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PODCAST · history

ABC Rewind

by ABC Australia

A deep dive into the past told by the people who lived through it. The Rewind podcast interrogates the events and characters that have shaped our world and revisits history through archives, interviews, and compelling storytelling.

Publisher-supplied feed metadata · PodParley refreshed Oct 17, 2026 · Source feed

Episodes

  1. 05 | Bondy | A castle built on sand

    Bondy’s been secretly, and illegally, stashing away money that isn’t his to keep as his empire crumbles, and while Alan Bond’s beating away the creditors trying to bankrupt him, he’s also building a back-up plan. As decades of dirty deals and backroom manoeuvres begin to surface Bondy isn’t just...

  2. 04 | Bondy | Inside the boy's club

    With his hands deep in the West Australian government ‘s coffers, a chance meeting with a man named Tiny could spell the beginning of the end for Alan ‘Bondy’ Bond. The Black Monday stock market crash sends shock waves through the world economy, threatening to turn Bondy’s business empire upside...

  3. 03 | Bondy | Burn the b*stards

    Diamonds, mansions and mistresses, Bondy has been living the high life, but his ruthless pursuit of success begins to have devastating consequences for his marriage to Eileen. After his win in the America’s Cup banks lend Bond billions and he’s doing deals with the likes of Donald Trump. But his...

  4. 02 | Bondy | An ulterior motive

    As his yacht crosses the finish line of The America’s Cup and sails into history, the world holds its breath, but does Alan Bond have an ulterior motive when he enters this race? Bondy infuriates the Yanks with his radical boat design and brazen attitude. But combined with a crack crew and heaps…

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  5. 01 | Bondy | The Outsider

    Determined to make his first million before his 21st birthday, Alan Bond's questionable business ethics ruffle feathers in small-town Fremantle and earn him a reputation as an audacious English upstart. Shaped by his deprived childhood in post-war Britain, Bondy develops the gift of being able to...

  6. INTRODUCING: Bondy From Hero to Zero

    Alan Bond was a genius, master salesman and con man. His '80s win of the America’s Cup, the sailing race of tycoons, put Australia on the global stage and the public adored Bond for it. In this series of ABC Rewind, satirist Mark Humphries tells the remarkable true story of Alan Bond; from his...

  7. 06 | Shooting the Past | The Glide

    An arresting photograph has Clare Wright duck-diving into the history of surfing in Australia.

  8. 05 | Shooting the Past | Roughy Justice

    A fishy looking photograph throws Clare Wright into the deep end of the battle between industry and sustainability.

  9. 04 | Shooting the Past | Alien Nation

    Clare Wright explores the story behind a studio portrait of an Edwardian family, and raises some tricky questions about citizenship, the Australian constitution and the subtle art of belonging.

  10. 03 | Shooting the Past | All Tragic to the Moon

    Clare Wright unravels the dramatic story within a family photograph that takes us to the searing heart of an Australian summer tragedy: bushfire.

  11. 02 | Shooting the Past | Camp Sovereignty

    A photograph of two men, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, holding hands leads Clare Wright to investigate the history of First Nations resistance in Australia

  12. 01 | Shooting the Past | The Ruins of Science

    Historian Clare Wright takes a deep dive into Australia's past through six intriguing photographs. In this episode Clare tries to uncover the story behind a baffling photo, and finds herself transported back to the not-so-swinging 1960s.

  13. 04 | Saga Land | The story of Egil

    Broadcaster Richard Fidler and writer Kari Gislason continue their travels across Iceland to tell the ancient Viking sagas; tales of love, war and humanity. In this episode they follow the steps of Egil. He was a killer, a ruthless opportunist but also one of the greatest court poets of the…

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  14. 03 | Saga Land | The story of Gisli

    In the remote north-west of Iceland, Kári Gislason and Richard Fidler follow in the doomed footsteps of Gísli, the most uncompromising of the saga heroes – this is a tale about the complexity of family life, and the difficult choices which can come with it. Back in Reykjavik, Kári begins to…

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  15. 02 | Saga Land | The story of Gudrun

    Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason continue their travels across Iceland to tell the ancient Viking sagas; tales of love, war and humanity. This episode tells the story of Gudrun, the most beautiful woman in Iceland and the two men who loved her. Kari and Richard also continue to try and piece...

  16. 01 | Saga Land | The story of Gunnar

    Broadcaster and author Richard Fidler, with this friend the writer Kari Gislasen, travel across Iceland to discover the Sagas – the ancient tales of Viking love, war and humanity. This episode tells the story a famous Viking warrior, Gunnar, and his destructive love affair with the most beautiful...

  17. 08| Remember Me | The middle of the air

    If a friend sent you a farewell text, saying she was planning to end her life, what would you do? Jennie’s response was to go and sing with Nia and promise to tell her story. Nia has scleroderma, her skin and lungs have hardened over the last 20 years, the pain and discomfort has now become...

  18. 07 | Remember Me | The Sceptic

    Sunil Badami's mother loved telling him stories of his colourful uncle, India's best-known sceptic, who devoted his life to disproving fraudulent gurus' "miracles" by eating fire, bending forks and floating mid-air. But at the heart of the Sceptic's magic was a disappearing act.

  19. 06 | Remember Me | Good Spooks bad spooks

    When Nell and Caitlin moved into a century-old shop in the historic suburb of Stockton in Newcastle unexplainable things started happening; a lady with a bouffant hairdo appeared in their loungeroom, books, clothes and electronic gadgets were disappearing, there was the acrid smell of unwashed…

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  20. 05 | Remember Me | Mt Bowen

    It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever. When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision. He’d sparked up a…

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  21. 04 | Remember Me | Half Caste Legends

    Paulina always knew she had half- siblings around the world. They all shared the same Tongan father. Finding them was the best thing she ever did.

  22. 03 | Remember Me | Jim Everett

    Jim Everett puralia meenamatta - born on Flinder's Island in 1942 - is a man of many selves – philosopher, fisherman, scholar, activist, poet, soldier, filmmaker. When he was sixteen years old, he discovered a hidden part of himself.

  23. 02 | Remember Me | Return of the Songbird

    When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.

  24. 01 | Remember Me | The Foster Files

    There’s a government file about my life. A file full of reports. The reports date from 1985 to 2003. That’s 18 years. File 105538. No, I’m not a terrorist or a spy. From two weeks old, to the day I turned 18, I was a foster child. I do not own the file about my life. It belongs to the state of...

  25. Fairlight CMI - the sound you've never heard of

    The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made. At the start of the 1980s the Fairlight caught the eye of synthesiser pioneers likes Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. By the end of the 1980s it had caught the…

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  26. Blood, prejudice and nursing

    It's the 1980s, and the first devastating decade of the AIDS pandemic. A young student nurse tests positive for the virus. and this information ends up on the front page of his local newspaper. A tale of fear and prejudice. but also of great courage, and love.

  27. The story of Sam Poo - Chinese bushranger?

    It's 1865 in remote central west NSW. A police office is fatally shot by a man he believes is a Chinese bushranger. But all may not be as it seems. A bushranging tale with a twist

  28. Finding Fanny Finch

    What if the most remarkable of all your ancestors was the one left out of the family tree? Historian Kacey Sinclair and two of Fanny Finch’s direct descendants reconstruct the life and legacy of a Victorian goldfields trailblazer, a woman of colour whose story was hidden for generations.

  29. The Roo Dog

    The Kangaroo dog is unique to Australia. It's a mystery dog with a big story. Born in the early Sydney colony, this deerhound-greyhound mongrel dog was bred to hunt and kill kangaroos. The kangaroo dog was there at key moments in Australia's colonial past - from hunting dog that fed the colony…

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  30. 02 | A succulent chinese meal

    Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video? This episode unravels the story of a prison playwright and his muse which led Jack to utter those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”

  31. 01 | A succulent chinese meal

    Who is the man behind Australia's most iconic internet meme, who famously said “What is the charge? Eating a meal, a succulent Chinese meal? Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest"?

  32. 07| Boycott! | Rugby, Rebels and Reconciliation

    In this extra episode Sisonke Msimang tells stories of First Nations Australians, Rugby and the fight to end Apartheid. When Aboriginal Rugby player Lloyd McDermott refused to declare himself an honorary white for the Wallabies tour of South Africa in 1963 he began a tradition of First Nations...

  33. 06 | Boycott! | Homecoming

    After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is free and the anti-apartheid movement is full of hope. But as apartheid legislation is repealed and South Africa starts transitioning to democracy, not everyone is happy. Right-wing Afrikaner groups take to the streets with guns and the Zulu Inkatha...

  34. 05 | Boycott! | The streets are burning

    The 1980s see South Africa spin out of control as defiance to apartheid and the regime’s crackdown builds. A cultural boycott of South Africa sees international musicians refuse to play there until Paul Simon controversially records his album Graceland with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The world...

  35. 04 | Boycott! | The Grapefruit Ladies

    It's 1984, and in Dublin, Ireland, 21 year old shop assistant Mary Manning refuses to sell a South African grapefruit. Her action draws world attention to the campaign to hit Apartheid where it hurts, by crippling the South African economy. At the same time a young Australian seaman starts a…

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  36. 03 | Boycott! | Uprising

    How South Africa won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime and the Australians who helped them fight for it. A new leader emerges in South Africa, a young man with radical ideas. Steve Biko’s ‘black consciousness’ movement inspires a generation. His murder at the hands of authorities is…

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  37. 02 | Boycott! | Blood Sport

    By the 1970s the anti-apartheid movement is growing around the world as protesters find ways to hit the South African government where it hurts most. In Australia, the action takes place in a very public way, by heading onto the sports field. Seven former Wallabies rugby players refuse to compete...

  38. 01 | Boycott! | Spear of the Nation

    How South Africans won their freedom from the racist Apartheid regime and the Australians who helped them fight for it. It’s 1990 and Sisonke Msimang is glued to the TV, watching Nelson Mandela, the world’s most famous political prisoner, walk free after 27 years. She’s weeping with joy for a...

  39. INTRODUCING: Boycott! The fight to end apartheid

    How South Africans fought to win their freedom, and the Australians who helped them fight for it. It's 1990, and the world is watching as Nelson Mandela walks free from his prison cell after 27 years. The global movement to end the racist policy of Apartheid in South Africa is finally on the…

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  40. The Drug Grannies | Too Old to Run | 02

    In the summer of 1978, Australian narcotics agents intercepted a campervan being unloaded on the Melbourne docks. What they discovered inside the van turned out to be the largest haul of an illicit substance, black hashish, to land on Australian soil at the time. The campervan belonged to two...

  41. The Drug Grannies | Too Old to Run | 01

    In the summer of 1978, narcotics agents discovered the largest ever haul of illicit drugs to land in Australia, stashed inside a campervan belonging to two elderly American women tourists. But were these women truly drug smugglers or naive puppets in an elaborate plot masterminded by someone else?

  42. PRESENTS — The Challenger Legacy

    Forty years ago this January, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated on its way into orbit. All seven astronauts on board were killed. In the days after the tragedy, the world wanted answers. What really caused the shuttle to explode? And should the launch have been stopped altogether? For...

  43. 02 | Florence | A murder still unsolved

    In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977. So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day? Please listen with care - this episode…

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  44. 01 | Florence | A life papered over

    She’s one of Australia’s most prolific and popular designers, and yet not many people know her name, let alone her audacious life story. Florence Broadhurst was from regional Queensland but people who met her later in life, thought she was English aristocrat. She reinvented herself many times...

  45. 01 | The Buried Tea Chests

    When journalist Annika Blau learns of the discovery of two tea chests of highly valuable letters under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she begins to uncover secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.

  46. 02 | The Buried Tea Chests

    When two tea chests full of letters are found under a house in Sydney, they're identified as one of the most important finds in Australia's postal history. But for journalist Annika Blau, they also expose family secrets, silences and shame, as more startling truths are revealed about who her…

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  47. The paralympic journey | Money, media and ethics | Part 2

    Gold medal winning Paralympian and coach Louise Sauvage tells the controversial story of classification at the Paralympics and the fallout from Spanish intellectually impaired basketballers who faked their disability at the Sydney 2000 games. We meet champion swimmer Siobhan Paton whose dreams of...

  48. The paralympic journey | From rehab to elite | Part 1

    Join wheelchair racing legend Louise Sauvage for the intriguing history of The Paralympics. The games had their beginnings back in 1948 as life-saving rehabilitation for World War 2 soldiers but today have become an elite sporting event watched by millions. Along that journey Australia radically...

  49. 03 | Anzac Massacre | The story of Surafend

    In the final episode of Anzac Massacre, host William Ray delves into the unanswered questions surrounding the killings at Surafend, in Southern Palestine by the Anzac Mounted Division in December 1918. What motivated this brutal act?

  50. 02 | Anzac Massacre | After Surafend

    In part two of this series, host William Ray unravels the story of the Surafend massacre in December 1918, and the events which followed it - including the little known role that the Anzacs played in suppressing the 1919 Egyptian revolution.

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

A deep dive into the past told by the people who lived through it. The Rewind podcast interrogates the events and characters that have shaped our world and revisits history through archives, interviews, and compelling storytelling.

HOSTED BY

ABC Australia

Produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does ABC Rewind have?

ABC Rewind currently has 470 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is ABC Rewind about?

A deep dive into the past told by the people who lived through it. The Rewind podcast interrogates the events and characters that have shaped our world and revisits history through archives, interviews, and compelling storytelling.

How often does ABC Rewind release new episodes?

ABC Rewind publishes regularly with 470 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.

Where can I listen to ABC Rewind?

You can listen to ABC Rewind on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts ABC Rewind?

ABC Rewind is created and hosted by ABC Australia.
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