An hour north of Sydney, a drowned valley plunges forty metres into darkness. For over a century, witnesses have reported something moving through the Hawkesbury River that shouldn't exist. Long necks rising from murky water, massive shapes surfacing near boats, creatures that defy explanation. The Darug people have stories about this river that stretch back 50,000 years. Bull sharks are confirmed. Seals enter from the Pacific. In Episode 29 of Strewth, we dive into Australia's deepest river mystery.

Sources

Australian Geomechanics Society: "Marine geophysical investigations of palaeo-drainage systems in the Hawkesbury River Estuary, New South Wales, Australia."

MiNDFOOD. "Sydney Siders Urged to Exercise Caution and Avoid Harbour Waters After Recent Shark Attack." https://www.mindfood.com/article/sydney-siders-urged-to-exercise-caution-and-avoid-harbour-waters-after-recent-shark-attack/

Trove: "SHARK TRAGEDY - YOUTH'S TERRIBLE DEATH." The Canberra Times, December 14, 1936. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2417183

The Dictionary of Sydney. "The Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River." https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_dyarubbin_project_aboriginal_history_culture_and_places_on_the_hawkesbury_river

"Darug women claim back their Hawkesbury history." Central News, May 31, 2021. https://centralnews.com.au/2021/05/31/darug-women-claim-back-their-hawkesbury-history/

"The Hawkesbury River Monster." Mysterious Australia. https://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/the_hawkesbury_river_monster.html

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

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An Island of Secrets - Part 2 of 2 - Analysing the Evidence

The official story seemed simple: Vivienne Cameron murdered Beth Barnard in jealous rage, then jumped from the San Remo Bridge. Case closed.

But when forensic scientists examined the evidence, they found something impossible. A pink mohair jumper that never left a single fibre. A blood-soaked murder scene where the killer left no victim's blood in the escape vehicle. Phone calls at times that don't match the timeline. A handbag that appeared in two different places. And a woman who supposedly drowned hours before her friend received a phone call from her discussing sewing patterns.

In Part 2, we examine what the evidence really shows and why every piece of forensic science points away from the official narrative toward something more complex, more troubling, and more deliberately concealed.

After forty years, the bones in the sand might finally reveal the truth. Or they might prove that Phillip Island's secrets run even deeper than anyone imagined.

Sources

• Petraitis, Vikki and Paul Daley: The Phillip Island Murder (1993, 3rd edition 2018)
• Petraitis, Vikki: The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron: Forty Years Searching for the Phillip Island Murderer (Simon & Schuster, January 2026)
• Casefile Presents Podcast (2020): The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron
• Sensing Murder (2006) The Scarlett Letter (Series 1 - Episode 8)
• Under Investigation: Adultery, Murder and Mayhem (2021)

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com

An Island of Secrets - Part 1 of 2 - The Fateful Night

September 1986. A brutal murder on Phillip Island. A woman carved with the letter "A" for adulteress. Another woman vanished without trace. For forty years, Australia accepted the official story: jealous wife kills mistress, then commits suicide by jumping from a bridge.

But in January 2026, plumbers digging for a septic tank found human bones buried in the sand. And suddenly, questions that were never properly answered demanded attention.

Join us for Part 1 of the Phillip Island Mystery as we walk through the night of September 22nd, 1986. The wine glass attack, the hospital visit, the mysterious 3 AM phone call, and the discovery of Beth Barnard's body with a message carved into her chest. Every detail matters, because when you look closely, nothing about this night makes sense.

One night. Two women. Forty years of unanswered questions.

Sources

• Petraitis, Vikki and Paul Daley: The Phillip Island Murder (1993, 3rd edition 2018)
• Petraitis, Vikki: The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron: Forty Years Searching for the Phillip Island Murderer (Simon & Schuster, January 2026)
• Casefile Presents Podcast (2020): The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron
• Sensing Murder (2006) The Scarlett Letter (Series 1 - Episode 8)
• Under Investigation: Adultery, Murder and Mayhem (2021)

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com

November 24th, 1978. Bank employees, locksmiths, vault experts and finally council workers in Murwillumbah spend nine hours trying to open a bank vault. When they finally broke through, Chief Inspector Frank Charleton looked around the empty space and said three words: "They got the lot."

One point seven million dollars. Vanished. Taken by professionals who used an electromagnetic drill, a medical cystoscope, and surgical precision to crack a vault that was supposed to be impregnable. Right across from a pub. One hundred metres from the police station.

Forty-six years later, it's still unsolved. Australia's perfect crime.

This week on Strewth, the podcast exploring Australia's most baffling mysteries, we examine the robbery, the suspects and the enduring legend of the Murwillumbah Heist.

Sources:

• Sydney Morning Herald, "Bank Robbers 'Got the Lot' - $1.7m Haul," November 25, 1978
• Tweed Regional Museum, Murwillumbah - Permanent collection
• Kidd, Robert "Bertie," memoirs (2022)
• Bullamakanka, "Murwillumbah Bank Job" (1979)

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com

On August 7-8, 1993. Kelly Cahill is driving home through Victoria's misty Dandenong Ranges when her car was surrounded by seven-foot tall beings with eyes that glowed burning red through the darkness. One hour of her life vanished. Within weeks, she discovered triangular burns on her body and was hospitalised with infections doctors couldn't explain.

Then came the breakthrough that should have changed everything.

This was the holy grail of UFO cases. Multiple independent witnesses. Physical evidence on multiple bodies. Medical documentation. Everything needed to be definitive.

But there was a problem.

This week on Strewth, the story of a terrifying encounter on a dark road, a woman who risked everything to tell her truth, and the evidence that could have proven her claims. When the investigation becomes the mystery, the questions matter more than the answers.

Sources:

• Cahill, Kelly: Encounter. HarperCollins Australia, 1996.
• Chalker, Bill. "The Kelly Cahill Abduction." International UFO Reporter, Vol. 19, No. 5, September/October 1994.
• Chalker, Bill. Blog posts and case updates, 2002, 2016. Available through Australian UFO research archives.
• Phenomena Research Australia (PRA) statements through John Auchettl
• ABC Australia retrospective. "The Kelly Cahill UFO Encounter: 27 Years On." September 2020.
• Ferntree Gully Star Mail. "Kelly Cahill UFO Case Revisited." March 2022.

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

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October 15, 1977. Two police officers discover the body of Florence Broadhurst, a 78-year-old wallpaper designer whose patterns hung in palaces and penthouses around the world, beaten to death in her Paddington studio.

The crime scene tells multiple stories and the investigation has spanned decades producing a mix of theories and suspects as eclectic as Florence's celebrated wallpaper designs.

This week on Strewth, we analyse the crime, the suspects and celebrate the amazing life of Australia's wallpaper queen, Florence Broadhurst.

Sources:

• Thomson, Katherine: Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460427/
• Shand Adam: Australian Crime Stories (Season 2, Episode 4) "Killing Florence"
• O'Neill, Helen. The Laughing Hangman: The True Story Behind the Florence Broadhurst Murder. Sydney: Random House Australia, 2006.

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com

On June 17, 1826, Frederick Fisher, a convict-turned-successful farmer, vanished from his Campbelltown property. His neighbour George Worrall claimed Fisher had sailed back to England, but there was a problem. Fisher was still a convict, bound to the colony. Returning to England would mean hanging.

Three months later, Worrall sat in gaol, arrested on suspicion of murder. But without a body, he couldn't be charged.

Then, in October 1826, a farmer named John Farley reported seeing Frederick Fisher's ghost. The apparition sat on a fence rail, blood streaming from its head, pointing toward a creek. Following that direction, authorities found Fisher's body, skull crushed, buried in a shallow grave exactly where the ghost had pointed.

It's Australia's most famous ghost story. A tale of supernatural justice. An apparition refusing to let murder go unpunished.

This episode explores one of Australia's most enduring mysteries. We'll examine the meticulously documented murder trial, the brilliant tracking skills of Namut Gilbert and the dark possibilities surrounding John Farley's role in the case.

Content warning: This episode discusses murder and contains descriptions of violence.

Sources:

• Supreme Criminal Court transcripts, February 2, 1827
• Chief Justice Forbes' original court notes (examined by Andrew Lang, 1903)
• The Sydney Gazette, September-November 1826
• The Australian, November 1, 1826
• The Monitor, November 3, 1826
• Riley, James. "The Sprite of the Creek!" Hill's Life in New South Wales, August 1832

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

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This is Part Two of our Highway of Death investigation. After hearing the victims' stories in Part 1, we now examine the hunt for justice, or rather, the spectacular failures of justice. The confessions that led nowhere. The corruption exposed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry that destroyed investigations and let killers walk free. The suspects who died before facing trial. The families who've waited fifty years for answers.

And at the center of it all, one haunting question. Were these ten murders the work of a single serial killer who stalked the Flinders Highway for decades? Or multiple predators who independently discovered that isolation makes the perfect hunting ground?

After fifty years, over $1.25 million in rewards, and hundreds of thousands of investigative hours, these cases remain unsolved.

Content Warning: This episode discusses police corruption, systemic failures of justice, and the ongoing impact on families of unsolved murders.

Sources:

• Fitzgerald Inquiry Report (1987-1989): "Report of a Commission of Inquiry Pursuant to Orders in Council"
• "The Hunters" - Channel 7 documentary (March 2025)
• Fisher, Ian (Coroner). (2002, February). Inquest into the disappearance of Anthony "Tony" Jones. Queensland Coroner's Court.
• Wilson, Nerida (Coroner). (2021). Inquest into the death of Jayden Penno-Tompsett. Queensland Coroner's Court.
• R v Arthur Stanley Brown (1999). Queensland Supreme Court. Trial transcript, October 1999.

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast

Contact us: strewthpodcast@gmail.com