This episode is Part Two of the season finale. We look at some of the most visible and wild adolescent subcultures to form in Melbourne - in particular the larrikins who left an imprint on our national psyche and the sharpies who helped spearhead several of Australia’s most successful rock music exports. 

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This episode is Part One of the season finale. We look at some of the most visible and wild adolescent subcultures to form in Melbourne - in particular the larrikins who left an imprint on our national psyche and the sharpies who helped spearhead several of Australia’s most successful rock music exports. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode we explore two more Melbourne stories of people rising up and sticking it to the man.

It’s world war one and class tensions on the homefront are mounting. “I can tell you about the broken lives that caused the broken windows” says activist and suffragette Adela Pankhurst. 

In the early 1930s, the unemployed organise and fight a barrage of evictions across the suburb of Brunswick, even if it means breaking a few windows. Or getting shot. 

Check out the original Melbourne On Strike episode in Season One. 

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In 1903 an Indian hawker was found dead in the barn of the Junction Hotel. In this episode we discover just who were these travelling traders and query the police's investigation into this curious and sad case. 

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Psychiatric hospitals, mental institutions, mental asylums, lunatic asylums, nut houses, funny farms, the loony bin. Mental health facilities of bygone eras have gone by many names, and not all of them complimentary or kind.

These hospitals with their dark and intriguing architecture, their rundown appearance and supernatural reputations are frequently considered awesome places filled with ghosts and misery. 

But these places were often home to individuals within society who had no one to care for them and nowhere else to go. These places were their home.

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What’s the link between John Lennon of The Beatles and 19th century Aboriginal circus performer ‘Little Nugget’?

Find out as we follow the story of the St Leon family’s circus and uncover how pioneer Australian travelling performers fared hazards like crocodiles, bushrangers and even rebellions. In the process discover what the history of circus in this country tells us about colonialism and the very nature of how we see ourselves.

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At 11am on the 6th of April 1966 in Clayton Victoria, over 200 children and teachers claimed to have witnessed a silver disc shaped object flying over Westall Primary and Westall High School, before it zoomed off into a nearby paddock.

Many of the students followed the object into the paddock. Some even claim they were so close they could touch it, feeling the heat radiating off the thing before it shot off into the sky and disappeared. 

The mass sighting would become known as Westall 66.

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On the night of Tuesday the 12th December 1882 in Creswick Victoria 41 gold miners descend 250 feet into the New Australasian No.2 Gold Mine to start their night shift.

Hours later two brothers tie themselves together as the cold, rancid water continues to rise. The Navy is called. A whole town is on edge. The mining community of Victoria will be changed forever.

This episode is dedicated to memory of Dr Joan Hunt.

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It’s 1892 and a landlord makes a grim discovery about his previous tenants. An international hunt begins for the man with a distinctive ginger moustache who charms his way into the lives of multiple women.

But just how far was his reach? How infamous were his crimes?

And why are we all still so obsessed with violent men?

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