1a. The Feisty Mrs Miller
Bored Australian housewife, Jessie Miller, joins WWI aviator Bill Lancaster on a record-setting flight attempt from England to Australia in 1927. Aloft in their open-cockpit biplane, events spiral out of control.
1b. That Magnificent Gal in her Flying Machine
Jessie Miller travels to America in 1928 where she becomes a record-setting aviator, the world’s first female test pilot, and a friend of Amelia Earhart. Then one day she disappears …
1c. Be careful what you wish for
As the Great Depression grips America, celebrity aviator Jessie Miller finds herself the world’s most notorious scarlet woman and a central player in a sensational American murder trial.
2a. The Catalpa Conspiracy I: The Plot
In 1875, Irish-born Americans plot to help Ireland throw off the yoke of British oppression. They audaciously plan to snatch Irish political prisoners from their British prison in Western Australian.
2b. The Catalpa Conspiracy II: The Execution
The American whaler Catalpa docks in Western Australia in 1876 on a secret mission to liberate Irish political prisoners from their British-run gaol. But nothing goes according to plan.
3a. The Mary Celeste Ghost Ship
In 1872, the now-famous brigantine Mary Celeste sails from New York for Italy with a cargo of alcohol. It’s soon found abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean. What did the investigators discover?
3b. The Mary Celeste Mystery
After the Mary Celeste is found abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes one of the world’s greatest maritime mysteries. After 150 years, can we determine what really happened?
4. Mayday!
In 1978, USA pilot Jay Prochnow sets off to ferry a Cessna to Sydney. His navigation system fails, leaving him lost over the Pacific Ocean as darkness falls and his fuel tanks empty.
5. What really happened to Amelia Earhart?
In 1937 world famous aviator, Amelia Earhart, commences the final leg of her record-setting circumnavigation … and disappears over the Pacific Ocean. A century later, can we determine what really happened?
6. Shipwrecked
In 1787, Britain sends the First Fleet across the world’s oceans to establish penal settlements in Australia and Norfolk Island. But these new British outposts are soon plunged into a life-threatening crisis.
7. It’s About Time
As we cross the world’s oceans, changing time zones along the way, join history detective Carol Baxter as she explores “time” itself and how it was ultimately shackled in such a way.
8. The Murder that Kickstarted the Communication Revolution
London, 1845. Quaker John Tawell murders his ex-mistress. As he flees the scene, a message is sent along the world’s first commercial electric telegraph line. The dramatic consequences usher in today’s Information Age.
9. Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt
Join Carol Baxter on a rollicking ride across New South Wales in the 1860s with outlaw Captain Thunderbolt – aka Frederick Ward aka the “gentleman bushranger” – and his feisty lover Mary Ann Bugg.
10. Australia’s Largest Bank Robbery
Sydney, 1828. An audacious gang of convicts tunnels through a sewerage drain into the bank vault owned by Sydney’s wealthiest gentleman. The consequences prove devastating for everyone concerned.
11. Black Widow
In 1888, Australian housewife Louisa Collins was tried for killing two husbands with arsenic. Nicknamed “The Lucretia Borgia of Botany Bay”, some said she was worse than Jack the Ripper. Was she?
