The idea of flying like the birds in the sky was a fantasy until the men of science began unlocking the mysteries of the universe in the 15th century. Innovation was then needed but by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century men and machines were taking to the air successfully in Europe, America and Australia. War had an enormous impact on aircraft development. Aircraft quickly became the deadliest of weapons and when the hostilities were over the pilots and machines formed th...

On 3 December 1854 a bloody battle between gold miners, soldiers and police raged for fifteen minutes at the Eureka Lead in Ballarat. But this brief conflict, which had been brewing for years, would have momentous consequences overturning the accepted social order and bringing democracy to Victoria. EUREKA introduces you to the people and events that shaped this key moment in Australias history.

Since ancient times gold has exerted a powerful fascination for humankind. Symbol of wealth and riches, it has influenced the rise and fall of empires and changed the course of history. In Australia, its discovery sparked frenzied gold rushes that opened up large parts of the land to settlement, transformed Melbourne and Sydney from colonial outposts into two of the worlds most vibrant cities, and triggered the push for a more democratic form of government. Today, Australia continues to be...

Love, murder, betrayal, and adventure with transportation of convicts in 1787 and the founding of the penal colony that became Australia.With the American colonies closed to Britain, the gaols overflowed, the criminal under-class posed a threat to the property clazzes. A solution was required. The answer lay in the continent on the far side of the world - Terra Australis Incognita.'Discovered' by James Cook, the government of the day launched an ambitious experiment; to mak...

In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia in his ship, the HM Bark Endeavour. Setting out from England in 1768, he was given two instructions: to observe the transit of Venus and to find and chart the mythical "Great Southern Land". He succeeded in both tasks, despite he and his crew facing great hardship and danger, to complete one of the great voyages of exploration. But as a result of this voyage and reports made later by Joseph Banks, botanist on board the Endea...

From the early invention of the boomerang as an effective hunting weapon to todays ground-breaking contributions to science and technology, Australians have always proven brilliantly adept at coming up with creative solutions to challenging problems. From manufacturing to agriculture, film to medicine, its likely that an Australian invention is making a valuable contribution to the way we live. AUSTRALIAS GREATEST INVENTIONS reveals how our industry and innovation have placed this country ...

Australia is a land of extremes where searing heat and devastating floods can both take their toll. It is also a land of vast distances, leaving it vulnerable to calamaties at sea, by rail and in the air. AUSTRALIAS GREATEST DISASTERS charts the events that have caused not only tragic loss of human life, but also economic and environmental devastation. From Cyclone Tracy and the Ash Wednesday bushfires to the Granville train disaster and the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, these are the ...

Thousands of convicts were transported to Australia. Of these, some managed to escape incarceration and went on to achieve notoriety in their new land. A few tried to invent a Robin Hood reputation, taking the side of the poor settler against those in authority. Some committed crimes so heinous they were both feared and despised by the general population. Their lives were desperate, their fate often tragic. AUSTRALIAS MOST NOTORIOUS CONVICTS reveals not only their stories but also the horr...

The often harsh and unforgiving Australian landscape was a far cry from what the early colonisers were used to, and it proved a daunting obstacle to settlement. However, a few brave and at times foolhardy men were determined to prove themselves equal to the challenge. AUSTRALIA'S GREAT EXPLORERS looks at the tragedies and triumphs of men such as Wentworth and Lawson, Hume and Hovell, Burke and Wills, Leichhardt and Strzelecki as they battled to conquer the Great Diving Range, find an elusi...

One of the greatest tragedies in Australian military history occurred at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915, when hundreds of Australian light horsemen were repeatedly ordered to charge the massed rifles and machine-guns of the Turkish enemy. It was a hopeless endeavour, and the resulting bloodbath has horrified every generation since and been the subject of considerable scrutiny by historians. The charge at The Nek, so vividly realised in Peter Weirs famous film Gallipoli, came to epitomise both ...

Ships sailing the trading routes of the South Pacific in the 1800's mostly carried general merchandise. Other sailors sought fortunes gathering sandalwood and diving for pearls and pearl shell.But,in the latter half of the century a much more lucrative trade developed - the labour trade.Plantation owners in Australia and Fiji were desperate for a source of cheap labour. Their dreams were fulfilled when the Australian government approved a scheme to recruit labourers from the South P...

I knew nothing whatever of Australia when I rashly consented to marry a young man who had irrevocably bound himself to go and live there, and, moreover, to go within three months of the day on which the wild idea occurred to me. During the seven weeks or thereabouts of a bewildering engagement, the while I got together my modest trousseau, we hunted for information in local libraries, and from more or less instructed friends. The books were mostly old ones, the tales the same. Geoffrey Ham...