Ratbags & Roustabouts
Ratbags & Roustabouts tells the extraordinary histories of ordinary people. We dig around in the ancestry archive and dive into the genealogical gene pool to uncover the most incredible, never-before-told stories of seemingly common folk from our past.
Episodes
18 episodes
Anzac Day Special: Captain Ivor Margetts, Gallipoli to Pozieres
To mark Anzac Day, we hear the story of Hobart teacher Captain Ivor Margetts, who led his men into battle at Gallipoli during WWI, surviving the whole campaign in the Dardanelles Strait, only to be killed at the very start of the Battle of Pozi...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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42:00
Curr vs Cross: Indentured absconders and the Van Diemen's Land Company
In 1832, when a group of indentured servants ran off from their jobs with the Van Diemen’s Land Company in northwest Tasmania, the ramifications would be severe — both for them and for their former master, Edward Curr.At the fledgling se...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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40:57
In Ned Kelly’s footsteps: Tasmanian bushrangers Sutherland & Ogden
In 1883, Kelly Gang wannabes James Sutherland and James Ogden carried out their brief but bloody bushranging careers near Epping Forest, Tasmania. But they never achieved the same infamy as their hero Ned Kelly.In the middle of the night...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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35:23
Murder on the dance floor: Audrey Jacob and Cyril Gidley
In 1925, Audrey Jacob walked through the crowded ballroom of Perth’s Government House, tapped Cyril Gidley on the shoulder and shot him point blank in the chest. But after a sensational trial, she was cleared of murder. So just how was she foun...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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38:53
A Pocketful of Patriarchy: The gendered history of the pocket
SUMMER SPECIAL: There’s a reason women always exclaim in delight when they realise a garment has pockets, and it is a story that is woven through hundreds of years of history — and firmly entrenched in the suffragette movement.In this sp...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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21:07
Why Pluto was pushed out of the solar system
SUMMER SPECIAL: In 1930, the elusive Planet X — later named Pluto — was introduced to the world to much fanfare as the solar system’s ninth planet. So why was it rejected again, just 76 years later?When US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh first...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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17:49
Baby Farmers: The Makin murderers of Macdonaldtown
In 1892, two plumbers unearthed a grisly secret while laying pipes in a Sydney backyard — they found the bodies of two babies. Soon suspicion fell on John and Sarah Makin, who made a living out of raising other people’s infants. But how many mo...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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37:40
Aussie Inventors: Four fab creations and the people behind them
All kinds of Australian inventions throughout history have changed the world. This episode we talk about four of them — from inventions that saved lives to icons of Outback Australia.On a hot day in January 1907, two boys got in trouble in ...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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34:12
Andrew Hume: On the trail of lost explorer Ludwig Leichhardt
After explorer Ludwig Leichhardt went missing in 1848, Andrew Hume, made it his life’s mission to find out what had happened to him. But no one would believe the secrets he uncovered in Australia’s punishing interior. Was Hume a bushman or a co...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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36:46
John Langford: Sent to war without a gun
When war broke out in 1914, thousands were eager to join up for the adventure, including John Langford. But his four years serving as a stretcher bearer in the RAMC would change the way he viewed life forever.To commemorate Remembrance Day,...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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33:17
Macquarie Monsters: Gruesome tale of convict cannibals
Edward Broughton and Matthew McAvoy were executed in 1831 for being “illegally at large”. It seemed a harsh punishment for two runaways. But after their deaths, the truth would emerge of the crimes they had committed — which included murder and...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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33:25
T.B. Margetts: Guns, gold and the wild northwest
In the late 1800s, the northwest of Tasmania was a wild place, where only the wildest of people survived. One such man was T.B. Margetts. Born in Leicestershire but raised in Tasmania, he was a pioneer, adventurer, farmer and horseman....
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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27:43
Gaffes at the Gallows: Six executions that didn’t go to plan
Sometimes the death sentence is just the start of the story. In this episode, we hear about six times capital punishment from Australia’s convict days didn’t go to plan — from equipment malfunctions to out and out brawls. Even the firs...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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31:10
Dirty Rotten Spies: The enigmatic life of Baron von Koenig
In a world of spies and con-artists, deceptions and double-crosses, Baron Rudolf von Koenig conned, manipulated and blackmailed his way around the world. But the fraudster also played a vital part in helping the Allies crack the German Enigma c...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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37:20
Dicky White Part 2: Love, liquor and lunacy
In this episode, we meet up again with convict highwayman Dicky White as he faces the tyranny of Major Foveaux on Norfolk Island, builds a pub in Launceston, and gets locked up in a madhouse in London. After the trials of the voyage to...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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35:34
Dicky White Part 1: Highway robbery and the death ship
From the American Revolution to the shores of Sydney Cove, this tale follows the highs and lows of the life of Dicky White. When 24-year-old Dicky was driven to commit highway robbery in London in 1797, he was condemned to execution.&n...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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30:56
The Tibbs Tragedy: Elizabeth versus The Monster
When notorious bushranger Thomas Jeffries took a young family hostage in 1825, he performed an act so despicable, he had the entire island of Van Diemen’s Land calling for his execution. It was New Year’s Eve in 1825 when John and Eliz...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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32:02
John Basham: Bushrangers, bayonets and blood
This is the tragic tale of John Basham, a young farmer in Van Diemen’s Land in 1825 who was caught in the crossfire when Governor George Arthur began a personal war with bushranger Matthew Brady.In March 1825, John Basham and his stockman J...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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26:20
