The arrival of European invaders at Sydney in 1788 marked the beginning of a prolonged and multifaceted campaign against First Nations Peoples which was, by modern standards, genocidal. In the Northern Territory in the 1920’s the Coniston Massacres unfolded with tragic outcomes for the local Aboriginal people and would echo hauntingly down the family lines of all involved.

The extent of Richard Deeming’s crimes will never truly be fully realised. With rumours of his possible crimes across many countries, and links being made to murders often attributed to Jack the Ripper, Deeming became a notorious figure in early Australia. Like many men before him, Deeming had tried to run from his past sins and make a life for himself in Australia. However, the one thing Deeming couldn’t flee was his own cruel nature.

Rum was what kept the men of the colonies moving. Its desirability helped to build towns and cities, and its proceeds even funded a hospital. Life in colonial Australia was punishing, and the “tipple” alleviated some of the challenges of being isolated at the bottom of the world in a strange and hostile new land.

Sex work was the only way some women could survive in the colonies, but it was risky work, and some women became trapped in cycles of poverty from which there was escape. Others did not live to tell their tales.

Faced with the existential dread that wartime brings, Australians wrote. They wrote journals, letters, postcards, memoirs, memorials, and poems to capture what they were seeing and how they were feeling. In this episode we explore the voices of Australians during the First World War.

Asylums and their inhabitants were kept out of sight and out of mind. Escapes, violence, murders, and suicides were all splashed across the headlines of the papers. But most importantly, behind the high walls, people lived out their lives, squirreling away what precious few items they held dear, working in the gardens and kitchens, and waiting for the day when they might be free.

Australia's oceans are both inviting and terrifying. In colonial and early post colonial Australia, people turned to the ocean for survival and recreation. But the fearsome shark took the lives of many and struck fear into the hearts of countrymen and women.

In the sleepy coastal town of Tasmania’s Triabunna, twin tragedies would intertwine in the late 1890’s and leave an indelible mark on the lives of the townspeople for years to come. In this episode of Australian Psyche, we recount the tragedy that befell The Glover Family.