Australia On This Day

REPEAT: Australian Army Warrant Officer Kevin Conway of Queensland became the first Australian soldier to die in combat in Vietnam when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army launched a fierce night-time assault on a US Green Beret base in Nam Dong. More than 50 years later, questions remain about the circumstances of his death.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1920 Sydney police arrested a man named Harry Crawford for murder — giving Australian newspapers the story of the year when it was revealed this male suspect was biologically female. The Eugene Falleni "man-woman" case — as it became known — culminated in a sensational trial, though doubts that justice was done persist to this day.

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REPEAT: What possessed a 15-year-old Sydney boy to save for three years to buy a 50-year-old vintage steamroller? How'd he end up splashed across the front page of the newspapers and the star of a newsreel?

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REPEAT: Australia's first railway got under way with huge fanfare — and then went nowhere for more than half a decade. As bad as this delay was, a crucial decision made during this bumbling period would derail Australia for much of the next century.

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REPEAT: When colonial newspaper readers were jolted by the claim that electric snakes were on the loose, it was up to a heretical scientific genius to weigh in on this shocking reptile tale.

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REPEAT: The ABC is born amid controversy over whether it should carry advertisements and whether its bosses are politically biased. Here’s the catch: the ALP wanted an ABC with ads... and ABC bosses were said to be biased towards the Liberals

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On this day in 1935, taxi driver John Smillie (cousin of William Smillie, the razor gangster of the 13 July episode) was shot dead in Sydney. It'd be six months before an arrest was made. His alleged killer? A boy named Boyd Sinclair, who'd be held without trial... for more than a decade.

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On this day in 1974, feared and hated criminal Stewart John Regan — nicknamed The Magician for his skill at making people disappear — got his bloody comeuppance on a Sydney street.

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On this day in 1973, the deal was done — Australia was the proud new owner of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. The price? $1.3m — the most ever paid for an American artwork.

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On this weekend in 1992, two bodies were found in Belanglo State Forest in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The discovery triggered the hunt for the man who'd become known as Australia's worst serial killer.

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