Australia True

Two modern adventurers sought a treasure possessed by the legendary "Wild Men of Borneo". One found riches. The other vanished forever into an endless jungle. Had he shed civilization - or lost his mind? Global headlines suspected murder. Lured by these mysteries, New York Times best-selling author Carl Hoffman journeyed to find the truth, discovering that nothing is as it seems in the world's last Eden, where the lines between sinner, saint, and myth converge.

British mother Rosie Ayliffe thought her 21-year-old daughter, Mia, would be safe travelling around Australia on a gap year. But Mia wanted to extend her visa and in order to do that needed to find 88 days of work on a farm - a requirement that would lead to catastrophic events. Four short days after Mia moved to a hostel in Queensland to take a job on a sugarcane farm, she was brutally murdered.

On Australia Day, 26 January 1966, Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont were abducted from Colley Reserve, Glenelg, South Australia and never seen again, leading to one of Australia's most extensive police investigations and manhunts. Five decades later, no trace of the children has ever been found. Over the years, several individuals have been put forward and investigated as suspects, resulting in false leads and dead ends and with no real suspect until now: Harry Phipps.

The Sting takes you on a journey behind Australia's most sensational undercover bust, revealing extraordinary new details. It is a shocking insight into one of the country's most evil killers, and the operation that brought him down. The disappearance of Queensland schoolboy Daniel Morcombe was one of the most heartbreaking and confounding child abduction and murder cases of the century, spanning almost a decade prior to the eventual arrest of known paedophile Brett Peter Cowan, one of the original persons of interest.

Swinging from a meat-hook, his entire skin was in one piece including his hair, face, ears, nose, mouth and genitals. Slashes and stab holes tore through the human pelt, a testimony to the wounds he suffered before dying. Cruel and evil, Katherine Knight showed no mercy when she butchered her de facto in a crime that put her behind bars in an Australian prison for a record life sentence.

For more than thirty years, Mark Dapin has been hanging out with crooks, and both types of cop – from Chopper Read and John Killick to Roger Rogerson and Gary Jubelin. In The First Murderer I Ever Met, he sorts the tall stories from the truth about true crime and tells us what some of Australia’s most famous felons are really like. Underbelly meets Louis Theroux.

From Martin Bryant, perpetrator of our country's worst massacre at Port Arthur 20 years ago, to alleged hit man and undisputed hard man 'Goldie', feared by both prisoners and guards alike, James Phelps tracks the rise of ISIS gangs, the lethal underground drug and tobacco trade and the threat of contraband phones. From the shiv fights and brawls to the white-collar criminal beat downs, this is an account like never before.

Will Chaffey is 18 when he boards a plane in New York bound for Australia. Taking time off to work and travel, Will meets an enigmatic wanderer and herpetologist. Together they cross the inland desert to the tropical northwest coast, home to the saltwater crocodile, a known man-eater and a predator who has been hunting since the age of the dinosaurs. They devise a plan to explore the remote Prince Regent River, a trek so dangerous it had never been attempted by outsiders.

Cheryl flies sick patients from rural areas to emergency medical treatment in cities; Sue is often the only one between life and death for her patients in the Kimberley; Ricky trades city comforts to connect with kids through sport in remote communities while Eileen overcomes great challenges to protect remote land for generations to come - these are some of the characters who embody the spirit of the Outback.Inspiring, stirring and touching by turn, these people draw on enormous personal reserves to preserve Outback values for the future of all Australians.

Lost for 13 months in the wilds of Afghanistan, this is the dramatic, heart-warming and truly amazing story of Sarbi, the Army's most famous explosives detection dog - the miracle dog of Tarin Kot. Powerful, dramatic, heartwarming, this is the true story of Sarbi, the scruffy black Labrador-cross trained by the Australian Army as an explosives detection dog for the most dangerous combat mission imaginable. Thirteen months after Australia's most famous canine warrior went missing in action in 2008, she was found by an American Special Forces officer patrolling a village....

James Phelps explores all the questions that we can only barely imagine the answers to about Australia's toughest jails. This is a brutal and honest account of life inside Australia's toughest jails, and all is not as you would expect. Do women rape each other? Do guards really trade 40-cent phone cards for sex? And do you think the most dangerous inmate in Australia is a man? This is the most comprehensive ever account of women's prison life yet.

Australia's most prolific serial sexual killers met in prison. They were a complete contrast: Christopher Worrell, the charismatic psychopathic youngster; and James Miller, the older and socially awkward loner. For Miller, it was love at first sight. They developed an ominous sexual bond–proving that opposites can attract–and then kill. Once free, the inseparable tag team slayed as many people as notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat. Whereas Milat took a year to murder seven victims, the duo achieved the same in seven short weeks … the last four killed in only six days.

Julia is granted a working holiday visa and heads to Australia. Never one to do things quietly, she tours the country via a jumble of hostels, road trips, and randomness, indulging in more than her fair share of debauchery along the way. She attempts and fails to learn to surf, attends her very first festival, and explores the open-minded village of Nimbin.

The Calabrian Mafia in Australia is alive and well. This is the first time its real story in this country has ever been told. The Calabrian mafia is Australia's oldest, largest and most ruthless crime syndicate, trafficking drugs worth billions of dollars and laundering the proceeds through sophisticated international networks. Enforcing discipline with age-old tools of violence and intimidation, the Calabrians have been responsible for nearly 40 murders in Australia since the mid-1970s and many more before that.

For over a century, the Ned Kelly legend has grown and grown. He's become Australia's Robin Hood, and leader of a colonial Irish resistance. How much of the legend is true? This is the real story of the hunt for the Kelly Gang over two long years. As gripping as any police procedural, it is an account of poorly trained officers unfamiliar with the terrain, in pursuit of the most dangerous men in the state. By recounting the story from the perspective of the law, David Dufty gets to the heart of the story and finds answers to many unresolved questions.

For ten years a man calling himself Will Power lived in near-total isolation in northern New South Wales, foraging for food, eating bats and occasionally trading for produce. But who was this mysterious man who roamed the forest and knew all of its secrets and riddles? Some people thought he might be Jesus. Others feared he was a more sinister figure. The truth was that he was neither miraculous nor malevolent, but he was, most certainly, gifted.

Easter Sunday, 1902, deep in the Carnarvon Ranges a police constable and station manager are slain then later incinerated, their remains stuffed into saddlebags. Accused of the ghoulish crime are two members of the bushranging Kenniff gang, fast gaining notoriety as Queensland's equivalent of the Kelly gang. Yet the murders are a bold escalation from the petty fraud, horse stealing and cattle duffing the gang is known for. Starving and exhausted after three long months on the run, the brothers are finally captured, and so the wheels of justice start to turn.

As the Sunrise weatherman, Sam Mac has bungee jumped, swum with sharks, got his cat on the cover of Pussweek magazine, taken his mum to the Logies when he was nominated for gold, stripped naked for The Real Full Monty and even recorded a song with The Wiggles. But, ultimately, his job is about people - from primary schoolers to pensioners, Sam's gift is how he connects with them all. He uses heart and humour in his role on Sunrise to introduce viewers to the true characters of Australia.

In this powerful and gripping collection of real-life cases, Meni Caroutas—a former cop turned investigative journalist—reviews old evidence, hunts new leads and recounts shocking developments surrounding the disappearance or murder of 18 people.

'If you think it's hard being a white woman in Australia, try being a black woman.' These were the words that set a team of journalists at the Adelaide Advertiser on an investigation into the mysterious deaths of six young Aboriginal women. Each year dozens of Indigenous women or girls die by murder or suicide. Rose Hunter-Hebberman was one of them. Based on the podcast Dying Rose, this is a compelling look at what it means to be an Aboriginal woman in a world where family love, cultural connection and hope for a better future can be eroded by prejudice, mistrust and danger.