Writer and tour guide Simon Tancred on the little-known ANZAC story of how a group of POWs made a daring escape on foot to neutral Switzerland.

Simon Tancred fell in love with Italy as a young man, and set up a job for himself leading hikes and tours across the country, and into the Alps. 

So Simon was familiar with the old trails and passes that crisscross the mountains, and which have been used for hundreds of years by shepherds, traders and travellers. 

But one day, someone approached him with the unknown story of how a group of Australian prisoners of war from the Second World War escaped from Italy to freedom in neutral Switzerland.

Four mates from Moree evaded the enemy by using these ancient, winding tracks.

They didn't speak Italian, they battled wintry conditions, and never knew if the civilians they encountered along the way would help them or turn them over to the occupying German forces.

Simon was so intrigued by this story, he bought some old maps and set out to follow their journey to freedom, by tracing their steps across the Alps.

This episode of Conversations explores fascism, politics, war, civil war, prisoners of war, unknown stories of WWII, the Anzacs, Anzac Day 2025, Italy, Italian Alps, modern history, books, writing, walking tours in Italy, travel, Mountaineering, Partisans, Nazis, Nazi Germany, neutral Switzerland, World War Two history, religion, Madonna, Mary, Italian Catholicism, where to hike in Italy.

Trails to Freedom is published by Hardie Grant.

Justin Heazlewood fled a complicated early life in Tasmania searching for fame as an artist on the mainland. Recently he moved back to his home town of Burnie, and realised community is where you find it.

Justin Heazlewood grew up in Burnie, a coastal town on the North West coast of Tasmania.

For years he imagined his hometown as somewhere he had to leave, especially if he was going to be any kind of artist.

And there were other, more personal reasons that made staying in Burnie complicated.

Justin's Mum has schizophrenia, and growing up he was often forced into the role of being her carer.

It was something he did his best to hide from his friends and other people in his life.

So after school, Justin headed to the mainland and began a life as a comedian and a songwriter.

But a few years ago, he found himself returning to his home town for good. 

This episode of Conversations explores mental health, caring for parents, parents with mental illness, small towns, leaving your hometown, big city life, regional Australia, creatives in regional Australia, mother son relationships, returning home, community, fame, triple j, bedroom philosopher, radio, writing, music, musicians, learning guitar, grandmothers.

Get Up Mum is published by Affirm Press and Justin's new book, Dream Burnie, celebrates the creative humans like him making art far from the big cities, and some of the teachers who recognised the young artists while they were at school.

You can learn more about Justin's book Dream Burnie online.

The Young Carer's Hotline is open Monday-Friday on 1800 422 737

The artist Loribelle Spirovski on her unusual childhood in the Philippines, meeting her father for the first time at 7 years old, and making her way as one of Australia's most exciting young painters.

Loribelle Spirovski grew up in the Philippines, with her mum and her extended Filipino family.

Her Serbian father, whom she had never met, was in Australia, driving taxis and waiting for the visa that would allow him to bring Loribelle and her mum to join him.

Loribelle didn't meet her father until she was 7 years old, and when she saw him for the first time at Manila Airport, she was shocked by how hairy his arms were and the way he smelled just like she did.

Eventually, the family was properly reunited in Sydney, Australia, where Loribelle had to navigate family and cultural ties, where she found love and where she made her way as one of Australia's most exciting young artists.

This episode of Conversations explores painting, creativity, writing, books, love, marriage, Simon Tedeschi, William Barton, the Archibald Prize, art education, art teaching, chronic pain, chronic injury, identity, memoir, family dynamics, origin stories, refugees, Serbia, former Yugoslavia, music, piano, singing, language, mothers, fathers, long-distance relationships.

White Hibiscus is published by Upswell.

You can see some of Loribelle's art at her website and on her Instagram page.

In July, 2025 Loribelle won the People's Choice Award for the 2025 Archibald Prize for a portrait she painted with her fingers of Kalkadunga musician William Barton.

As a child, before she escaped communist Hungary, Bo Remenyi had no ambitions. But when she got to Australia all of that changed. She's gone from cruising the casino floor as a high-stakes professional poker player, to saving the lives of children in remote Australia. (R)

In 2018, Dr Bo Remenyi was made the Northern Territory’s Australian of the Year for her work as a paediatric cardiologist. 

But her path to receiving that honour,  and to her work in remote communities, has been filled with unexpected twists and risks.

After escaping communist Hungary as a child, she got her first job flipping burgers in a Townsville Hungary Jacks. From there, she put herself through medical school by cleaning the very lecture theatres in which she was studying. 

Somewhere along the way, Bo decided to play 60 hours of professional poker a week, and she was very good at it.

This episode of Conversations explores Aboriginal health, Indigenous health outcomes, closing the Gap, Soviet Union, Communism, fleeing the Iron Curtin, Putin, medicine, studying medicine, studying medicine in Australia, university life, gambling, multiculturalism, migrant stories, first generation Australians, the Northern Territory, remote Australia, FNQ.

Journalist Kerrie Davies with the story of how novelist Miles Franklin went undercover as a maid for a year, in Sydney and Melbourne's wealthy houses, well before gonzo journalists became household names.

The real-life story of novelist Stella Maria Miles Franklin had an unexpected chapter after publishing My Brilliant Career.

In 1903, Miles became a 'girl stunt reporter' by going undercover as a servant.

For a year, she lived as a maid in Sydney and Melbourne's wealthy houses and wrote about the humiliations and drudgery in the daily lives of servant girls, or 'slaveys'.

During her experiment she hand-rolled heavy, wet clothes through a washing mangle; served her employers pre-breakfast tea and toast in bed, which she thought was an obscene indulgence; she cleaned guest rooms and parlours; helped at high-society balls and kept fires burning in winter.

The manuscript Miles wrote about this year pre-dated George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London by three decades, yet it never found a publisher.

Journalist Kerrie Davies has investigated this little-known chapter of Miles' life, finally bringing this story to life in her own book.

This episode of Conversations explores feminism, suffragettes, biography, books, servants, writing, Australian fiction, boy sober, class warfare, adventures, adventurous women, risk-taking, origin stories, gonzo journalism, Nellie Bly, Rose Scott, early 20th century Sydney, Chicago, women's rights, trad wives, motherhood, partnership, self-partnering.

Miles Franklin Undercover is published by Allen and Unwin.

Song propelled Morris Stuart from his early life shepherding sheep in British Guyana to an unlikely love story in London. In his retirement, he found himself shaping a choir of Central Australian Aboriginal women, who had been breathing life into 138-year-old Lutheran hymns.

Morris Stuart met his Australian wife, Barbara in London in the 1960s.

The pair led a youth group attached to a nearby church, and initially tried to ignore their growing feelings for each other.

Morris was a young, Guyanese activist who was descended from African slaves, and wasn’t ready to face the social reality of marrying across racial lines.

Morris and Barb fell in love and married several years before the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? was released, and featured at several screenings in London, where community members could ask them questions as a real life, interracial couple.

The couple went on to have four children and moved to Australia, where Morris became a pastor with a community church in Melbourne.

In their retirement, Morris and Barbara developed relationships with the Warlpiri community in Central Australia. 

They arrived in Alice Springs in 2005 and Morris started recruiting for a choir.

More Indigenous communities started joining in and Morris formed the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s choir.

They performed hymns brought by German Lutheran missionaries to the region in the late 19th Century, which were translated into Pitjantjatjara and Western Arrernte.

The choir’s biggest achievement is a tour to Germany in 2015 — to perform the hymns that had all but vanished from use in Germany, but have been preserved in the Central Australian desert for 138 years.

Follow the Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir on Facebook.

Watch the documentary about the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir tour to Germany, The Song Keepers. 

This episode of Conversations touches on heritage, epic life story, origin stories, church, personal stories, childhood and reflection.

Nature writer Andrew Darby on what he learned from his rambles through the wilds of Tasmania, communing with the world’s oldest surviving trees. In particular, his ‘buttock clenching’ ascent up a 60-metre-tall eucalyptus known as The Vibe Tower.

Nature writer, Andrew Darby spent more than 20 years as a Fairfax correspondent based in Tasmania.

His stories involved the natural beauty of the bush, including visits to wild places and to the people who protect them, but it was deadline-driven and he couldn’t spend the time he wanted to.

In 2017 Andrew was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

He underwent immunotherapy and was given a maximum 18-months to live. 

It has been eight years since he entered his “second life”.

Andrew was determined to fully inhabit his beloved Tasmanian bush, so he went by himself to commune with ancient trees.

These are some of the world’s oldest surviving trees, like King’s Lomatia; some of the biggest trees, like a 60-metre-tall eucalyptus known as The Vibe Tower; and Andrew’s favourite, the dignified Pencil Pine.

The Ancients: Discovering the world’s oldest surviving trees in wild Tasmania is published by Allen & Unwin.

This episode of Conversations touches on wild Tasmania, ancient trees, Pencil Pine, King's Lomatia, King Billy Pine, Giant Eucalyptus, Peter Dombrovskis photography, Walls of Jerusalem National Park, Pool of Siloam, epic hike, solo hike, stage four lung cancer, immunotherapy, second life and loving nature, hikes of Australia.

Anh Nguyen Austen's family fled Vietnam by sea in 1982, on a wooden boat bound for the Philippines. When a once-in-a-century storm struck in the South China Sea, they thought all hope was lost (R)

Anh is an academic and community volunteer who grew up in Vietnam in a Catholic family.

Anh's childhood was idyllic, with a big extended family and a close friendship with her cousin named Joe.

But life for the adults was complicated after the end of the war, and so in the early 1980s, her parents planned a daring escape.

Under the noses of the regime, they secretly constructed a boat which they hoped would take them to the Philippines.

They intended to bring 40 people with them, but on the day of departure 101 people crowded on board, before the boat sailed into a once-in-a-century storm on the South China Sea.

Years later, Anh found film footage of their rescue, at a moment when almost all hope was lost.

After their rescue, her family made it to a refugee camp in the Philippines, then to America, where Anh grew up to attend some of the world's most prestigious universities before she became an academic herself.

This episode of Conversations explores family dynamics, refugee stories, migrant stories, boat people, Vietnam War, Catholcism, escapes, near death experiences, the great American dream, Harvard, Bryn Mawr College, University of Melbourne, theology, PhD, doctorate, academia, Christianity, life story, United States.

Originally broadcast in June 2022.

Since Richard spoke with Anh, she has created a walking group in Melbourne for refugees and friends of refugees. Anh says walking creates connections and can inspire belonging to land, people, and country in Australia. This is part of her research on post-traumatic growth for refugees and her upcoming memoir The History of Walking with Refugees.

If you would like to join the Melbourne Refugee Walking Group, email [email protected]

When artist Vincent Fantauzzo was a boy he was a street-fighting petty criminal with dyslexia and a blazing talent for drawing. He escaped jail time, and grew up to become one of Australia's most well-known portrait artists.

VIncent Fantauzzo is one of Australia's most successful portrait artists.

For his luminous, photo-realistic paintings he's won the People's Choice Award at the annual Archibald Prize more than any other artist.

He's also won the Moran National Portrait Prize twice, once with a painting of his friend, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, and the second time with a painting of his wife, actor Asher Keddie.

All the success is a long way from his upbringing in Broadmeadows in Melbourne, when at times it seemed like he was going to end up in jail, or dead.

Vincent struggled so badly with dyslexia that he developed elaborate rituals to avoid writing at school, which is partly how he came to drawing. 

He became a street-fighting petty criminal and he was kicked out of school at 14 and was drawn into a violent world where he had to be extraordinarily streetwise to survive.

Vincent still carries the scars of surviving his childhood into the big, beautiful life he's built for himself as one of Australia's most well-known artists.

This episode of Conversations explores origin stories, social disadvantage, parenting, father son relationships, boxing, learning disabilities, struggling in school, Hollywood, the art world, Heath Ledger, Kim Ledger, Batman, family, family dynamics, life story, art, portraits, painting, juvenile crime, drug dealing, hot houses, brothers.

Unveiled, written with Craig Henderson, is published by Penguin.

Rebecca Huntley, Rick Morton, Julia Zemiro and Sarah Kanowski bring you stories of human failure, misadventure and outright fiasco in a live storytelling event recorded at Adelaide Writers Week.

A few weeks ago, some former guests of Conversations, and our two presenters gathered at the Adelaide Town Hall.

The event was a live storytelling hour, with the theme 'Mistakes were made', in front of a rapt audience of 800 forgiving souls.

Writer and social researcher Rebecca Huntley shared her dramatic foray as a first-time driver.

Journalist Rick Morton recounted a story about a run-in between his brother's drug- and alcohol-fuelled friends, with a cameo from the rom-com 'Bridget Jones' Baby'.

TV presenter and actor Julia Zemiro told her own tale of mortification in a professional setting, and her experience of "esprit de l'escalier" — thinking of the perfect response once you have already left the building.

Our own Sarah Kanowski spoke of the time when a few very big risks were taken, that one time in the Amazon Basin.

This episode of Conversations touches on mistakes, fiascos, accidents, insults, life stories, epic personal stories, ayahuasca, The Amazon, ice, drug addiction, Bridget Jones, and more.