Dark Australia

In October 1826, searchers uncovered a decomposing body buried in the marshland outside Campbelltown, New South Wales. The man's skull had been fractured, his face was unrecognisable, and the evidence pointed towards someone he had trusted with his life and fortune.

His name was Frederick Fisher.

But according to one of Australia's most enduring ghost stories, Fisher's body wasn't discovered through police work alone.

It was found because a dead man returned to expose his own killer.

Two hundred years later, we revisit the brutal murder, the disturbing discovery of Fisher's remains, the extraordinary confession of a condemned man, and the mysterious apparition that supposedly pointed investigators towards a hidden grave.

Was it a genuine encounter with something beyond the grave? Or was Australia's most famous ghost story an elaborate deception?

In 1892, a gruesome discovery beneath the floorboards of a Melbourne home would expose one of the most disturbing murder cases in Australian history.

But the horror didn't begin in Melbourne.

Thousands of kilometres away, in the English village of Rainhill, another house concealed an almost unimaginable secret. Buried beneath its floors were the bodies of a woman and four young children.

At the centre of both discoveries was Frederick Bailey Deeming. A charismatic conman, compulsive liar and ruthless killer who travelled between continents, adopted false identities and left a trail of deception and death in his wake.

As investigators began uncovering the extent of his crimes, an even more sinister question emerged: could Deeming have been the notorious Jack the Ripper?

In this episode, we trace Deeming's life from his troubled early years to his final days on the gallows. We examine his relationships, his calculated deceptions, the horrific murders of his family and the investigation that ultimately brought him to justice.

Through historical accounts, forensic evidence and the psychology of a man capable of extraordinary cruelty, we explore the chilling story of the killer who became known as The Victorian Ripper.

Some monsters hide in the shadows. Others live behind perfectly ordinary front doors.

Listener discretion is strongly advised. This episode contains graphic descriptions of murder, violence against women and children, and disturbing forensic details.

Sydney Shark Attacks: Part Two

For almost sixty years, Sydney's waters had been free from fatal shark attacks. But beneath the surface, the danger had never disappeared.

In this episode, we further our exploration of Sydney's terrifying history with sharks, we enter the modern era where ordinary afternoons at the beach become desperate fights for survival, and some encounters end in unimaginable tragedy.

From the horrific injuries suffered by Navy diver Paul de Gelder and Bondi surfer Glenn Orgias, to the devastating death of Simon Nellist at Little Bay, we reconstruct the attacks, examine eyewitness accounts, and follow the extraordinary efforts of those who risked their lives to save others.

We revisit the final moments of Mercury Psillakis at Long Reef, the heartbreaking six-day fight for twelve-year-old Nico Antic, and the remarkable survival stories of Andre de Ruyter and Leah Stewart.

These are stories of sudden violence, extraordinary courage, devastating loss, and the terrifying reality of sharing Sydney's waters with some of the ocean's most powerful predators.

Because the ocean may look empty.

But it never truly is.

Content warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of shark attacks, severe injuries, death, and the death of a child.

For more than 170 years, Sydney’s beaches, harbour and rivers were the scene of some of Australia’s most terrifying shark attacks.

From the earliest recorded fatality in 1791, through the deadly summers of Coogee and Bondi, the shark panics of the 1930s, the introduction of shark nets, and the infamous attacks of Middle Harbour, Sydney spent generations trying to understand, control and survive the predators moving beneath its waters.

In Part One of Sydney Shark Attacks, Dark Australia traces the attacks that shaped the city’s relationship with the ocean, including Milton Coughlan, Beryl Morrin, Zita Steadman, Denise Burch, Valma Tegel and Marcia Hathaway, alongside the extraordinary people who entered the water to try to save them.

Then, in 1963, the deaths suddenly stopped.

For almost fifty-nine years.

This episode contains graphic descriptions of fatal shark attacks and serious injuries. Listener discretion is advised.

Deep in the Australian bush, people have been reporting strange creatures for generations.

Massive ape-like figures moving through the trees. Black panthers stalking rural New South Wales. Giant reptiles that should have disappeared thousands of years ago. And animals officially declared extinct that some insist are still out there.

In this episode of Dark Australia, we explore some of the country’s most enduring cryptid mysteries from the Yowie and Australia’s mysterious big cats to alleged modern thylacine sightings, giant goannas and strange creatures said to inhabit our waterways.

Some stories can be explained.

Others are probably folklore.

But every now and then, there’s a sighting, a footprint or a piece of evidence that makes the story just a little harder to dismiss.

Because Australia is a very big place.

And there are still plenty of places where something could be hiding.

In 1822, eight convicts escaped one of the most brutal penal settlements in Van Diemen’s Land and disappeared into the wilderness.

What followed became one of the darkest survival stories in Australian history.

Starving, exhausted and hopelessly lost, the group began to turn on one another. Men vanished. Bodies were butchered. And when Alexander Pearce eventually emerged from the bush, his account was so horrific that authorities refused to believe him.

Then he escaped again.

In this episode of Dark Australia, we follow Pearce from the hell of Sarah Island into the unforgiving Tasmanian wilderness, through murder, cannibalism, confession and execution and examine the disturbing truth behind the man who became known as Tasmania’s convict cannibal.

This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence, death and cannibalism. Listener discretion is advised.

In Part Two of The Family, the world Anne Hamilton-Byrne built begins to collapse.

After years of isolation, control, punishment and psychological conditioning, some of the children start to question the life they have been forced to accept. Leeanne Creese escapes. Sarah Moore is pushed out. Both begin speaking to police.

Then, on 14 August 1987, authorities raid Kai Lama.

For the children inside, rescue does not feel like rescue. They have been taught to fear the outside world, distrust police and believe Anne is their mother, their spiritual authority, and the centre of their future.

What follows is the unraveling of one of Australia’s most disturbing cult stories, including the removal of the children, the investigation that became Operation Forest, the international hunt for Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne, and the legal outcome that left many survivors feeling justice had barely arrived at all.

This episode also looks beyond Anne herself, focusing on the people who escaped her control, rebuilt their identities and spent the rest of their lives trying to understand what had been done to them.

Behind the gates of a secluded property near Lake Eildon, a group of children were being raised almost entirely apart from the outside world.

They dressed alike. Their hair was dyed the same colour. They were told they were brothers and sisters.

And at the centre of their world was a woman they were taught to call mother.

Her name was Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

In Part One of this Dark Australia investigation, we trace the extraordinary rise of The Family from Hamilton-Byrne’s beginnings as a charismatic yoga teacher to the creation of a secretive movement that attracted doctors, nurses, academics and wealthy professionals.

We examine the beliefs that held the group together, the network that helped Hamilton-Byrne acquire children, and the isolated world created for them at a property known as Uptop.

Behind the carefully constructed image of a perfect family, something far darker was taking place.

This is the story of how The Family began and how one woman gained extraordinary control over the lives of those who followed her.

Part One of a Dark Australia investigation into The Family.

This episode contains discussions of child abuse, coercive control, drug use and other themes that some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised.

On 29 July 2023, five people sat down for lunch at a home in the small Victorian town of Leongatha.

On the menu was Beef Wellington.

Within days, three of the guests were dead. A fourth was critically ill. And at the centre of the investigation was the woman who had prepared the meal... Erin Patterson.

What followed became one of the most closely watched criminal cases in modern Australian history.

In this episode of Dark Australia, we reconstruct the lunch, the sudden illnesses that followed, the discovery of deadly death cap mushroom poisoning, and the extraordinary investigation that began to unravel Patterson's story.

From discarded evidence and changing explanations to the digital trail uncovered by police and the evidence eventually presented before a jury, we follow the case from a seemingly ordinary family gathering to a murder trial that captivated the country.

A meal. A lie. A family destroyed.

This is the story of Erin Patterson and the mushroom murders.

Dark Australia contains discussions of murder, death and other themes that some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised.

On the morning of 6 April 1966, something extraordinary happened above a suburban school in Melbourne.

More than 200 students and teachers reported seeing a strange flying object descend over Westall High School before disappearing into nearby paddocks. Within minutes, rumours spread of military vehicles, unexplained government interest, and witnesses who claimed they were warned never to speak about what they had seen.

Nearly sixty years later, the Westall UFO incident remains one of Australia's most compelling unsolved mysteries.

Was it a secret military experiment? A case of mass misidentification? Or did hundreds of ordinary Australians witness something that has never been satisfactorily explained?

In this episode of Dark Australia, we reconstruct the events of that morning through eyewitness testimony, archival reports, historical records, and decades of investigation. Together, we'll separate established fact from legend and explore why the mystery of Westall continues to captivate believers and sceptics alike.

Because sometimes... the most unbelievable stories are the ones witnessed by hundreds of people.