Australian Story - Season 16

Maggie MacKellar was a city dweller who seemed to have it all – a successful academic career, a devoted husband, a young daughter and another baby on the way.

When Doug Sunderland succumbed to the blues after losing his wife and being diagnosed with cancer, his GP told him to 'get back on his bike'. He did... and it 'saved his life', so much so, that he decided to ride around Australia solo, surviving on tinned food and sleeping by the road.

For the last 48 years Jacki Weaver has been one of Australia's best loved actors. Now 63, she has achieved a stunning career high by being chosen as one of the Best Supporting Actress nominees for this year's Oscars.

Wildlife photographer Jennifer Parkhurst's passion for dingos set her at odds with park rangers - and brought her to the brink of disaster...

On the eve of his retirement from public office, the nation's longest serving Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, reflects exclusively on his sixteen years in the top job.

Jade Hopper is a young woman on the cusp of the toughest decision of her life - to pursue her dream of becoming a world no. 1 tennis player or to court success from her law studies.

Two years ago, former Navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder was testing new sonar equipment in Sydney Harbour when he was attacked by a shark and pulled from the water, barely alive.

Last year a Victorian court sentenced Robert Farquharson to a minimum 33 years jail for deliberately driving his three sons to their death in a dam on Father's Day.

Part 1 of the program about lawyer and politician John Quigley whose three decades in the public spotlight have drawn controversy, enmity and notoriety.

The conclusion to our story on Western Australian lawyer and politician John Quigley.

Eight years ago Elizabeth Clayton was living in Fiji when she rescued a young man known as the 'chicken boy'. His name was Sujit and he'd been kept in a hen house as a child and then tied up for 22 years in an old people's home.

Band manager David Powell took the Melbourne rock band JET from obscurity to ARIA triumph and then onto the international stage. But fate was less kind to David – today he is lucky to be alive to tell his story.

On 22 July 2007, Peter Hodgkins threw a rock at a car from an overpass at Kiama, NSW, smashing the skull of beauty therapist Nicole Timbs and changing both their lives forever.

Part 1 of our celebration of 15 years of Australian Story featuring Ric Birch, Gina Rinehart, John Button and Estelle Blackburn, Pauline Hanson, Sam and Jenny Bailey, Nick Ross and Allan Fels.

The conclusion to our celebration of 15 years of Australian Story featuring Gayle Shann, Chris Sarra, Beth Heinrich, Greg Combet, Belinda Emmett, Bob Irwin, Gemma Sisia and Michael Ware.

Brian Sherman rose to great wealth and success as a businessman. His son Emile is a co-producer of 'The King's Speech', winner of this year's best picture Oscar. But what really unites the family is their overwhelming passion for animal welfare.

Charlie Teo is a Sydney neurosurgeon, loved by patients but unpopular with some in the medical establishment. He is credited with prolonging the lives of many people with tumours that were considered inoperable.

Sabina Wolanski was left alone in the world at 17 when her family were killed in the Holocaust. In 2005 she addressed a gathering of state dignitaries in Berlin, received a standing ovation and reduced journalists to tears.

For three and a half years, Newcastle pathologist Dr Simon Palfreeman has been shuttling between Australia and Bulgaria negotiating that country's complex and controversial justice system to try to help his 24 year old son.

The conclusion of our story on Dr Simon Palfreeman, the Newcastle pathologist on a mission to help his son who's serving twenty years in a Bulgarian jail.

When Sally Nielsen's fiance Sam Goddard suffered a catastrophic stroke, she ignored the advice of some of those closest to her and stuck by him. Now her efforts have produced an amazing medical breakthrough.

Penelope Dingle was a former model and actor married to TV science guru Peter Dingle. At the age of 43 she was diagnosed with a common cancer regarded as highly curable if it’s caught early...

The conclusion to the story of Penelope Dingle whose untimely death had shattering and unexpected repercussions for those closest to her.

Alisa Latto was born with a life threatening genetic condition – one shared by her two siblings and her mother, Rosemary... This story follows her difficult journey to motherhood.

International banker Sascha Chandler had a secret he'd been harbouring since childhood. Two years ago he decided to deal with his demons and joined forces with a dogged NSW detective to bring to justice one of the country's most elusive and dangerous predators.

Captain Hec Waller and Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean both saw service during the darkest days of the Japanese advance towards Australia during World War II. Despite their heroism neither was ever nominated for the Forces' highest accolade, the Victoria Cross.

An encore edition of our bittersweet story of Queensland vet Ben Cunneen and his co-worker, Natalie Beohm who were exposed to the Hendra horse virus with devastating consequences.

Ita Buttrose and those closest to her go on the record with their recollections of a trail blazing career and a momentous period in Australia's social history in Part One of a candid, moving, and surprising double episode.

In Part Two Ita Buttrose talks candidly about men, dating, loneliness, family, media ethics and grabbing life by the throat, at any age.

In the space of a few years Jonty Bush lost two of her closest family members in separate and unrelated crimes. Instead of succumbing to grief and anger, she took up the challenge to change the world and in the process changed herself...

Not since the mighty Phar Lap has a horse captured the public imagination like Black Caviar. She remains unbeaten after thirteen runs and has been declared the best racehorse in the world.

Three years ago Gavin Larkin used his marketing nous and high profile contacts to create a national day of awareness called R U OK? Day. But not long after the launch, the super fit indomitable Gavin was anything but okay...

When Catherine Smith was found not guilty of attempting to murder her own husband it was a turning point in one of the most extraordinary cases in Australian criminal history.

TV Drama legend Sue Masters teamed up with 'Bra Boys' Maccario de Souza and his friends Mark Matthews and Richie Vas to work on a big screen documentary about big wave surfing, alcohol fuelled violence and the sequence of events that finally frightened the young men into cleaning up their lives.

A repeat of the program about Australian scientists Dr Jennifer MacDiarmid and Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt and one of medicine's holy grails finding a way to treat cancer without toxic side effects and avoiding drug resistance.

Zelie Bullen is stepping into the international spotlight as the woman who trained 'Abraham', the lead horse in Spielberg's production of the Tony award winning play 'War Horse'.

Part one of the program that centres on the notorious case of Jeffrey Gilham, in jail for life for the murders of his own parents.

The conclusion to the program about the notorious case of Jeffrey Gilham, currently serving a life sentence for the murders of his own parents in Sydney nearly twenty years ago.

Kristina Keneally made history by becoming the first female Premier of NSW. What few realise is the family experience that she says led her into politics and toughened her for the brutal crossfire of public life.

Nazeem Hussain and Aamer Rahman have become two of the hottest young comedians on the Australian comedy scene.

Film critic Margaret Pomeranz introduces this encore edition on the very special personal and professional bond shared by filmmaker Sarah Watt and her husband actor and writer William McInnes.