Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

What happened to Harold Holt?

On a Sunday in December 1967, the Prime Minister of Australia went for a swim off a beach near Portsea and never came out. More than three hundred people searched the water for him, and no trace of his body was ever found.

Fifty-eight years later, depending on who you ask, Harold Holt drowned, was killed by the CIA, ran off with his lover, or was dragged under by Chinese frogmen and carried away to Beijing in a submarine.

In this episode of Strewth we work through the theories, from the frankly ridiculous to the one a coroner finally signed off on in 2005, and ask why a man who had nearly drowned off that same beach seven months earlier swam straight back out past the breakers.

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Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• National Archives of Australia. Harold Holt's disappearance, Fact sheet 144. https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/fact-sheets/harold-holts-disappearance

• Victoria Police and Commonwealth Police. Joint report into the disappearance of Harold Holt, January 1968, including witness statements. National Archives of Australia, A1209, 1968/8063. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4982285

• Johnstone, Graeme (State Coroner of Victoria). Finding into the death of Harold Edward Holt, 2 September 2005. Coroners Court of Victoria. (Quoted via ABC reporting below.)

• Frame, Tom. The Life and Death of Harold Holt. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2005. https://archive.org/details/lifedeathharoldh00fram

• Grey, Anthony. The Prime Minister Was a Spy. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1983.

• Grey, Anthony. Hostage in Peking. Michael Joseph, London, 1970.

• ABC News. "Inside the disappearance of Harold Holt", 1 November 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-01/disappearance-harold-holt-inside-search-operation-australia/12817236

• ABC News. "Harold Holt: 50 years since Australia's first 20th century PM disappeared", 17 December 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-17/harold-holt-50-years-since-prime-minister-disappeared/9259680

• ABC News. "Coroner rules Holt conspiracy theories fanciful", 2 September 2005. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-09-02/coroner-rules-holt-conspiracy-theories-fanciful/2094682

• Griffiths, Tom. "How Harold Holt was lost". Inside Story. https://insidestory.org.au/how-harold-holt-was-lost/

• National Film and Sound Archive. "Allegations and conspiracy theories". https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/98238-allegations-and-conspiracy-theories

• Australian Screen Online. Curator's notes, The Harold Holt Mystery (1985). https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/the-harold-holt-mystery/notes/

• Archives Hub. Anthony Grey Archive, University of East Anglia, including the papers of Ronald Titcombe (embargoed). https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/b33f32ee-49ca-3a61-a1b9-29cc2f69a4b7

• Who Killed Harold Holt? Presented by Ray Martin. Nine Network, 20 November 2007.

• The Prime Minister is Missing. Directed by Peter Butt. ABC Television, 2008.

The Murder of Maria James - Part 2 of 2

In 2013, a council electrician named Alan Hircoe opened a newspaper and saw a photograph of a priest. He recognised the face. Years earlier, he said, while working at the presbytery of St Mary's in Thornbury, he had seen that priest come in from the garden with blood on his face and hands.

The priest was Father Anthony Bongiorno, and he had tried to force his way into Maria James's bookshop on the afternoon she was murdered.

But he had an alibi, and police believed the DNA had cleared him.

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Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• Coroners Court of Victoria. Finding into Death with Inquest: Maria Theresa James (COR 1980 1820). Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English. Delivered 31 March 2022, amended 4 April 2022. Findings index: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/inquests-findings/findings

• Victoria Police. "Cold case: Maria James." https://www.police.vic.gov.au/cold-case-maria-james

• Victoria Police. "Reward: Maria James." Published 14 June 2024. https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reward-maria-james

• Brown, Rachael. Trace (podcast), Season 1. ABC, 2017.

• Brown, Rachael. "Trace: The unsolved murder of Maria James." ABC News, 21 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/trace-the-unsolved-murder-of-maria-james/8612964

• Brown, Rachael. "Trace: Witness saw paedophile priest covered in blood near cold case murder victim Maria James' house." ABC News, 28 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/trace-priest-seen-covered-in-blood-near-maria-james-crime-scene/8652936

• "Trace: Police admit DNA bungle wrongly cleared paedophile priest as suspect in cold case murder." ABC News, 12 July 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/trace-police-admit-to-major-dna-bungle-in-maria-james-cold-case/8694870

• "Trace: No sign of conspiracy in Maria James investigation, Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says." ABC News, 14 September 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/victoria-police-investigating-trace-case-dna-mix-up/8944596

• "Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence." ABC News, 6 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/maria-james-inquest-begins/100436294

• "Dead priest had the motive, means and opportunity to commit unsolved murder, detective tells inquest." ABC News, 27 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/unsolved-murder-inquest-hears-of-priest-and-a-murderer/100491298

• "Maria James's family calls for a priest's exhumation, if DNA testing doesn't offer answers." ABC News, 4 November 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-04/application-to-exhume-priest-is-unsolved-murder-case/100499632

• "Coroner delivers open finding in inquest into the 1980 murder of Melbourne woman Maria James." ABC News, 31 March 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-31/maria-james-coronial-inquest-findings/100943730

• "Police offer $1 million reward to solve the cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James." ABC News, 14 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-14/maria-james-cold-case-murder-victoria-police-reward/103972070

• "Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Maria James inside Melbourne bookshop." The Guardian (Australia), 14 June 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/14/maria-james-murder-victoria-police-offer-1m-reward-thornbury-melbourne-bookshop

• "Sons make $1m plea to solve mother's bookshop murder." AAP, 14 June 2024. https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/police-offer-1-million-reward-to-solve-bookshop-murder

• "Killer's link to bookshop murder examined." AAP via The Canberra Times, 21 September 2021. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7439775/killers-link-to-bookshop-murder-examined/

• "DNA unknown when Maria James was killed." AAP via The Senior, September 2021. https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/7435659/dna-unknown-when-maria-james-was-killed/

The Murder of Maria James - Part 1 of 2

On 17 June 1980, John James rang his ex-wife, Maria, at her bookshop in Thornbury, Melbourne. She asked him to hang on. He heard voices and a small scream, and then the line went quiet. He strained to hear the muffled conversation being carried out in the shop. Then the voices became louder, more aggressive.

Then she screamed again.

Forty-six years and two inquests later, nobody has been charged with her murder.

Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast

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Contact me - [email protected]

Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• Coroners Court of Victoria. Finding into Death with Inquest: Maria Theresa James (COR 1980 1820). Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English. Delivered 31 March 2022, amended 4 April 2022. Findings index: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/inquests-findings/findings

• Victoria Police. "Cold case: Maria James." https://www.police.vic.gov.au/cold-case-maria-james

• Victoria Police. "Reward: Maria James." Published 14 June 2024. https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reward-maria-james

• Brown, Rachael. Trace (podcast), Season 1. ABC, 2017.

• Brown, Rachael. "Trace: The unsolved murder of Maria James." ABC News, 21 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/trace-the-unsolved-murder-of-maria-james/8612964

• Brown, Rachael. "Trace: Witness saw paedophile priest covered in blood near cold case murder victim Maria James' house." ABC News, 28 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/trace-priest-seen-covered-in-blood-near-maria-james-crime-scene/8652936

• "Trace: Police admit DNA bungle wrongly cleared paedophile priest as suspect in cold case murder." ABC News, 12 July 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/trace-police-admit-to-major-dna-bungle-in-maria-james-cold-case/8694870

• "Trace: No sign of conspiracy in Maria James investigation, Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says." ABC News, 14 September 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/victoria-police-investigating-trace-case-dna-mix-up/8944596

• "Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence." ABC News, 6 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/maria-james-inquest-begins/100436294

• "Dead priest had the motive, means and opportunity to commit unsolved murder, detective tells inquest." ABC News, 27 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/unsolved-murder-inquest-hears-of-priest-and-a-murderer/100491298

• "Maria James's family calls for a priest's exhumation, if DNA testing doesn't offer answers." ABC News, 4 November 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-04/application-to-exhume-priest-is-unsolved-murder-case/100499632

• "Coroner delivers open finding in inquest into the 1980 murder of Melbourne woman Maria James." ABC News, 31 March 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-31/maria-james-coronial-inquest-findings/100943730

• "Police offer $1 million reward to solve the cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James." ABC News, 14 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-14/maria-james-cold-case-murder-victoria-police-reward/103972070

• "Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Maria James inside Melbourne bookshop." The Guardian (Australia), 14 June 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/14/maria-james-murder-victoria-police-offer-1m-reward-thornbury-melbourne-bookshop

• "Sons make $1m plea to solve mother's bookshop murder." AAP, 14 June 2024. https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/police-offer-1-million-reward-to-solve-bookshop-murder

• "Killer's link to bookshop murder examined." AAP via The Canberra Times, 21 September 2021. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7439775/killers-link-to-bookshop-murder-examined/

• "DNA unknown when Maria James was killed." AAP via The Senior, September 2021. https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/7435659/dna-unknown-when-maria-james-was-killed/

The Pilliga Yowie

In the spring of 2010, a mother pulled into a roadside rest stop south of Coonabarabran so the kids could swim at Hickey's Falls. The car park was silent. Another car was parked by the trail with every door open, and somewhere up the hill a child was crying.

What happened next has become one of the best-known yowie encounters in the country, and it rests on the word of one woman who has never given her name. This is her account, set against the long and strange reputation of the Pilliga and the highway that runs through it.

The Interview: Hickeys Falls Revisited Anniversary Edition', Yowie Central, podcast, Acast, May 2026, https://shows.acast.com/yowie-central/episodes/ep185-hickeys-falls-revisited-anniversary-edition

Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast

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Contact me - [email protected]

Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources: Australian Yowie Research n.d., Hickeys Falls, New South Wales 2010, witness report, Australian Yowie Research, viewed September 2026, https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/2176-hickeys-falls-new-south-wales-2010

Australian Yowie Research 2020, Witness Audio Report #159: Hickeys Falls, New South Wales, YouTube, June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbBKDeMpezc

Yowie Central n.d., Yowie Central, podcast series page, Apple Podcasts, https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/yowie-central/id1554417233

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1976, https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1919-pilliga-new-south-wales-1976

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1978 (the Torana account), https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1441-pilliga-new-south-wales-1978

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1979 (AAP report quoting Constable Wayne Warren), https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1440-pilliga-new-south-wales-1979

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 1979 (second transcription of the AAP report), https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1442-pilliga-new-south-wales-1979-sp-19667

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 2001, https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1577-pilliga-new-south-wales

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 2003, https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1443-pilliga-new-south-wales-2003

Australian Yowie Research n.d., Pilliga, New South Wales 2010, https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/new-south-wales/1444-pilliga-new-south-wales-2010

Ridley, W 1875, Kámilarói and Other Australian Languages, 2nd edn, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, Sydney, digitised by the National Library of Australia, https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1099858783/view

The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 2 of 2

A Queensland carpenter identified off a television screen twenty five years later. A man serving life who was ruled out by the only witness who saw the abductor's face. A friend of the family who was pulled in for questioning and never charged. And an upholsterer with a shack in the mid north whose own grandson wrote forty pages about him from a prison cell.

Fifty three years on, nobody has been charged with the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon. What the case has instead is names. In Part two of the Adelaide Oval abductions, we chase down the suspects and present new evidence in this horrifying case.

Sleepers Podcast - Bryan Littlely and Max Marten https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise/episodes/688c7609fc150bcf7f24a146

Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast

Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact me - [email protected]

Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon

• Andrew Rule, "50 years on, the search for a depraved man who abducted and killed two little girls continues", Herald Sun, August 2023. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/50-years-on-the-search-for-a-depraved-man-who-abducted-and-killed-two-little-girls-continues/news-story/28ecaa5f898e6d96f4c03bb566116128

• Elizabeth Henson, "Adelaide Oval abduction witness Tony Kilmartin reveals what happened the day Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were taken", The Advertiser. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-oval-abduction-witness-tony-kilmartin-reveals-what-happened-the-day-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe-were-taken/news-story/91a88591d76f28407092ebd318a990f9

• Belinda Jepsen, "The Adelaide Oval abduction", Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/adelaide-oval-abduction/

• "Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon abduction: Adelaide Oval mystery breakthrough", Under Investigation, Nine, October 2022. https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html

• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, season 1, episode 2, interview with Anthony Kilmartin. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise

• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, interview with Alex Bone, recorded November 2024. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise

• 1973 SANFL season, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_SANFL_season

The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 1 of 2

Adelaide Oval, the twenty fifth of August, 1973. Norwood versus North Adelaide, a winter crowd. Joanne Ratcliffe, eleven, took four year old Kirste Gordon to the toilets, the way she had done once already that afternoon. Ninety minutes later they were three kilometres from the ground, fighting for their lives, and they have never been seen since.

In part one of two, we thoroughly examine the events of that day. Facts that we have believed to be the truth for over 50 years might not have told us the full story. We reveal the new eye-witness testimony that challenges the conventional wisdom on a case that has haunted Australia for decades.

Sleepers Podcast - Bryan Littlely and Max Marten https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise/episodes/688c7609fc150bcf7f24a146

Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast

Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact me - [email protected]

Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon

• Andrew Rule, "50 years on, the search for a depraved man who abducted and killed two little girls continues", Herald Sun, August 2023. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/50-years-on-the-search-for-a-depraved-man-who-abducted-and-killed-two-little-girls-continues/news-story/28ecaa5f898e6d96f4c03bb566116128

• Elizabeth Henson, "Adelaide Oval abduction witness Tony Kilmartin reveals what happened the day Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were taken", The Advertiser. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-oval-abduction-witness-tony-kilmartin-reveals-what-happened-the-day-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe-were-taken/news-story/91a88591d76f28407092ebd318a990f9

• Belinda Jepsen, "The Adelaide Oval abduction", Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/adelaide-oval-abduction/

• "Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon abduction: Adelaide Oval mystery breakthrough", Under Investigation, Nine, October 2022. https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html

• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, season 1, episode 2, interview with Anthony Kilmartin. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise

• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, interview with Alex Bone, recorded November 2024. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise

• 1973 SANFL season, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_SANFL_season

The Perth Mint Swindle - The Perfect Crime? In April 1982 somebody broke into a building in Perth, stole a pad of blank cheques, and burnt the place to the ground on the way out. Five weeks later they did it again.

Ten weeks after that, sixty-eight kilograms of gold walked out the front door of the Perth Mint in broad daylight.

Nobody was threatened. Nobody was hurt. Nobody raised their voice. The thief built the entire robbery out of honest strangers: a clerk, three armoured couriers, a temp on her first morning, and a bloke following instructions over a CB radio. Every one of them did their job properly. Not one of them could describe him.

Forty-four years on, the Perth Mint swindle has never been solved.

Sources:

ABC News 2008, Mickelbergs to receive $1 million ex gratia payment, 16 January, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-16/mickelbergs-to-receive-1-million-ex-gratia-payment/1013980

ABC News 2008, Mickelberg brothers vow to fight on, 19 January, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-19/mickelberg-brothers-vow-to-fight-on/1017342

ABC News 2013, Mickelberg matriarch dies of old age, 28 August, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/peggy-mickelberg/4917362

Mayes, A 2023, The other Perth Mint scandal: The Mickelberg brothers and the great gold swindle, ABC News, 1 April, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-01/the-other-perth-mint-scandal-of-the-mickelberg-brothers-swindle/102113790

Pallaras, S 1999, The Mickelberg Saga and the Public Purse, Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory, Seventh Biennial Conference, Kuta, Bali, 27 June to 2 July, https://clant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/the-bali-conference/1999/Pallaras-Stephen-The-Mickelberg-Saga-amp-thePublic-Purse-BampW.pdf

Perth Mint, 2025, Iconic Moments in the Perth Mint's History. https://www.perthmint.com/news/stories/history/iconic-moments-in-the-perth-mints-history

Western Australian Government 2002, New evidence on Mickelberg case referred to Police Royal Commission, media statement, 10 June, https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/Gallop%20Labor%20Government/New-evidence-on-Mickelberg-case-referred-to-Police-Royal-Commission-20020610

Western Australian Government 2008, Ex-gratia payment to Ray and Peter Mickelberg, media statement, 16 January, https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/Carpenter%20Labor%20Government/Ex-gratia-payment-to-Ray-and-Peter-Mickelberg-20080116

Wikipedia, Perth Mint Swindle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Mint_Swindle

The Luna Park Ghost Train Disaster - Part 2 of 2

For years the most talked about aspect of the Luna Park fire was a photograph of a six year old boy standing next to a man in a horned mask, taken hours before he died. People called it the Luna Park demon.

But the material that actually mattered was being collated for over thirty four years by the artist who painted the face over the front gate. The contents of this collection inspired an ABC documentary that brought the truth to light in 2021.

In this episode we analyse the documents, the witness testimony and the other evidence that has been unearthed to try to answer the question that has haunted a nation: What started the Luna Park Ghost Train Fire?

Exposed - The Ghost Train Fire - https://iview.abc.net.au/show/exposed-the-ghost-train-fire

Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast

Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact me - [email protected]

Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• Anderson, K.S. (Coroner), Fire Inquiry and Inquests: Luna Park Ghost Train, Coroner's Court of New South Wales, Glebe

• Tiffen, R. and Masters, C., ABC Editorial Review 25: Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, August 2021.

• Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Karagic, A. and Balendra, S., "Accident or arson? The mystery of Sydney's Luna Park Ghost Train fire", ABC News, 16 March 2021.

• Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Balendra, S., Karagic, A. and Barilla, N., "'Luckiest boy alive': Luna Park Ghost Train fire survivor breaks his silence", ABC News, 10 March 2021.

• Bramston, T., "Allegations Wran involved in Luna Park fire condemned", The Australian, April 2021.

• Muller, D., "How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards", The Conversation, 2021.

• "Luna Park Ghost Train fire: Coroner asks police to review evidence", Sydney Morning Herald, April 2021.

The Luna Park Ghost Train Disaster - Part 1 of 2 On a cold Saturday night in June 1979, a rail strike had left Sydney's Luna Park almost empty. Three passengers rode past the imitation fireplace inside the Ghost Train and saw real flames in it. Every one of them assumed it was part of the ride.

But in the two and a half minutes that followed, seven people tragically lost their lives. Six of them were children. By three o'clock the next afternoon the police had announced a cause, ruled out anything suspicious and released the site. Nobody had examined the wreckage at all.

This is part one of two in which we outline the events of the night in question and the original findings of the coroner.

Exposed - The Ghost Train Fire - https://iview.abc.net.au/show/exposed-the-ghost-train-fire

Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast

Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact me - [email protected]

Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay

Sources:

• Anderson, K.S. (Coroner), Fire Inquiry and Inquests: Luna Park Ghost Train, Coroner's Court of New South Wales, Glebe

• Tiffen, R. and Masters, C., ABC Editorial Review 25: Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, August 2021.

• Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Karagic, A. and Balendra, S., "Accident or arson? The mystery of Sydney's Luna Park Ghost Train fire", ABC News, 16 March 2021.

• Meldrum-Hanna, C., Begley, P., Balendra, S., Karagic, A. and Barilla, N., "'Luckiest boy alive': Luna Park Ghost Train fire survivor breaks his silence", ABC News, 10 March 2021.

• Bramston, T., "Allegations Wran involved in Luna Park fire condemned", The Australian, April 2021.

• Muller, D., "How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards", The Conversation, 2021.

• "Luna Park Ghost Train fire: Coroner asks police to review evidence", Sydney Morning Herald, April 2021.

The Unsolved Murder of William Mullins

The fourth of July, 1913. Four men stand shin-deep in the Tyne River in the north-east of Tasmania, in snowmelt coming off the range, turning a prospector's dish.

The method is sixty years old in that valley. Gold came out of Black Horse Gully in the 1850s and every man standing in the water learnt the dish as a boy.

But today, they are not panning for gold. There is a bag of ash on the bank beside them, carried down from a hollow on a hillside two kilometres back, and another bag coming. A farmer named William Mullins walked out to check his possum traps a fortnight earlier and did not come home, and this is what is left to look for him with.

Six weeks later a jury of his neighbours sat in the Mathinna hall and named the man who killed him. Six weeks after that a Chief Justice in Hobart took the case off a second jury before they were allowed to consider it.

This week on Strewth, the Mathinna Mystery.

Launceston By Foot - https://www.launcestonbyfoot.com/

Sources:

• "Ellen Sneezewell: Her Life and Unfortunate Death." From On the Town - Dianne Cassidy (2020) https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55780385-on-the-town

• "The Mathinna Tragedy. Summing Up of the Coroner. Daniel Jones Found Guilty of Murder. Mrs Jones an Accessory." The Mercury (Hobart), 13 August 1913. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10295662

• Trial report, The Mercury (Hobart), 25 September 1913. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10300830

• Trial report, The Examiner (Launceston), 24 September 1913.

• Druce, Alex. "Mathinna murder mystery endures." The Examiner (Launceston), June 2013.

• "Tragedy in Launceston. Murder and Attempted Suicide." The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW), 9 May 1882, reprinting the Launceston Examiner. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/851532

• "Murder in Launceston." The Mercury (Hobart), 1 May 1882. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9008855

• "Execution of George Braxton at Launceston." The Mercury (Hobart), 11 July 1882. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9026073