Conversations

Writer Anita Heiss has based her novel  Dirrayawadha on stories from the 1800s during the frontier wars in Bathurst, when martial law was declared.

The filmmaker on her series which documents a period some historians call the most important war Australia has ever fought in.
Rachel Perkins is one of this country's great storytellers, translating distinctively Australian stories for the screen, including a television series first released in 2022 called The Australian Wars.
It tracks the bloody conflicts that broke out across the continent after the arrival of the British colonists.
Rachel says these are the most important wars in our history: they were fought on Australian soil, between Australians, to determine the ownership and control of the entire country.
The stories from this era are stories of violence, of peace, of epic adventures, which make up the foundational narrative of this nation.
This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2022 
Further Information
The Australian Wars is available to watch on SBS on Demand.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.
It explores Aboriginal history, British colonial history, frontier wars, the Native Police, death, conflict, grief, Australian history, guns, violence, land ownership, control, documentary

Tagalaka man, Victor Steffensen on the ‘walking encyclopedias’ — dear old men he met who entrusted him with their decades of cultural knowledge and taught him to apply the right traditional burn for the right environment, so Country can thrive. 
Victor advocates for small, cool fires that emit white smoke. This is something Indigenous people have done for tens of thousands of years to help Country survive and thrive.
Victor was a young man who wasn’t sure which direction to take when two elders in Far North Queensland took him under their wing.
He was hungry for knowledge and a beautiful, trusting relationship grew between the three men. 
The old men poured their expertise into Victor, who captured it all on videotape.
Today Victor teaches all around the country, using traditional methods on how to safely burn the landscape so plants, animals and people can flourish.
Further information
The Knowledge: Learning from ancestral wisdom to save our challenging global environment is published by Allen & Unwin.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. 
This episode covers Indigenous elders, cultural knowledge, doubt, backburning, bushfires, fuel load, drip torch, cool burn, mosaic burn, everything is connected, sacred knowledge, climate change, native grasses, crocodile country, knowledge sharing, Indigenous knowledge systems, NAIDOC week, lost language, mentors, Indigenous rangers, Kuranda, camping, fishing.
To binge even more great episodes of the 'Conversations podcast' with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

For 40 years, crime was the only constant in Lincoln Lynch’s life, until a prison stint forced him to look inward and change the trajectory of his life for good.
His young mum went to prison for dealing drugs when Lincoln was little, and eventually he followed in her footsteps.
Lincoln endured periods of homelessness and institutionalised abuse as a teenager, and he became a teen father, before winding up in prison himself.
There, in his cell, Lincoln discovered God’s teachings about compassion and forgiveness, and he resolved to leave prison a different man.
On the outside, he was given practical, real-life support to re-establish his life at a halfway house in Sydney called Rainbow Lodge.
With new-found confidence and purpose, Lincoln started studying psychology, fell in love and is now working at the lodge, helping other men find their way outside of prison.
Content Warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion about childhood abuse and sexual assault.
More information about Rainbow Lodge can be found online.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Rebecca McLaren and Meggie Morris. Executive Producer was Eliza Kirsch.
It explores judicial system, justice system, recidivism, substance abuse, heroin, meth, speed, homelessness, sleeping rough, childhood abuse, sexual assault, sexuality, institutional abuse, mother son relationships, grief, drug dealing, crime, guilty verdict, prison system, prison sentence, serving time, changing your life, turning your life around, love, relationships, fatherhood, psychology, Vince Hurley, policing, criminology, intergenerational trauma, God, spirituality, reform.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

The inaugural winner of Alone Australia on her life as a creative, outrageous, nature-loving misfit who grew up to live through great depths of love and grief. Warning: Discusses the death of a child.
In 2023, Gina Chick spent 67 days by herself, in the wilderness of Tasmania’s West Coast, surviving on worms, fish, and one unlucky wallaby.
After those 67 days, Gina became the first-ever winner of a reality show on SBS called Alone Australia, but her approach to the competition was very different from the other contestants.
For Gina, the wild was not an enemy to be overcome but a place with no hierarchy, where she feels completely herself.
It’s always been that way, since she was a 'weird' little girl with a rare affinity with birds and nature.
As an adult, Gina spent years inside Sydney’s queer club scene and working for an all-girl security firm, but life changed completely for Gina when she became a mother herself.
Further information
If you need support after listening to this story, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Gina's book We are the Stars was published by Simon & Schuster in 2024.
The Executive Producer of Conversations is Nicola Harrison.
This episode explores motherhood, parenting, reality television, Alone Australia, winner of Alone, hunting, survival, did Gina catch the wallaby? adoption, adoptees, Kiama, South Coast NSW, ADHD, birds, neurodiversity, bad boyfriends, debt, sexually transmitted debt, scent, pheromones, younger men, Oxford Street, survival, nightclubs, podium dancing, synaesthesia, breast cancer.
To binge even more great episodes of the 'Conversations podcast' with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.