Winner of The Walkley Foundation’s Media Diversity Australia Award 2022

Gold winner in the Social Justice Podcast category, and awarded Bronze in the Serialized Podcast and Narrative/Documentary Podcast categories at the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Award

Please note: Contains strong language and adult content.

Tucked away amongst snow-covered mountains is a tiny Australian town with a dark secret. Journalist Patrick Abboud hears whispers that it was once home to the world’s only 'gay prison'. A prison that specifically incarcerated gay men. His investigation into what happened inside reveals the full story for the first time. This queer true-crime journey takes you from underground nightclubs to hidden sex haunts, to remote parts of New Zealand and England. You’ll find yourself entangled in a police cover up, a case of wrongful conviction and a human experiment that didn’t go to plan. At the centre of it all was a covert government operation to eradicate 'the greatest menace to society': homosexuality.

Researched, written and produced by Patrick Abboud and Simon Cunich.

Presented by Patrick Abboud. This Audible Original is produced by Lockdown Productions Pty Ltd.

Patrick Abboud was the Jesse Cox Audio Fellow 2020, with support from its founding sponsor Audible, its production partner Unison Sound and its festival partners Third Coast International Audio Festival and Audiocraft Podcast Festival.

Reporting was also supported by The Walkley Public Fund.

A mysterious tip starts Patrick investigating rumours of a gay prison and the police squad that ruthlessly targeted gay men.

Patrick arrives in a small town with a big secret and starts investigating why the government would create a gay prison.

Answers about the gay prison lie in a government report that has inexplicably vanished. Patrick joins the hunt to find it.

A trove of buried documents reveals disturbing details about what happened behind the walls of the gay prison.

Patrick uncovers plans to subject the gay prisoners to medical experimentation at the hands of one of the most notorious doctors in Australian history.

Isolated in the mountains is a network of caves where gay prisoners were sent to work.

After years of searching, Patrick gets a lead to a former inmate who survived the gay prison.