Red Dust Tapes
OVER 55 YEARS AGO multi-award-winning journalist John Francis interviewed ageing Australian Outback characters, before their voices were lost in the red dust.
THIS IS UNIQUE Aussie history.
NEARLY ALL lived largely solitary lives, in the harsh and lonely inland, on the edge of deserts, in a world of searing droughts, and occasional fierce floods.
THEY WERE prospectors, sheep and cattle men, boundary riders, drovers, railway workers, truck drivers, Aboriginal groups, and isolated but hardy women.
AUSTRALIA'S AVIATION HISTORY also started in the red dust. You'll hear interviews with some of Australia's most famous pioneer airmen (many of whom started flying in the First World War), who used aircraft to make the Outback a little less lonely.
JOHN ALSO interviews the descendants of other unique characters, reads fascinating tales from Australia's Outback past, and spins tales of his own red dust adventures.
WEBSITE: www.reddusttapes.au
Episodes
A madman, and a death in the snow
A rare and exclusive interview with the legendary Sir Donald Bradman
As a kid, he skinned cats and sold the meat. What happened years later at the Dolly Pot Mine?
The bushman with a passion for local history
‘You had to overcome their fear’. Exclusive interview with co-founder of Qantas
‘It’s a terrible crime to be a scab. A scab is worse than a murderer’
Both families were miners. Together they created musical gold
More Naughty Norman, then tales from Granny McRae, the All-night Fiddler
Some ’naughty bits’ on Australian airline pioneer Sir Norman Brearley.
From WW1 ace fighter pilot, to starting Australia's very first airline
Chasing opals since the 1920s, while paddling his own dusty canoe
Cranky camels, murderous mules, and a swarm of swaggies