Australian Story

TV News and Current Affairs ABC and SBS News
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Returns Monday February 27 8:00pm

Update:

Leigh Sales joins the Australian Story team in a brand-new role, presenting the award winning program with no narrator and no agendas.

This season, we go behind the scenes with actor and producer Claudia Karvan, hear changemaker Saul Griffith’s clean energy vision for our homes, and take a deep dive into the incredible story of underwater filmmaker and shark advocate Valerie Taylor.

Immerse yourself in the life of an extraordinary Australian and their authentic stories, told in their own words.

In this series return episode: Saul Griffiths - inventor, author, scientist and changemaker – shares his vision and contagious passion for renewable future energy in Australia.

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The Transformer | Saul Griffith

Monday 27 February 8:00pm

Introduced by presenter Leigh Sales

Saul Griffith is a prolific inventor, an engineer and a successful entrepreneur.

His bold ideas on energy caught the eye of the US president and helped shape the ground-breaking climate legislation that passed there late last year.

Now he’s returned home after two decades in the US and has joined with his community near Wollongong, south of Sydney, in an ambitious project to electrify homes in his suburb and power them with renewables.

If successful, the pilot project will prove that household electrification is a potential solution to an urgent problem.

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Game Changer

Monday 6 March 8:00 PM

Many parents will tell you they’re worried their children are spending too much time playing video games and are desperate about what to do.

Wayne Warburton, a plumber-turned-psychologist, reckons he can help.

Together with German researchers, Dr Warburton, from Macquarie University, has devised a three-month program to help the minority of teenagers who are gaming excessively.

Australian Story has gained exclusive access to follow two teenage boys as they embark on the program, the first of its kind in Australia, and try to take control of their gaming habits and their lives. But will it work?

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Diving in Deep | Valerie Taylor

Monday 13 March 8:00 PM

Introduced by presenter Leigh Sales

Underwater explorer and trailblazing conservationist, Valerie Taylor’s life has been one big adventure.

The woman in the pink wetsuit burst onto our TV screens in the 1960s, stunning viewers with rare images of the ocean world.

Valerie’s work with sharks is legendary and her advocacy relentless. She’s swum with the most feared sharks in the world and on the rare occasions she’s been bitten, has dived right back in.

With her cinematographer husband, the late Ron Taylor, Valerie famously worked with director Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jaws, capturing thrilling images of great white sharks in the wild.

This two-part special takes a deep dive into Valerie’s remarkable life, revealing precious home movies from Valerie’s childhood and behind the scenes footage from her most influential films.

20 March 8:00 PM

Continuing the story of the remarkable life of Valerie Taylor, the celebrated underwater filmmaker and shark conservationist.

By the 1970s, Valerie and her cinematographer husband, the late Ron Taylor, had an international reputation for filming with dangerous sharks and were hired by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg to film great white sharks for the blockbuster, Jaws.

Behind-the-scenes footage tells the story of how Ron captured dramatic pictures of a great white and how the film’s stuntman came close to dying.

But Jaws’ mega success was bad news for sharks and threatened to undo Valerie’s message that they weren’t the enemy.

Even after her first serious shark bite, which we see on film, Valerie stepped up her campaign to protect the grey nurse and other marine animals.

Now 87, Valerie is still fighting to protect the marine world and her work is inspiring a new generation of ocean lovers.