Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. 

Brendan James Murray tells the story of the hunt to capture the Australian coastal taipan, and the quest to create the world's first taipan antivenom in his book Venom. 

Listen here to Sarah's other Conversation with Brendan James Murray

The story of George Rosendale, a 19-year old from Hopevale North Queensland, became the stuff of legend when he survived being bitten by a coastal taipan.

One bite from the snake was usually lethal.

Brendan James Murray unearthed George's story when researching a book about snakes.

He became fascinated by the near-hysteria surrounding the search for the coastal taipan in northern Australia after WWII. 

This species had been thought of as a myth by Europeans until 1933, when local Indigenous people led naturalist Donald Thompson to a living specimen. 

To the Wikmunkan tribe, the snake was known as the Nguman, and it was seen as a part of the landscape, but best avoided. 

For Europeans, the discovery of a living taipan began a scramble for an anti-venom for the lightning-fast snake with hooded eyes, which could kill with one strike. 

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about taipans, brown snakes, venom, antivenom, Australian fauna, reptiles, Australian history, poison, poisonous snake, Queensland, hospital, lethal venom, author, biology, medical research, snake bites

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. This time it's Peter Hoysted.

Peter Hoysted, known in print as 'Jack the Insider', tells the incredibly strange story of the Fine Cotton affair. The story includes a vicious gangster, a used-car salesman, a hapless horse trainer and a bucket of hair dye.

'The Fine Cotton Fiasco Conversations Bonus' is available to listen to here.

Richard's other Conversations with Peter Hoysted:The crime-soaked history of Melbourne's DockyardsRoger Rogerson: crimes and punishment

Peter Hoysted, known in print as 'Jack the Insider', tells the incredibly strange story of the Fine Cotton affair.

In 1984 a group of conspirators hatched a plot to defraud racing bookmakers of millions of dollars.

The story includes a vicious gangster, a used-car salesman, a hapless horse trainer and a bucket of hair dye.

It started out as fraud, became a fiasco and ended up as farce.

Ultimately it was a 'colourful Sydney businessman' who walked away with the cash.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about true crime, Australian history, gangsters, organised crime, horse racing, gambling, Jack the Insider, Fine Cotton, horse trainers, fiasco, horses.  

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. 

Gill Hicks lost both her legs in the London bombings in 2005. But from the start of her recovery, she was determined not to dwell on hate or revenge, instead focus on the love that surrounded her, from family, police, doctors and nurses and complete strangers. She formed a charity called MAD for Peace, which invites us all to look for peace in our lives. 

Gill Hicks was living in London in 2005. One morning she boarded a train on the Picadilly Line, and in the crowded carriage she was standing next to Jermaine Lindsay who was carrying a bomb.

When the bomb was detonated, she felt as though she was being enveloped in inky blackness. When the emergency lights came on she saw her legs and feet were shattered.

Gill heard two insistent voices in her head: one was female, inviting her to surrender into the peace of death. The other voice was male, and it was demanding that she choose to live.

As Gill waited for help to come, she made a contract with herself to survive. But she says, she wasn't fully aware of the 'fine print'.

Gill became close friends with the many police officers and medical staff who saved her life. She says the love she received from complete strangers is much more important to her than the hateful attack on herself and her fellow passengers.

Gill founded a charity called MAD for Peace, which invites people all over the world to look for peace in their own lives.

This episode of Conversations contains discussion about terrorism, bombs, bombings, Jihad, terrorists, London, underground, the Tube, relationships, disasters, religion, London Bombings, rescue operations, rescuers, ambulance, first responders, Jermaine Linday, Mad for Peace, Picadilly Line, Adelaide, expats, mad nests, charities, walking, prosthetics, prosthetic legs, disability, fundraising. 

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. 

Ross Gittins is one of Australia’s most popular newspaper columnists. For five decades, he has explained the inner workings of the Australian economy to readers in plain English through his three weekly columns in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ross Gittins is one of Australia’s most popular newspaper columnists.

For five decades, Ross has explained the inner workings of the Australian economy to readers in plain English through his three weekly columns in the Sydney Morning Herald.

He's often contacted by readers who tell him he's helped them understand interest rates, negative gearing, and other facets of the economy that would have once been privy to only those in power.

For Ross, his touchstone is his own early life story.

His outlook on life was largely formed by his frugal, hard-working parents, who were Salvation Army officers who lived through the Great Depression.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about family, Australian history, journalism, economics, the depression, Salvation Army, religion, Christianity, politics, finance, writing, newspapers, editors, publishing, mortgages, interest rates, home ownership, investments, income, Australian society, baby boomers, young people, generational wealth, inheritance, negative gearing, flexible work, job market, women at work, employment, workplace, childcare, cost of living, real estate. 

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. 

After a cruel and abusive childhood and an adulthood full of unemployment and homelessness, Gregory Smith decided to step out of society and into the solitary life of a hermit, living in the elements in a forest in Northern NSW. 

Gregory is an academic in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University in New South Wales.

He recently completed his PhD highlighting the experiences of children raised in institutional care.

For much of his adulthood Gregory was homeless; and by his own admission, a 'do not approach' figure.

For ten years he lived as a hermit in a forest in northern NSW, catching his own food.

After decades of life on the margins, he now has a place of his own, and is a popular teacher.

Gregory's childhood, in and out of orphanages, boys' homes and youth detention centres, made getting a foothold in regular society a massive challenge.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about child abuse, orphanages, boys homes, child psychology, sociopaths, homelessness, unemployment, hermit, solitude, forests, rainforest, New South Wales, NSW, recluse, sociology, university, relationships, memoirs, autobiographies, Southern Cross Univerity, PHD, Order of Australia. 

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. 

Uncle Jack was forcibly removed from his mother as a baby and denied his Aboriginality. A one-off trip to Fitzroy connected him with a family he didn’t know about, and promptly landed him in jail.

Jack died in 2022. 

Help and support is always available

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In a career spanning more than half a century, Uncle Jack Charles used the stage to share painful and personal truths about being a Stolen Generations survivor.

Uncle Jack was born in Melbourne in 1943. He was taken from his mother as a baby and ended up in Box Hill Boys' Home where he was abused and told he was an orphan.

It was only towards the end of his life that Uncle Jack found out who his father was, finally knowing himself as a Wiradjuri man, as well as Boon Wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Yorta Yorta.

Uncle Jack's early life had been defined by addiction, theft and twenty-two stints in jail.

But he forged a legacy as a giant of the arts, a tireless advocate for youth in detention and a trailblazing advocate for a fairer Australia.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about Aboriginal identity, Indigenous history, stolen generation, orphanages, boys homes, youth offending, foster families, birth mothers, family relationships, Lilydale High School, Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy, youth detention, home invasion, robbery, acting, performing, theatre, film, Sydney Opera House, Box Hill Boys' Home, orphans, sisters, brothers, siblings, addiction, heroin, jail, racism, advocacy, David Gulpilil, initiation, Bennalong.

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. 

When Sandy Mackinnon set of through the waterways of England towards Gloucester in a Mirror dinghy, he little imagined he would find himself crossing the English Channel, the river systems of Europe, and eventually the Black Sea, on an adventure full of friendly strangers, amazing scenery and even a threat to his life.

Listen here to Sarah's Conversation with Sandy MacKinnon

Sandy was teaching at a school in the English countryside when he sold almost all his belongings and set off in a Mirror dinghy, intending to sail as far as Gloucester.

He enjoyed his river voyage so much, he decided to keep going.

Sandy's journey took him through locks, across the English Channel, and eventually into the great river systems of Europe, and then, the Black Sea.

Along the way he encountered strangers who showed him great kindness, and some who threatened to kill him.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about England, English countryside, boarding schools, teaching, travel, European travel, sailing, boating, paddling, rowing, canals, locks, the English Channel, France, Romania, rivers, the Black Sea, the Thames, autobiographies, memoirs, authors, writing, adventure books, yachts, The Unlikely Voyage of the Jack de Crow, Pith helmets, small boats. 

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years.

Elizabeth Chong has spent the last 90 years teaching Australian's the delights of cooking real authentic Chinese food. 

Chef, author and teacher Elizabeth Chong was born in China's Guangdong Province in 1931.

When her heavily pregnant mother was expelled from Victoria under the White Australia Policy in the 1920s, the whole family returned to China.

Years later her family returned and a young Elizabeth was free to roam the closed Queen Victoria Market on Sundays with her siblings.

With fresh, fragrant and plentiful Chinese food at home, Elizabeth didn’t cook her first meal until she was married.

Since then, she's made it her mission to raise the profile of Chinese cuisine, something she's done by teaching more than 37,000 people how to cook.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about China, Chinese culture, immigration, migrants, gold rush, Australian history, multiculturalism, white Australia policy, racism, Chinese cooking, Chinese food, Chinese cuisine,  dim sums, Queen Victoria markets, Melbourne, marriage, relationships, parents, mothers, fathers, daughters, family history, genealogy, cooking school, cooking teachers, chefs, cooks, family, relationships, community education, adult education, lifelong learning, 

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years.

William McInnes is a much-loved Australian actor and an author, whose childhood in the sunny Queensland left him fluent in the peculiar, funny and colourful words and phrases unique to Australian English. Over the years, he's continued to collect them to celebrate how much they say about who we really are.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about Australian slang, colloquial language, Australian dialect, Seachange, Yeah Nah! A celebration of life and the words that make us who we are, books, writing, author, Australianisms, colloquialisms, acting, television, actor, performing arts, theatre, NCIS Sydney, Australiana, Australian culture, Australian history, language, linguistics. 

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years.

Shaun Christie David grew up eating the Sri-Lankan recipes his mother brought with her from Sri Lanka. After a life-change trip to his parent's homeland, Shaun left a successful career in finance to open a social enterprise restaurant, Colombo Social, giving jons to refugees and serving food from his mother's cookbook. 

Shaun Christie-David's family migrated to Australia during the Sri Lankan civil war.

The family's three sons grew up in a house full of home-cooked food and love, with dishes like 48-hour Mudcrab on the menu at Christmas.

In 2019, Shaun set up Colombo Social, a restaurant giving jobs to refugees and people seeking asylum, serving food straight from his mum's cookbook.

Starting the restaurant was a sharp turn in his own life.

Shaun had left Sydney's Western suburbs at 18 determined to make a lot of money in the finance world. 

But at 28, at the pinnacle of his career in banking, a trip to Sri Lanka changed everything.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about immigration, migrants, Sri Lanka, multiculturalism, childhood memories, cooking, family, mothers, fathers, sons, siblings, brothers, high school, racism, finance, success, money, careers, mudcrabs, Christmas, chicken biryani, spices, recipes, traditions, culture, Sri Lankans, restaurants, social enterprise, charity, refugees, asylum seekers, support, disabilities, homelessness, unemployment, support, Plate It Forward, Colombo Social, Kabul Social, Sydney, NSW, Afganistan, Ukraine, purpose, giving.