Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

Avsnitt

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  The Perth Mint Swindle - Australian True Crime 15.09.2026 41min

  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
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  The Ghost Train Fire: Part 2 - Australian True Crime 10.09.2026 32min

  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.
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  The Ghost Train Fire: Part 1 - Australian True Crime 08.09.2026 31min

  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.  
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  The Mathinna Mystery - Australian True Crime 01.09.2026 40min

  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  
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  Wakehurst Parkway - Australian Mystery 25.08.2026 35min

  Wakehurst Parkway - Australia's Most Haunted Road Fourteen kilometres of unlit road run straight through the bush through the bush on Sydney's Northern Beaches. By day it is a commuter route with a flooding problem. After dark it is the most haunted road in the city, and people have been reporting the same young woman on the verge for more than fifty years. What is on the record is just as horrifying. Four very real killings, thirty five years apart, no connection between the people who committed them. So what brings them to the same stretch of road to commit these heinous crimes. In this episode I drive the Wakehurst Parkway end to end. Are you game enough to join me? 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: Rozenberg-Clarke, Josephine. "Wakehurst Parkway Ghost: Tales From Sydney's Most Haunted Road." Pedestrian.TV, 22 May 2019. https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/wakehurst-parkway-ghosts/ "Wakehurst Parkway: 'Ghost of Kelly' haunts road on Sydney's Northern Beaches." Nine.com.au, 31 October 2018. https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/haunted-roads-wakehurst-parkway-sydney-northern-beaches-ghost-kelly-halloween-20181031-p5wpbq.html Hla Oo. "Dark Parkway." Hla Oo's Blog, November 2010. http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2010/11/dark-parkway.html "Wakehurst Parkway Ghost: The Hitchhiker of Sydney's Haunted Road." Earth Bound, 10 March 2026. https://earthboundguides.com/blogs/supernatural-sydney/wakehurst-parkway-ghost-the-hitchhiker-of-sydney-s-haunted-road "Wakehurst Parkway Drivers Report Chilling Ghost Sightings In Oxford Falls Stretch." Cromer News. https://cromernews.com.au/wakehurst-parkway-drivers-report-chilling-ghost-sightings-in-oxford-falls-stretch/
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  A Clear Night, Moderately Well Lit - Australian True Crime 20.08.2026 36min

  The Disappearance of Kath Bergamin - Part 2 of 2 On the evening of Sunday the 18th of August 2002, a woman walking her dog in Wangaratta crossed the road to avoid a parked car with the music up. That put her four or five metres from a stranger's front door, where a man was standing on the step talking to somebody behind the flywire. Margaret Scutt kept it to herself for five years and by the time she picked up the phone, a coroner had opened an inquest into what happened to the woman behind that door. In part two of our two part series into the disappearance of Kath Bergamin, we walk through that Sunday hour by hour. Pulling apart the evidence and scrutinising those around her to try to determine what happened to Kath on that fateful night. 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 Record of Investigation into Suspected Death, Case No. 1111/07. Coroner Peter White, State Coroner's Office Victoria, dated at Melbourne 4 June 2008. Australian Missing Persons Register, Kath Bergamin case file. australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/Bergamin.htm. Wangaratta Chronicle, 20 Years since Kath was murdered. 26 August 2002. https://www.wangarattachronicle.com.au/news/police-and-courts/20-years-since-kath-was-murdered-kjfuy8xj ABC News, 10 August 2015. Family seeking the $1m reward increase. abc.net.au/news/2015-08-10/family-of-missing-woman-kath-bergamin-want-reward-increased/6684520 Nine.com.au / AAP, 3 October 2017. "Letter-writer key to Victorian cold case." Det Insp Tim Day. nine.com.au/australia-news/vic/dna-hope-in-missing-vic-woman-case-20171003-p5vxur.html Wangaratta Chronicle, 18 August 2025. "Cold case hope."  wangarattachronicle.com.au/news/police-and-courts/cold-case-hope-ganvyycv  
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  Half the Farm - Australian True Crime 18.08.2026 32min

  The Disappearance of Kath Bergamin - Part 1 of 2 Kath Bergamin was thirty seven. She had married at eighteen and spent nineteen years on a tobacco farm sixty kilometres up the King Valley, raising three children, working the property, and telling a small number of trusted people that her husband had said she would never get off it alive. On the 29th of May 2002, she escaped it. This is the story of the eleven weeks that followed, the last eleven weeks of Kath Bergamin's life. 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: Record of Investigation into Suspected Death, Case No. 1111/07. Coroner Peter White, State Coroner's Office Victoria, dated at Melbourne 4 June 2008. Australian Missing Persons Register, Kath Bergamin case file. australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/Bergamin.htm. Wangaratta Chronicle, 20 Years since Kath was murdered. 26 August 2002. https://www.wangarattachronicle.com.au/news/police-and-courts/20-years-since-kath-was-murdered-kjfuy8xj ABC News, 10 August 2015. Family seeking the $1m reward increase. abc.net.au/news/2015-08-10/family-of-missing-woman-kath-bergamin-want-reward-increased/6684520 Nine.com.au / AAP, 3 October 2017. "Letter-writer key to Victorian cold case." Det Insp Tim Day. nine.com.au/australia-news/vic/dna-hope-in-missing-vic-woman-case-20171003-p5vxur.html Macleay Argus / AAP, Callum Godde, 17 September 2020. "Five interviewed over Vic mother cold case." Wangaratta Chronicle, 18 August 2025. "Cold case hope." Source for the Part 2 closing beat. wangarattachronicle.com.au/news/police-and-courts/cold-case-hope-ganvyycv
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  Phantoms of the Line - Australian Mystery 11.08.2026 33min

  Australian Train Heist Mysteries In December 1973, two men in black stopped a train in the rainforest above Cairns, took the track workers' wages off it at gunpoint and vanished down a drain into the scrub. Thirty-five years earlier and half a state away, a mine payroll was lifted out of a locked mail van on the dark run to Mount Isa, so cleanly that a full day went by before anyone knew it was gone. Two railways, two payrolls, and two impeccable railway heists. This week on Strewth, the Phantoms of the Line. 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: "MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY. £3,000 IN NOTES STOLEN. North Queensland Haul." Brisbane, 31 August 1938.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42110600 "MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY. BRISBANE DETECTIVES. Called In To Assist." Brisbane, 4 September 1938. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62172323 ABC News, "Mystery of Australia's Great Kuranda rail robbery remains unsolved 50 years on," 2023. Queensland Police Museum, "FROM the VAULT - Silk Yards and a Railway Guard," The Workshops Rail Museum (Queensland Museum), "Railway Mysteries," David Mewes, 25 June 2014. https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2014/06/25/railway-mysteries/ Secondary (retrospective features) The Cairns Post, "Cairns mystery: 1973 Kuranda rail armed robbery," Pete Martinelli, 2018. ABC News, "Deathbed confession solves 66-year-old robbery case," 10 February 2005.  
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  Where is Peter Falconio? - Australian True Crime 06.08.2026 29min

  The Disappearance of Peter Falconio - Part 2 of 2 Bradley Murdoch was convicted of Peter Falconio's murder and died in prison still denying it. Twenty-five years on, there is still no body, and some of the evidence that put him away has never stopped being argued over. In part two of two we analyse the evidence, the doubts, the stories, and leave you holding the one question a jury, a judge and a dying man could not close. Where is Peter Falconio? --------------------- 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: "25 years on: How Joanne Lees escaped the fate of Peter Falconio," Woman's Day, 12 July 2026. https://www.nowtolove.com.au/true-crime/joanne-lees-peter-falconio-25-years/ "A Quarter-Century Search for Answers," Nine , 2026. https://www.nineforbrands.com.au/media-release/a-quarter-century-search-for-answers/ "Outback Terror: The Falconio Murder: Documentary revives search for remains in Australia's Northern Territory," Victoria Laurie, The Sydney Morning Herald (Nine network), 2026. https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-documentary-reviving-the-search-for-peter-falconio-s-remains-20260712-p60enu.html "Peter Falconio: Australian police reveal previously unseen photos 25 years after backpacker murder," BBC News, 14 July 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlwln0gkzlo "Police release new footage of Northern Territory killer days before death," Nine 10 July 2026. https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/nt/bradley-john-murdoch-police-footage-peter-falconio-20260711-p60ehc.html "Peter Falconio murder: British expert says he has identified a 'most likely' burial location," The Guardian, 18 July 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/18/peter-falconio-british-expert-says-he-has-identified-a-most-likely-burial-location "Peter Falconio's body could be 70km from murder scene, former police officer says," Courtney Barrett, ABC News, 14 July 2026. abc.net.au/news/peter-falconio-body-investigator-nt-missing-person-search/106911332
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  The Barrow Creek Incident - Australian True Crime 04.08.2026 27min

  The Disappearance of Peter Falconio - Part 1 of 2 July 2001. A young English couple drive north into the Australian desert, and only one of them is ever seen again. Joanne Lees escapes a killer on the loneliest road in the country, hides for hours in the dark, and walks out to raise the alarm. Plenty of armchair detectives are quick to decide that she is the one with something to hide. In part one of two: the crime, the manhunt, and the survivor who was put on trial by everyone except the law. 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: "25 years on: How Joanne Lees escaped the fate of Peter Falconio," Woman's Day, 12 July 2026. https://www.nowtolove.com.au/true-crime/joanne-lees-peter-falconio-25-years/ "A Quarter-Century Search for Answers," Nine , 2026. https://www.nineforbrands.com.au/media-release/a-quarter-century-search-for-answers/ "Outback Terror: The Falconio Murder: Documentary revives search for remains in Australia's Northern Territory," Victoria Laurie, The Sydney Morning Herald (Nine network), 2026. https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-documentary-reviving-the-search-for-peter-falconio-s-remains-20260712-p60enu.html "Peter Falconio: Australian police reveal previously unseen photos 25 years after backpacker murder," BBC News, 14 July 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlwln0gkzlo "Police release new footage of Northern Territory killer days before death," Nine 10 July 2026. https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/nt/bradley-john-murdoch-police-footage-peter-falconio-20260711-p60ehc.html "Peter Falconio murder: British expert says he has identified a 'most likely' burial location," The Guardian, 18 July 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/18/peter-falconio-british-expert-says-he-has-identified-a-most-likely-burial-location "Peter Falconio's body could be 70km from murder scene, former police officer says," Courtney Barrett, ABC News, 14 July 2026. abc.net.au/news/peter-falconio-body-investigator-nt-missing-person-search/106911332  
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  Up the Back - Australian True Crime 28.07.2026 34min

  Up the Back - The Disappearance of Garry Conwell On a winter morning in 2024, Garry Conwell told his partner he was heading up the back to check the cattle. He went out in a dressing gown and work boots, because he wasn't going far. His quad bike was found by a creek about fifteen minutes' walk from his own kitchen. Not bogged. Not damaged. Nobody on it. What followed was the biggest search that district has ever seen. Helicopters, drones, sonar, police rescue, SES, cadaver dogs. On 265 acres, they found two things. Police told the family a disorientated man couldn't have gone far. They also couldn't find him. Both of those can't be true. Garry's story comes from LOST, the new book from Nicole Morris, Director of the Australian Missing Persons Register, out July 28th. https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/lost/ If you know anything about the disappearance of Garry Conwell, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast   Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast    Contact us - [email protected]   Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay  
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  King William's Town - Australian Ghost Stories 21.07.2026 39min

  While it is now an affluent Melbourne suburb, Williamstown, or King William's Town as it was originally known has had quite the chequered past. In this episode of Strewth, we tell some good old fashioned ghost stories and explore the truth behind the tales. You'll hear about a ruined opera singer who lost his voice and permanently took a room above a pub. An eighteen year old barmaid, dead of a poison the Government analyst swore couldn't have killed her, and the man who bemoans her death still. Then a Strewth listener, Matt tells us what he and three mates met on a cold night in a quiet street in Williamstown. Lantern Ghost Tours, Williamstown - https://www.lanternghosttours.com/ Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast   Contact us - [email protected]   Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: "Suicide of Mr. John De Haga", The Argus 5th October, 1872 via Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5840007 "The Williamstown Poisoning Case", The Leader (Melbourne), 4 February 1888. February 1862 Williamstown fire (Cole Street / Steam Packet / old Ship Inn). butlerfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com, Early Williamstown colour: the "Bucket of Blood" shanty (attrib. Michael Cannon, "Old Melbourne Town") and the 1841 "nineteen residents, six publicans" figure (attrib. Paul McGuire, "Inns of Australia"). Jacqui Travaglia, Lantern Ghost Tours (Williamstown) — background provided directly to the production on the Timeball Tower and Steam Packet Hotel hauntings, including John Price, Richard Vaughan and the lady in white, John De Haga, Jane Nicholls, "Charles", and the reported staff experiences (moving glassware, footsteps, the knocking cupboard, the bed account).  
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  By the Light of the Moon - Australian Mystery 15.07.2026 38min

  Cattle Mutilations in Australia and Beyond On a tucked-away cattle station north-west of Mackay, Mick and Judy Cook keep finding their beasts dead in the grass. An udder gone. A tongue. An ear, cut clean. No blood, no tracks, and nothing in the bush will come near the carcass. They are not the first. Seventy years earlier, on the dairy country behind Lismore, farmers walked their fences on the full moon with the shotguns loaded, watching for a killer the papers called the moonlight sadist. He was never caught. This week on Strewth, we follow the cattle that have been dying strangely on Australian land since at least 1953, the graziers who paid a price for saying so out loud, and the plain scientific answer that covers nearly all of it. Nearly. Content note: this episode describes injuries to livestock and may not suit every listener. Sources: Georgia Noack, "Aliens 'only explanation' for mutilated cows found on Aussie farm, farmers say," NZ Herald, 3 April 2023. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/aliens-only-explanation-for-mutilated-cows-found-on-aussie-farm-farmers-say/2UKN2FVUGVCT7HMQ4NF6ETPZTA/ Tara Cassidy, "Dead cows found in paddock with udders, ears and tongues removed," ABC News (Tropical North), 6 September 2018. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-06/mutilated-cows-found-dead-in-country-town/10190736 Ross Coulthart, "The UFO Phenomenon: Australia's cattle mutilation mystery," 7NEWS Spotlight, 2021. https://7news.com.au/spotlight/the-ufo-phenomenon-australias-cattle-mutilation-mystery-c-3035029.amp Jessica Johnston, "Cattle mutilated in North Queensland the work of aliens or robots, owners say," 11 September 2018. Jason Costigan MP (Member for Whitsunday), record of proceedings, Queensland Parliament, 28 October 2014. https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/speeches/spk2014/Jason_Costigan-Whitsunday-20141028-238967456772.pdf "Lismore Cattle Mutilated," Townsville Daily Bulletin, 18 July 1953 (Brisbane dateline, 17 July 1953). Digitised, National Library of Australia, Trove. "The Nimble Junjudee From Jiggi," The Fortean, 21 July 2018. https://www.thefortean.com/2018/07/21/the-nimble-junjudee-from-jiggi/ Michael J. Goleman, "Wave of Mutilation: The Cattle Mutilation Phenomenon of the 1970s," Agricultural History, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Summer 2011), pp. 398–417. Agricultural History Society. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3098/ah.2011.85.3.398 P. Nick Nation and Elisabeth S. Williams, "Maggots, mutilations and myth: Patterns of postmortem scavenging of the bovine carcass," Canadian Veterinary Journal, Vol. 30, September 1989, pp. 742–747.  
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  Weiberg's Gold - Australian Mystery 07.07.2026 36min

  The Lost Gold of the Avoca - Australian Mystery In 1877, five thousand freshly minted gold sovereigns were shipped out of Sydney, bound for Ceylon on a ship called the Avoca. When the strong box was finally opened at Galle, there was nothing inside but sawdust and iron bolts. The gold had vanished from a locked strongroom, behind seals that nobody had broken. The man behind it was the Avoca's carpenter, a quiet Norwegian named Martin Weiberg, who understood the bones of a ship better than anyone aboard and used this knowledge to pull off one of Australia's greatest maritime heists. What became of Martin Weiberg, and of the gold he hid so well that most of it is still out there, is a question South Gippsland has been asking for nearly a hundred and fifty years. -------------------------- Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast   Contact us - [email protected]  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Ghosts of Gippsland Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/2LsdRY2maDbH6qWvuLJZeL?si=7b447d023c3d4913 "A Great Gold Robbery." The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW), 11 August 1906, p. 6. [Trove: nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122703377] "Buried Treasure of Inverloch: Somewhere a Hidden Cache of 15,000 Sovereigns Awaits a Lucky Finder." By John Philip. The Argus (Melbourne), 8 January 1938. [Trove: nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11138634] "The Rumoured Drowning of Martin Weiberg." 19 October 1883 (referenced via ABC Gippsland reporting) The Age (Melbourne), 29 October 1878, report of Weiberg's arrest (quoted in ABC Gippsland reporting) Maunder, Sarah, and Rachael Lucas. "Are Martin Weiberg's stolen gold sovereigns buried somewhere in Gippsland?" ABC Gippsland (Curious Gippsland series), 19 September 2019. [abc.net.au/news/2019-09-19/what-happened-to-martin-weibergs-missing-treasure/11485278] "The Vanished Gold of Gippsland." Strange Company blog, February 2026. [strangeco.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-vanished-gold-of-gippsland.html] O'Riley, Annie. "Buried Treasures." oddhistory.com.au, 6 September 2013.
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  A Bizarre Journey - Australian Mystery 30.06.2026 35min

  The Bizarre Case of the Tromp Family In August 2016, an ordinary family from the hills east of Melbourne did something no one has ever fully explained. They left their phones on the kitchen bench, their passports in the drawer, the keys in the cars, and they drove. More than fifteen hundred kilometres, across two states, running from a danger no one else could see. Over six days they came apart one at a time, until a stranger driving to a doctor's appointment felt a kick from the floor of his ute and turned around. No crime. No villain. No threat anyone could find. So what were the Tromps running from? This week on Strewth: The Bizarre Case of the Tromp Family. ------------------------------------------------- Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - [email protected]   Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Marshallsea, Trevor. "Tromp family: The mystery of a tech-free road trip gone wrong." BBC News, 7 September 2016. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-37293494  Mills, Tammy, and Shana Morgan. "Ella Tromp: Police charge youngest Tromp child with stealing a car." Stuff, 5 September 2016. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/83928440/ella-tromp-police-charge-youngest-tromp-child-with-stealing-a-car  "Riana Tromp speaks about bizarre roadtrip in first interview." news.com.au, 15 May 2017. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/riana-tromp-speaks-about-bizarre-roadtrip-in-first-interview/news-story/459be05ad66da097415bf3e865ea9b4c  "Tromp daughter was found in back of ute." SBS News (AAP, citing the Goulburn Post), September 2016. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/tromp-daughter-was-found-in-back-of-ute/tzpes451z  "The Tromp Family Disappearance." The Crime Talk Blog, n.d. https://thecrimetalk.com/mysteries/the-tromp-family-disappearance/  Dave. "Folie a Deux: The Bizarre Tale of Sabina and Ursula Eriksson." Horror Bound Blog, 15 March 2021. https://www.horrorbound.net/blog/2021/2/23/folie-a-deux-bizarre-tale-of-sabina-and-ursula-eriksson 
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  A Man and His Dog: Part 2 - Australian True Crime 26.06.2026 35min

  The Unsolved Disappearance of Paddy Moriarty from Larrimah - Part 2 of 2 A man and his dog vanished from an outback town of a dozen people, a few hundred metres from home. In Part Two, the rest of the world arrives to look for them. The searches. The divers. A quarter-million-dollar reward. A listening device left running in a quiet house, and a voice in the dark that the police thought might finally be the break they'd been waiting for. An inquest, a coroner who stood up and said the word out loud, and then, years later, two flat sentences that brought the whole thing to a halt. The conclusion of A Man and His Dog. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast    Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast   Contact us - [email protected]  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: ABC News — Matt Garrick, "Why Paddy Moriarty's disappearance from the tiny town of Larrimah may never be fully solved," 8 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-08/paddy-moriarty-case-nt-dpp-decision-larrimah-mystery-continues/103947002 ABC News — Roxanne Fitzgerald, "Case involving suspected death of Paddy Moriarty handed to Director of Public Prosecutions," 13 September 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-13/paddy-moriarty-case-handed-to-director-of-public-prosecutions/101433924 The Guardian — Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson, "Paddy Moriarty inquest hears NT police recordings of man allegedly saying he 'killerated the bastard'," 6 April 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/06/paddy-moriarty-inquest-hears-nt-police-recordings-of-man-allegedly-saying-he-killerated-the-bastard NT Independent — "'I killerated old Paddy ... I struck him on the head and killerated the bastard': Inquest played bizarre murder song" (April 2022). https://ntindependent.com.au/i-killerated-old-paddy-i-struck-him-on-the-fucking-head-and-killerated-the-bastard-inquest-played-bizarre-murder-song/ NT Independent — "No charges to be laid in Paddy Moriarty case: DPP" (June 2024). https://ntindependent.com.au/no-charges-to-be-laid-in-paddy-moriarty-case-dpp/ The Nightly — "Paddy Moriarty: Major development announced in Larrimah missing person case made famous on Netflix show" (June 2024). https://thenightly.com.au/australia/northern-territory/paddy-moriarty-major-development-announced-in-larrimah-missing-person-case-made-famous-on-netflix-show-c-14929564 Podcast — Lost in Larrimah, Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson (The Australian / News Corp, 2018). Winner, 2018 Walkley Award for Radio/Audio Feature. Radio — A Dog Act: Homicide on the Highway, ABC Radio National (2018). Documentary — Last Stop Larrimah, directed by Thomas Tancred, executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass (HBO, 2023; also distributed internationally).
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  A Man and His Dog: Part 1 - Australian True Crime 23.06.2026 31min

  The Unsolved Disappearance of Paddy Moriarty from Larrimah - Part 1 of 2  One evening in December 2017, a man and his dog rode home from the pub in a tiny town on the Stuart Highway, a few hundred metres up the road, and were never seen again. Paddy Moriarty was a seventy-year-old Irish-born ringer, a larrikin and a creature of habit, who lived alone with his young red kelpie, Kellie, in a fading outback settlement of barely a dozen people. When he vanished, he left a half-made dinner on the table, both his hats by the door, and a town full of neighbours who weren't saying much at all. Part one of two. This week on Strewth: the man, the dog, the dying town, and the last ordinary day in Larrimah. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast    Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - [email protected]  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: ABC News — Matt Garrick, "Why Paddy Moriarty's disappearance from the tiny town of Larrimah may never be fully solved," 8 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-08/paddy-moriarty-case-nt-dpp-decision-larrimah-mystery-continues/103947002 ABC News — Roxanne Fitzgerald, "Case involving suspected death of Paddy Moriarty handed to Director of Public Prosecutions," 13 September 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-13/paddy-moriarty-case-handed-to-director-of-public-prosecutions/101433924 The Guardian — Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson, "Paddy Moriarty inquest hears NT police recordings of man allegedly saying he 'killerated the bastard'," 6 April 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/06/paddy-moriarty-inquest-hears-nt-police-recordings-of-man-allegedly-saying-he-killerated-the-bastard NT Independent — "'I killerated old Paddy ... I struck him on the head and killerated the bastard': Inquest played bizarre murder song" (April 2022). https://ntindependent.com.au/i-killerated-old-paddy-i-struck-him-on-the-fucking-head-and-killerated-the-bastard-inquest-played-bizarre-murder-song/ NT Independent — "No charges to be laid in Paddy Moriarty case: DPP" (June 2024). https://ntindependent.com.au/no-charges-to-be-laid-in-paddy-moriarty-case-dpp/ The Nightly — "Paddy Moriarty: Major development announced in Larrimah missing person case made famous on Netflix show" (June 2024). https://thenightly.com.au/australia/northern-territory/paddy-moriarty-major-development-announced-in-larrimah-missing-person-case-made-famous-on-netflix-show-c-14929564 Podcast — Lost in Larrimah, Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson (The Australian / News Corp, 2018). Winner, 2018 Walkley Award for Radio/Audio Feature. Radio — A Dog Act: Homicide on the Highway, ABC Radio National (2018). Documentary — Last Stop Larrimah, directed by Thomas Tancred, executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass (HBO, 2023; also distributed internationally).  
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  Allison Road - Australian True Crime 16.06.2026 40min

  Allison Road - The Haunting Tale of Chrissie Venn On a February afternoon in 1921, a thirteen-year-old girl named Chrissie Venn left her home on Allison Road in North Motton, Tasmania, to collect groceries from the village. She was carrying a basket and nine shillings. She didn't come home. Nine days later, searchers found her body stuffed headfirst into a hollow tree stump, half a mile from her front door. More than a hundred years later, the question of who killed Chrissie Venn has never been answered. But the road where she died hasn't forgotten. Drivers on Allison Road still report engines cutting out, GPS signals vanishing, scratch marks appearing on car doors with no explanation. A girl in a white dress, standing at the roadside, gone before you can be sure you saw her. Allison Road. A true crime story. A ghost story. And a reminder that in small communities, the secrets that aren't spoken aloud have a habit of making themselves known another way. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast   Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - [email protected]  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tasmania), March 1921. Digitised via Trove, National Library of Australia. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/83958105 Connolly, Pauline. "Drs. Ratten and Ferris and the Chrissie Venn Case." paulineconolly.com, 2025. https://paulineconolly.com/2025/dr-ferris-and-dr-ratten-meet-in-a-courtroom/ "The Haunting of Allison Road: The Murder of Chrissie Venn." Dangerous Roads. https://www.dangerousroads.org/australia-and-oceania/tasmania/13620-the-haunting-of-allison-road-the-murder-of-chrissie-venn.html "The Ghost of Allison Road." Tasmania's Most Haunted, January 4, 2019. https://tasmaniasmosthaunted.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/the-ghost-of-allison-road/ Sun Ithilwen. "The Road Haunted by a Little Girl: The Murder of Chrissie Venn." YouTube, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3QqBwCJj_E
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  A Lone Wolf? - Australian True Crime 09.06.2026 42min

  A Lone Wolf? - The Ivan Milat Backpacker Murders - Australian True Crime Everyone knows how the number seven relates to the Ivan Milat case. Seven backpackers. Seven graves in the Belanglo State Forest. Seven life sentences handed down in a Sydney courtroom in 1996. But in August 2025, a list was tabled in the New South Wales parliament that had been sitting in police files since 1993. Fifty-eight names. Fifty-eight missing or murdered young people that detectives from the task force that caught Ivan Milat had identified as potentially connected to him. Every state and territory in Australia. Decades of cases. Families who were never told. In this episode of Strewth, we aim to answer two big questions that still hang over this horrific case. How many of those fifty-eight is Milat really responsible for and did he receive help when committing these crimes? Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - [email protected]  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: NSW Legislative Council Hansard Motion by the Hon. Jeremy Buckingham regarding production of Ivan Milat criminal records, 2025. URL: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-1820781676-98950/link/92 ABC News "Police doubt Milat had a woman's help," Saturday 16 July 2005. URL: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-07-16/police-doubt-milat-had-awomans-help/2059768 News.com.au / Candace Sutton "Belanglo backpacker murders: Ivan Milat confessed to his mother before her death." URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/belanglo-backpacker-murders-ivan-milat-confessed-to-his-mother-before-her-death/news-story/c56d825d8cde4acd3ce05e7bbeffcfbe Daily Telegraph / Charles Miranda "How forensic evidence finally solved Ivan Milat accomplice mystery," May 14, 2019. URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/behindthescenes/last-forensic-evidence-solves-ivan-milat-accomplice-mystery/news-story/b27c2d9b3b1ba60b3ead841d9a7e6508 The Guardian / Michael McGowan "Ivan Milat's chilling serial backpacker murders still haunt Australia," October 27, 2019. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/27/ivan-milat-chilling-serial-murders-haunt-australia-after-death AAP News, "Police files link Milat to 58 cold cases over decades," August 22, 2025
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  Home Tonight - Australian True Crime 02.06.2026 49min

  Home Tonight - The Wonnangatta Unsolved Mystery  In the summer of 1917, two men vanished from an isolated cattle station deep in Victoria's high country. What followed became one of Australia's oldest and most enduring mysteries. A story whispered through pubs, shearing sheds and campfires for more than a century. This week on Strewth, we head into the Wonnangatta Valley to unravel the folklore, the rumours, and the unanswered questions behind the story the high country never let go of. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast  Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast  Contact us - [email protected]  Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Gippsland Murders and Murder Mysteries, Alby Adams, 2010 Harry's Hut Blog: Wonnangatta Murders the facts, speculation and theories - June 2014, https://harryshut.net/wonnangatta-murders/  Peninsula Essence: Peter McCullough, Who killed Jim Barclay, January 2018, https://peninsulaessence.com.au/who-killed-jim-barclay/  Strange Company, The Wonnangatta Murders: A Classic Australian Mystery, May 2020, https://strangeco.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-wonnangatta-murders-classic.html