the terrifying real-life soundtrack of Cyclone Tracy.

(image courtesy of the NT Archive : LANT LJ Adams NTRS 3129 P2, item 1 Caption "Chris Adams looking at Cyclone Tracy destruction, 26 December 1974")

It’s the early 1900s and a gang of men moves through the gritty streets of inner-city North Melbourne: they dress sharp and inspire fear wherever they go. This gang, the Crutchy Push ruled the streets of North Melbourne over a ten year period, from late 1890s. And the reason for their curious name? All the members of this gang were amputees: mostly one-legged, and they used a crutch - and not just for walking!

To mark the International Day for People With Disability, Melbourne-based writer and disability advocate  Kaitlyn Blythe digs up the little-known story of the gang and its’ charismatic leader Valentine Keating, and explores how it busts a lot of myths about disabled people in Australian history.

Guests:

Brendan Gleeson

Tansy Bradshaw

Readings  -  Toby Truslove 

Credits:

Producer -  Kaitlyn Blythe

Sound design and production -  Matthew Crawford

Supervising Producer -  Michelle Rayner  

It’s March 25th, 1999, and Australia’s most remarkable prison escape has just taken place, after a helicopter hovers above the recreation grounds at the Silverwater maximum security prison, in Sydney. In the blink of an eye, a prisoner runs towards the chopper, climbs onboard, and is on his way to freedom.

This is the story of that airborne escapee, John Killick, a man who spent much of his life leading the authorities on a merry dance. Somehow he survived his dangerous escapades and many prison stints.

Today, in his early 80s, John is a writer, a public speaker. and a counsellor to ex-crims.

Credits:

Producer: Brian McKenzie

Sound Engineer: Tim Symonds

In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977. 

So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day? 

Please listen with care - this episode contains graphic content. 

Guests:

• Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer 
• Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: her secret and extraordinary lives   
• Mark Whittaker – Journalist and author, Granny killer: the story of John Glover 
• Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer 
• Vincent Jones – VP Sales & Licensing, Asia-Pacific, Centa IP 
• David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst 

Credits:

• Producer – Zoe Ferguson 
• Engineer – Simon Branthwaite 
• Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner

She’s one of Australia’s most prolific and popular designers, and yet not many people know her name, let alone her audacious life story.   

Florence Broadhurst was from regional Queensland but people who met her later in life,  thought she was English aristocrat. She reinvented herself many times throughout her life.   

Today she’s known for her wallpaper designs that cemented her in Australian design history. 

But a shadow lingers over her legacy; her unsolved murder in 1977.

Guests:

• Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: Her secret and extraordinary lives   
• Dr Andrew Field – Associate Professor of Chinese History, Duke Kunshan University 
• Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer 
• David Lennie – Screen printer, Signature Prints 
• Sheridan Black – Owner, Signature Handprints 
• Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer 
• David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst 
• Laura Doble – Interior design graduate

Credits:

• Producer – Zoe Ferguson 
• Engineer – Simon Branthwaite 
• Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner  

When superannuation pioneer Mavis Robertson was in her seventies, she was showered with awards and honours. But something was missing from the life story shared with the public at this time: the more than 30 years she spent as a leading member of the Communist Party of Australia. Historian Alice Garner and Mavis's son Peter Robertson delve into this part of his mother's life, including her extensive ASIO security file. 

An entire school is kidnapped at gunpoint. 9 students and their teacher are taken hostage by a prison escapee who demands a ransom of 7 million dollars, the release of 17 prisoners, 100 kilos of cocaine, automatic weapons, and an escape vehicle.