Australia On This Day

On this day 50 years ago, Sydney's vice squad swooped on a clear, present and wholly fictitious danger to society: Alexander Portnoy. He was the protagonist of Philip Roth's raunchy satire Portnoy's Complaint, which had been banned in Australia despite being a critically acclaimed worldwide bestseller.

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On this day in 1934, the pyjama-clad body of a young woman was found near Albury in NSW, triggering one of Australia's most baffling murder investigations.

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On this day in 1978, more than 100 gay rights activists were arrested in Sydney. It was a travesty of justice that, once overturned, helped pave the way for Mardi Gras as we know it. ** Australia On This Day will be on a short break — new episodes coming soon. In the meantime, please leave a rating and review. Thanks for listening. **

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Australian silent movie star Lotus Thompson was born on this day in 1904. Before she turned 20 she'd arrived in Hollywood and made her name with a shocking act that called into question the movie industry's priorities. Or... did she?

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On this day in 1824, two desperate convicts fled the brutality of one of Australia’s most notorious penal settlements to take their chances in the wintry Tasmanian wilderness. It did not go well.

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On this day in 1973, young thug Archibald McCafferty — fueled by drugs and supported by a gang of youthful misfits — began a killing spree that'd see him dubbed "Australia's Charles Manson".

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On this day in 1966, Gurindji stockmen and their families — led by elder Vincent Lingiari — walked off the job at the Wave Hill station in the NT in protest against poor pay and conditions — and for the return of their traditional lands. What followed was an epic eight-year battle.

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This was the day that Australian punters went to the movies for the first time – and it happened at Melbourne’s Opera House just nine months after the French Lumiere brothers got le punters to pay to see the moving pictures in Paris.

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This day in 1972 marked the final page in the long adventurous life of Ernestine Hill, who, from 1930, roamed for decades to Australia's most remote places, writing hundreds of articles and numerous best-selling books. Oh, and she also had a son who was almost certainly an heir to the Packer media dynasty.

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On this day in 1857, Sydney was visited by disaster when the clipper Dunbar was dashed against rocks on South Head. 121 people would die. One man would survive.

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