Join Tom, David and their guest, historic reenactor Chase Day, as they uncover the story of Jac Jorgenson, and discuss the rich tradition of women in the military. See below for our gallery of remarkable female fighters, courtesy of Chase’s Facebook group Bob the Reenactor.

John ‘Jac’ Jorgenson (or Jorgensen) moved to country Victoria in the 1800s, worked as a farmhand and joined the local mounted rifles. But not everything in their life was as it seemed and upon their death their carefully constructed life story came unraveled.

• Collin van Uden
  Journalist
• Emil Freund
  Newspaper Editor, Farmer Bailey, Major Hoad, Dr Haarse
• Wes Scott:
  Farmhand, Mr McColl
• Ben Marshall:
  Jac’s Friend, Colonel Price, Dr McGillivray, Constable Bennett
• Rebecca O’Callaghan:
  Theresa Newman (Jac’s sister)

• Frances Clayton aka Jack Williams fought alongside her husband in the US Civil War
• Pirates Ann Bonny and Mary Read depicted in 1724
• Maud Butler who twice attempted to enlist during WWI
• Pirate Mary Read wins a duel
• Julie d’Aubigny – French Renaissance Bisexual Duelest and Opera Singer
• The great female samurai, Tomoe Gozen from The Tale of the Heike
• Albert Cashier adopted the identity of a man before enlisting in the US Civil War, and maintained it for the remainder of her life.
• Highly accomplished 19th century US Duelest Ella Hattan, “Jaguarina”.
• Another image of Ella Hattan, the Jaguarina

In an era when doctors were dangerous hacks, what alternatives did you have? This episode explores the story of Mary Barrel, Australia’s first identified ‘cunning person’. A woman who practiced an ancient traditional craft of folk medicine. We’ll also explore the world of concealed marks and ritual hidden in historic homes.

If you find something of this nature, or are interested to go hunting have a look at the Touching Magic Guide. This guide was developed by the Tasmanian Magic Research Project and will help you identify commonly hidden objects and marks. If you found this topic interesting, then we strongly recommend checking out their Facebook.

If you find anything, please contact us immediately. Do not move the objects, or if you must, photograph and document their placement extensively first.

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Over the last two hundred years, we’ve changed Victoria’s ecology beyond recognition. Each generation since White arrival has continued this rapid transformation, irreversibly altering the world once known intimately by Indigenous Australians. But this relationship has not been one-way. Each time we’ve driven change into the ecology, it has responded with unpredictable effects. It has shaped the new Australians themselves – and in unexpected ways.

Joining Tom and David to explore this topic are academic Fred Cahir and local Wadawurrung man Barry Gilson.

https://talesfromratcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ep-8-a-time-of-change1.mp3

Click through the slideshow to witness the changing face of Black Hill:

Click to view slideshow.

Emerging from the Victorian bush in 1835 after thirty-two years with the Wadawurrung people, William Buckley has never ceased surprising Australians. In this episode, hear how an illiterate escaped convict became a rare link between alien cultures. Buckley changed Victorian history forever, and even today his story can still offer us rare insight into pre-colonial Indigenous lives.

https://talesfromratcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/episode-7-buckleys-chance.mp3

Featuring

Paul Michael Donovan, academic at Federation University

Edward’s unnoticed and perfectly ordinary life comes completely unravelled after a dramatic public unmasking.

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Cast

Benjamin Marshall – Pamphlet Writer

Despite the wide familiarity, few Australians would know the bizarre and wonderful Indigenous tale that lies behind our Bunyip. Paul Donovan joins us to explain how his compelling and fascinating research may have shed light on this ancient legend, and provide a pretty good case for just what exactly the original Bunyip was.

https://talesfromratcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/episode-five-the-call-of-the-bunyip.mp3

Join us as we pull back the superstition and find out what inspired the Ghost Hoaxers of the Goldfields, and hear first-hand accounts from their victims in lurid court trials.

https://talesfromratcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/episode-four-ghost-hoaxing-in-the-goldfields.mp3