About this season
Putting the "real" back into reality television, Australian Story is an award-winning documentary series with no narrator and no agendas — just authentic stories told entirely in people's own words.
Episodes (41)
1. Adrenaline Brush
Aired 6 February 2017 • 30 min
Sophie Cape, a former elite downhill skier and track cyclist, survived death-defying injuries and extreme mental trauma to become one of the young "rock stars" of Australian art.
2. The Hardest Choice
Aired 13 February 2017 • 30 min
The Hardest Choice: After a series of heartbreaking decisions, Claudine and Dave Fitzgibbon take a leap of faith with pioneering surgery to improve their chances of having a healthy child.
3. Unchained Melody
Aired 20 February 2017 • 30 min
Australian singer-songwriter Melody Pool's journey through young love and heartbreak takes a surprising turn and threatens to derail a promising career.
4. Into Hot Water
Aired 27 February 2017 • 30 min
Underwater adventurer Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg leads a team that believes some of the world's great coral reefs can be saved from the threat of rising sea temperatures and climate change.
5. Getting Away With Murder
Aired 6 March 2017 • 30 min
Could one of Australia's most notorious cold cases finally be solved? Two women investigate a chilling crime and discover a world of fear, favours and political intrigue.
6. On Borrowed Time
Aired 13 March 2017 • 30 min
A young asylum seeker is released from immigration detention to return to her married life in the community. But she faces an uncertain future.
7. My Mother's Secret
Aired 20 March 2017 • 30 min
Blindsided by her mother's shock suicide, newspaper columnist Nikki Gemmell's search for answers takes her down the rabbit hole of the euthanasia debate.
8. All For The Family
Aired 27 March 2017 • 30 min
Reigning world surfing champion Tyler Wright reveals how her campaign for the title was almost derailed when her brother Owen was seriously injured in a surfing accident.
9. Two Brothers
Aired 3 April 2017 • 30 min
Two brothers Mal and Mike Leyland were pioneers of outback documentary-making, first setting off to Central Australia in 1960. But after a failed tourist project, they fell out and never fully reconciled.
10. Breaking Good
Aired 10 April 2017 • 30 min
Peter Lyndon-James is a former ice addict and criminal now running Australia's strictest drug rehabilitation centre. At Shalom House in Perth, addicts go cold turkey with surprising results.
11. The Story Of The Krait
Aired 24 April 2017 • 30 min
A veteran's campaign to preserve a rickety little fishing boat, in which fourteen "Z Special" commandos undertook one of Australia's most audacious missions of WWII.
12. Channeling Mr Woo
Aired 1 May 2017 • 30 min
Channeling Mr Woo: From a humble migrant background to internet stardom, maths teacher Eddie Woo is changing lives by providing free maths lessons worldwide on his Wootube site.
13. Splendour In The Grass
Aired 8 May 2017 • 30 min
As they work to regenerate their historic property of Wooleen in WA, newlyweds David Pollock and Frances Jones risk alienating their neighbours in the community where David grew up.
14. Candy Man (Part 1)
Aired 15 May 2017 • 30 min
With his award-winning script for Lion, Luke Davies has become one of Hollywood's most celebrated screenwriters. But he found success only after overcoming years of addiction and despair.
15. Candy Man (Part 2)
Aired 22 May 2017 • 30 min
Part 2 of the story of Luke Davies - poet, novelist & Oscar-nominated screenwriter of the hit movie Lion - charts his recovery from heroin addiction & rise to becoming one of the most sought-after writers in Hollywood.
16. The Beat Goes On
Aired 29 May 2017 • 30 min
With country people dying of heart disease at a rate far greater than their city cousins Dr Rolf Gomes pioneered a mobile cardio clinic. Thanks to a mystery million-dollar benefactor he's now about to build another Heart Bus.
17. Murder By The Sea
Aired 5 June 2017 • 30 min
The brutal murder of young Sydney mother Lynette White in 1973 has baffled police for decades. Join Sydney homicide detectives as they re-open the investigation and hunt for a breakthrough.
18. I Am Sam
Aired 12 June 2017 • 30 min
The story of Sam Goddard and his family's efforts to help him following a series of strokes. They defied medical advice, travelled overseas for treatments & experimented with an illicit substance... with remarkable results.
19. Sins Of The Father
Aired 19 June 2017 • 30 min
Two years ago Vincent Shin became the first school-based lawyer in Australia, the job of his dreams. But when he discovered a court file involving his father, he was shaken to the core.
20. Shooting For The Stars
Aired 26 June 2017 • 30 min
As a child fleeing civil war in Africa, Mayor Chagai found solace in basketball. Now he's coaching a new generation of sporting champions among the Sudanese community in Sydney.
21. The Peacemaker
Aired 3 July 2017 • 30 min
Ossie Cruse has been healing divisions in this country for 50 years. Now in his 80s he's inspiring his community to re-establish an ancient pathway where Aborigines first reached out to white settlers.
22. Long Way From Home
Aired 10 July 2017 • 30 min
When a 20-year-old backpacker is murdered during a working holiday in rural Australia her grieving mother uncovers a world of sexual, financial and psychological exploitation.
23. Long Way From Home (Part 2)
Aired 17 July 2017 • 30 min
After her daughter is brutally murdered while on the 88-day farm-work scheme, English woman Rosie Ayliffe travels to backpacker hotspots in Australia to lobby for change.
24. My Son Sam
Aired 24 July 2017 • 30 min
The Sydney dad who defied convention and took his autistic teenage son backpacking across Africa. The results could revolutionise the study of autism.
25. Playing With Fire
Aired 31 July 2017 • 30 min
Sam Dastyari was the ALP's rising star until he was forced to resign from the Shadow Ministry last year over a political donations scandal. Tonight, the Senator speaks exclusively about lingering criticisms of his conduct.
26. The Bridge
Aired 7 August 2017 • 30 min
She jumped off a bridge to end her life only to wake up in the ER after a miracle survival. One woman's story of recovery and making the most of a second chance at life.
27. The Shape Shifters
Aired 14 August 2017 • 30 min
Supermodel Robyn Lawley and her agent Chelsea Bonner take on the fashion industry to challenge its portrayal of the female form.
28. The Strong Man
Aired 21 August 2017 • 30 min
Grant Edwards was once Australia's strongest man. But what he was exposed to as a top Federal Police Officer forced him to confront his own devastating vulnerability.
29. The Minister's Secret
Aired 28 August 2017 • 30 min
Remembering Fiona Richardson, the Victorian Minister who passed away from breast cancer last week. The nation's first Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, she had her own traumatic experience of domestic abuse.
30. Beyond OK
Aired 4 September 2017 • 30 min
The extraordinary story behind R U OK? Day. After advertising executive Gavin Larkin started the suicide prevention movement, he found out he was anything but ok. Nine years on, his legacy continues to sustain his own family.
31. Modern Family
Aired 11 September 2017 • 30 min
When partners John Guthrie & Dennis Cash decided to foster traumatised teenage girls, their friends thought they were crazy. But two decades later, the 'daughters' & 'Dads' have morphed into a remarkable 21st century family.
32. All The World's A Stage
Aired 18 September 2017 • 30 min
Standing at just over a metre tall, Kiruna Stamell has knocked down every barrier in her way to forge a successful career as an actor and dancer.
33. Found In Translation
Aired 25 September 2017 • 30 min
Professor Tony Attwood has revolutionised our approach to Asperger's syndrome, credited with being a world expert in diagnosis and treatment and viewing it not as a condition to be 'fixed' but a gift to be valued.
34. Call Of The Wild
Aired 2 October 2017 • 30 min
Former Miss World Belinda Green found new meaning in life when she met veterinary surgeon Dr Howard Ralph, a man with an extraordinary devotion to saving native animals.
35. Paying It Forward
Aired 9 October 2017 • 30 min
Forty years ago, Waverley Stanley's life changed when a teacher saw something special in the young indigenous student & arranged a boarding school scholarship. Now Waverley is extending the same opportunity to others.
36. A Gentle Man
Aired 16 October 2017 • 30 min
Go behind-the-scenes with boxing's Mr Nice Guy Jeff Horn, charting his meteoric rise from bullied teen to world champion. The unknown teacher shot to international fame in July after his surprise take-down of Manny Pacquiao.
37. End Game
Aired 23 October 2017 • 30 min
Socceroos Coach Ange Postecoglou speaks his mind ahead of Australia's do-or-die World Cup qualifying matches against Honduras. Postecoglou confronts the critics of his strategy and addresses speculation about his future.
38. Balancing The Scales
Aired 30 October 2017 • 30 min
For 20 years, Elisha Rose has lived with the secret shame of having a multiple murderer for a father. Elisha became a lawyer and tried to atone for her father's sins through charity work, keeping her secret until now.
39. Behind The Mask - Mike Willesee (Part 1)
Aired 6 November 2017 • 30 min
Part One of an exclusive look back at the life of legendary broadcaster Mike Willesee as he faces his greatest challenge - a diagnosis of throat cancer.
40. Behind The Mask - Mike Willesee (Part 2)
Aired 13 November 2017 • 30 min
The conclusion to the two-part special on broadcaster Mike Willesee as he faces his greatest challenge - a diagnosis of throat cancer.
41. Without Rhyme Or Reason
Aired 20 November 2017 • 30 min
An exclusive Australian Story investigation into the death of Justine Damond Ruszczyk, the Australian woman shot dead by a Minneapolis police officer after calling 911 to report a crime.