Aussie History Podcast

It's late 1854 and the Victorian town of Ballarat. A gold rush is on and we are the gold diggings, but things are extremely tense. The gold miners are mounting a strong oppostion against the Victorian Government because of the mining license fee it is imposing. Police are undertaking raids into the miners camps and demanding that miners produce their license.

So the miners respond by burning their licenses. On 30 November 1854 a mass burning of licences takes place at Bakery Hill. Under the leadership of Peter Lalor, the diggers march to the Eureka diggings. Here they construct a stockade and inside the stockade some 500 diggers take an oath on the Southern Cross flag

Then at dawn on Sunday 3 December the miliatry launch an attack on the stockade. The diggers are outnumbered and the battle is over in twenty minutes. Twenty-two diggers and five troops lie dead.

The Eureka rebellion is considered by some to be the birthplace of Australian democracy.

In this episode we remember the late Peter Richard Woolnough - or as you may know him Peter Allen. Allen was one of Australia's most successful entertainers. Amongst the songs he has written include: I Still Call Australia Home, Tenterfield Saddler, I Go the Rio and The More I see You.

In this episode we look at two more bushrangers, Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall. Both of these Bushrangers plied their trade around the Canberra region in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

In this episode we look at WWII coastal defences around Newcastle and in particular at Tomaree near Port Stephens.

Check out the NSW Parks and Wildlife site for Fort Tomaree at: http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/tomaree-national-park

Jack Lang was twice the Premier of New South Wales and was one of Australia's most controversial politicians. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, he was dismissed from office by the NSW Governor Sir Philip Game. He was expelled from the Australian Labor Party in 1942 and only re-admitted to the Labor Party in 1971 a few years before his death.

At 11 pm on 12 October 2002, three bombs were detonated on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Two went off in busy nightspots in Kuta – the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar and the third in front of the American consulate. The explosions killed 202 people, 88 of whom were Australian.

At the height of the Cold War, in April 1954 Vladimir Petrov a Soviet diplomat sought political asylum in Australia. Petrov, and his wife Evdokia, were working in Canberra at the Soviet Embassy as diplomats. But they were really spies. The incident had a massive impact on Australian politics. It ended the political career of the opposition leader and leader of the Labor Party Dr Herbert 'Doc' Evatt. And it led to a split in the Labor Party when anti-communist elements of the Labor Party, particularly the Catholic groups, split off to form the Democratic Labor Party. Partly as a result Labor languished in opposition until 1972.

For those Russian speakers out there, apologies for mangling the pronunciation of Russian names.

On 27 May 1967 a referendum to amend the Australian Consitution was held. This month is the 50th anniversary of that referendum, so it's a good time to remember this important part of Australian history. The referendum allowed Indigenous Australians to be counted in the population and for the Commonwealth Government to make policies in respect to Aboriginal people.

On 5 August 1944, Japanese prisoners of war staged a breakout from the detention camp in Cowra, New South Wales. Armed with improvised weapons including baseball bats and sharpened mess knives, they stormed the perimeter fences and overcame the machine gun posts. In all 231 Japanese prisoners were killed during the escape attempt. Four Australian soldiers were also killed in the breakout

In this episode we look at five inventions you may never have realised were made right here in the land Downunder. These are: spray on skin, the bionic ear or cochlear implant, the black box flight recorder, the pacemaker, and the cervical cancer vaccine.

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