Earshot

Bev Francis found out by accident she was the strongest woman in the world. It was the late 1970s, and the sport of women’s weightlifting was still new. When international records were compared, no one was as strong as Bev: she could defy gravity, lifting more than three times her bodyweight. Meet this forgotten champion of women’s muscle sports, who’s a firm believer that rules are meant to be broken.

In July last year, after a surge in Covid outbreaks, 3000 residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were forced into hard lockdown. Police surrounded the buildings and no one was allowed in or out. The controversial lockdown drew a lot of criticism. Residents struggled to get hold of essential supplies and the heavy police presence made people feel like prisoners in their homes. One year on, we speak with some of those people who were locked down and locked in.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains the voice of a person who has died.

The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of Australia’s most pristine and unregulated river systems. But now the pressure is on to take its water for irrigation. Pastoralists watch the water flowing through their stations and see wasted opportunity. Traditional owners see life and say not one drop is wasted.

The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of our most pristine river systems. But it’s fast becoming one of Australia’s most contested spaces; for the oil, gas and land around it, and for the water in it.

How can you represent your country at the Olympics if you don’t have one? This was the challenge facing refugee athletes until 2016 when an Olympic team made up of asylum seekers was brought together to represent 80 million displaced people. In the run up to the 2021 Tokyo games, Earshot follows two Australian-based refugee athletes hoping to be selected for the highly competitive Refugee Olympic team.

From the Aboriginal mission to the steelworks to the sex workers, there’s many a tale etched into the bitumen of Wentworth Street.  Local artist Anne-Louise Rentell takes us on a tour of a suburb with a colourful past, in search of a new identity.  

Migrants, artists, drug users and The Western Bulldogs have brought fame and infamy to Footscray.  Writer and local Alice Pung introduces us to the people that make this Melbourne suburb feisty and full of heart.

The firestorm of 2019 has left a lingering shadow over this town.  Local radio DJ Don Ashby shows us the other side of Mallacoota – the abalone divers, the museum in a war bunker and the traditional owners who had to hide their Aboriginality to survive.

There’s so much more to this town than Priscilla and Mad Max. Writer Jack Marx takes us to the hidden corners of Broken Hill and its history; from the cross that used to light up the main street every time someone died to staring down the six o’clock swill.

The town of Nederland in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains has an unusual mascot: an old, dead Norwegian man, whose body is preserved in a backyard cryogenics chamber. Behind it all - his grandson keeps the dream of his return alive.