A Changing Mind | Richard Scolyer
Monday 4 December 8:00 PM
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
It is risky and untested treatment. It could shorten his life or make it a whole lot worse. But it’s a risk Professor Richard Scolyer is willing to take, desperate to try and save his own life.
As the world’s top melanoma pathologist, Richard is an expert in diagnosing skin cancers, and helped revolutionise immunotherapy treatment for advanced melanoma patients, removing the death sentence so many once faced.
But now the acclaimed doctor is facing his own mortality.
Richard had a choice, prepare for the worst or put his hand up to be patient zero as his colleagues design a high stakes experiment to fight his brain tumour, using the very treatment they have pioneered for melanoma.
Airs Monday December 4, 8.00pm (AEDT), on ABC TV and ABC iview.
So appreciative of outpouring of support after #AustralianStory. I'm incredibly proud of & thankful for the amazing work of @MelanomaAus & the intellect & passion of my colleagues. And to my wonderful family, my heartfelt thanks & love @ABCTV @ProfGLongMIA https://t.co/WaMPsSpWD8
— Professor Richard Scolyer AO (@ProfRScolyerMIA) December 4, 2023
Monday Night News Returns
Monday 19 February from 8.00pm
At 8.00pm, Leigh Sales returns to host another season of Australian Story – compelling stories about real people that illuminate, entertain and inspire.
At 8:30pm, the multi-award winning Four Corners returns for another year of powerhouse investigative journalism - fearless and forensic, holding power to account throughout six decades – and counting.
Australia’s longest running current affairs program has been exposing scandals, triggering inquiries, firing debate and confronting taboos for and behalf of the Australian public since 1961 and looks set to remain as defiant as ever in 2024.
Rounding out the evening at 9.30pm, Q+A returns to Monday nights with Patricia Karvelas leading the conversation as citizens put their questions to local and international politicians and thought leaders.
Production credit: ABC NEWS productions.
The Making of Mini | Katrina Gorry (2024 season premiere)
Monday 19 February 8.00pm
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
The performance of the Matildas in last year’s women’s football World Cup turned many of the players into household names, among them Katrina Gorry. But the road to glory hasn’t been an easy one for the 31-year-old midfielder.
Despite her size – the preteen nickname ‘Mini’ stuck – Gorry ran rings around other players and rose steadily through the ranks of women’s football. She debuted for the national team in 2012 and just two years later was both Asian Football and Australian Football’s woman player of the year.
But eventually the pressures of international sporting life began to get to her, culminating in an eating disorder that left her exhausted and out of love for the game.
“I started kind of resenting the game a little bit and I found myself trying to control my food intake and wouldn’t like to look at myself in the mirror,” Katrina tells Australian Story. “It was like three years of, you know, didn’t really want to get up out of bed, didn’t want to go to training.”
Katrina got help from a team psychologist but what really turned things around for her was the decision to undergo IVF, which she did while based in Norway.
“I didn’t really want to tell my family because I didn’t want anyone to talk me out of it. And I didn’t tell the teammates that I was living in the house with because, again, I didn’t want them to talk me out of it.”
The birth of Harper in 2021 changed everything, re-invigorating Katrina’s love of the game and giving her new respect for her body. Within a year Katrina was in a relationship with a Swedish teammate, Clara Markstedt. The pair are engaged, with Clara due to give birth to a sibling for Harper in June.
As the Matildas prepare for the Olympics in Paris, Katrina Gorry is at the top of her game.
Katrina Gorry is joined by her partner Clara, mother Linda, sister Amanda, coach Mel Andreatta and fellow Matilda Charli Grant in an intimate and revealing Australian Story.
Mama’s on a Mission – Mechelle Turvey
Monday, 26 February, 8pm
Presented by Leigh Sales
Mama’s on a Mission - Mechelle Turvey is airing on Monday 19 February, 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
When Mechelle Turvey’s 15-year-old son Cassius died following an attack on the way home from school, people rallied around the country in outrage and despair. Mechelle, who had lost her husband Sam just over a month before, could have succumbed to anger. Instead, she called for calm.
“I didn’t want any more violence,” she tells Australian Story. “I didn’t want hatred and I didn’t want Aboriginal people again to be stereotyped as uncontrollable and violent. I wanted to bring unity among everyone.”
What anger Mechelle felt was initially directed at the WA Police, who she felt had responded inadequately in the aftermath of Cassius’s death. When Homicide Detective Steve Cleal first came to her door, she gave him a piece of her mind.
“There was a definite phase where I had to earn her trust,” Detective Cleal tells Australian Story. “She needed a punching bag to hit and to get that off her chest. And it needed to be dealt with.”
Over the following months, as Detective Cleal accompanied her to court hearings and kept her abreast of developments in the case, the pair developed an unlikely friendship.
“I just like the bloke,” Mechelle says. “He’s a friend. I don’t believe I said that, but he has become a friend.”
Mechelle’s dignity and compassion in the face of unimaginable loss and her insistence on finding a better way forward earned her respect around the country and caught the eye of WA police Commissioner Col Blanch. He asked her to design a training program for police recruits and gave her a job in the police community liaison division. She was also named Western Australian of the year for her community work.
Driven – Minjee and Min Woo Lee
Monday 4 March 8pm
For one family member to excel at golf’s highest levels is impressive but for two family members to do so is simply astonishing.
Perth siblings Minjee and Min Woo Lee are golf stars on the rise, driven by a friendly rivalry to become the world’s No 1 female and male golfer, respectively. But they couldn’t be more different in personality and how they approach the game.
“He’s very talented, very skillful,” says Minjee, the older and more successful of the two. “For me it’s more learnt.”
“We always say that Minjee and Min Woo are like yin and yang,” says their coach, Ritchie Smith. “On one hand, we have the scientist; like she’s so disciplined, so demanding. And on the other hand, you have the artist who doesn’t give a rat’s about the science; he wants to play with flair and be expressive and just have fun.”
Minjee is an introvert by nature, happy to shun the limelight, while the extroverted Min Woo is considered a breath of fresh air in the staid world of golf, with his swashbuckling style and huge social media presence.
“Min Woo is a marketer’s dream,” says Australia’s most successful female golfer, Karrie Webb. “He just looks like he’s loving what he’s doing. And that’s fun for people to watch.”
Australian Story followed Minjee and Min Woo as they competed in the Women’s and Men’s Australian Open late last year, giving a rare glimpse into the lives of the sibling superstars and the extraordinary pressure that golfers endure at the highest levels of the game.
“It’s a tough sport; it’s not easy,” Min Woo tells Australian Story . “There’s a lot of losing in golf.”
Call of Duty – Anjali Sharma
Monday 11 March 8:00pm
Presented by Leigh Sales
Presented on Monday, 11 March, 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
She’s Australia’s answer to Greta Thunberg. At 14, Anjali Sharma was a school strike organiser. At 16, she sued the government. Now at 19, she’s leading a political campaign from her university dorm.
Together with independent Senator David Pocock, Anjali is seeking laws that compel politicians to consider their duty of care to future generations as the paramount criteria when assessing fossil fuel projects.
While the bill is under review from a Senate committee, Anjali and her team of likeminded young people are lobbying parliamentarians across the political divide.
“None of us have ever participated in parliamentary legislation drafting before, and none of us have ever had to run a grassroots campaign out of our UNI dorms. And it’s a massive learning curve,” Anjali says.
Anjali’s motivation lies with her family roots in India, as she’s watched her uncles, aunts and cousins endure deadly heatwaves and ravaging floods.
Stepping into the fray of climate politics is bruising for even the most seasoned of lobbyists, but despite being trolled and racially vilified, Anjali remains determined to fight for radical change.
Producers: Jennifer Feller and Winsome Denyer
Peter Garrett with Leigh Sales
Monday, 18 March, 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview
The In the first of an occasional series of Australian Story specials, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett sits down for an intimate and wide-ranging conversation with Leigh Sales.
The activist, singer and former politician, who turned 70 last year, looks back over the highs and lows and of a life well lived.
“I’ve served in high office, I’ve been in an amazing band,” he says. “I got kissed on the arse by that rainbow, no question. Occasionally I’ve been booted as well.”
He talks about losing both his parents when he was young and how that instilled in him a desire to always keep moving forward and creating.
“Once stuff’s happened, you can’t change that,” he says. “There’s nothing that I think about the past that’s going to change what happened in the past. So, I really do tend to concentrate on the mo.”
Garrett looks back with pride on his decades with Midnight Oil, explaining the unique chemistry that made them one of the biggest bands in the world, embraced by the mainstream while sticking uncompromisingly to their political beliefs.
“We were just ferociously determined to prove to ourselves that what we were doing had some worth and some value, and that it was OK to sing about politics, which is part of life. And if the record company didn’t like it, well, too bad.”
He also talks about the importance of family and especially his relationship with his wife of nearly 40 years, Doris. “She’s more important than anyone could know;” he says of the woman who has fiercely guarded her privacy while her husband became a household name, first as a musician and then as a federal politician.
With a second solo album, The True North, released last week, Garrett shows no sign of slowing down.
“I don’t really analyse myself much. I’m not very introverted and I don’t spend a lot of time gazing at my navel. I just go off and do.”
On the Brink | Bon Scott
Monday 25 March 8:00pm
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bon Scott joining AC/DC, Australian Story repeats its hugely popular profile of the band’s late, great frontman. Featuring a wealth of archival material, On the Brink covers the highs and lows of a remarkable life.
Bon honed his skills in bands such as The Valentines and Fraternity before being introduced in 1974 to AC/DC, who were unhappy with their singer at the time. He joined them on stage for a few songs and the rest was history.
By the late 70s the band was on the brink of world domination and Bon was fulfilling his wildest dreams. But years of excess were catching up with him and in 1980 he died in London from acute alcohol poisoning. He was just 33.
Family, friends and fellow musicians provide insights into Bon’s passions and demons and his state of mind at the time of his death. The episode includes the first and only interview with Bon’s brother Derek and a rare interview with Bon’s replacement in AC/DC, Brian Johnson.
Patient Zero | Richard Scolyer
Monday 1 April 8:00pm
Australian Story goes behind the scenes with the 2024 Australians of the Year as they reach a remarkable milestone, even they never thought possible.
Professors Richard Scolyer and Georgina Long made headlines last year after trialling a groundbreaking protocol they’d devised for melanoma patients on Richard’s incurable brain cancer.
They allowed Australian Story cameras to document their bold approach, as Richard expressed his greatest fears, and Georgina toiled day and night to find a cure.
Now, 10 months on since Richard was first diagnosed, our cameras travel alongside him once more as scientists scan his brain for any signs the aggressive cancer has returned.
“To be able to get this far through now without any recurrence of my tumour I’m blown away. This is not what I expected,” says Richard.
Professor Long says the goal now is to test the treatment on a large scale.
“As a scientist and as a clinician, there is an absolute need to make sure that you do things properly and share that information in a peer-reviewed, proper way,” she says.
They anticipate clinical trials will begin soon.
This is the follow-up episode to Richard Scolyer feature which aired as the 2023 season finale.
Out of the Wild | Gina Chick with Leigh Sales
Monday 8 April 8:00pm
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
When Gina Chick won the first season of the television survival show Alone Australia, having lasted 67 days in the Tasmanian wilderness, her life changed forever.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Leigh Sales, filmed before a live audience, Gina talks about how overwhelmed she has been by the outpouring of love and support she has experienced since Alone Australia and her 2023 episode of Australian Story aired.
“There has been zero trolling; like none,” she tells Leigh Sales. “Who gets that? When I walk down the street, people come up and they want to connect.”
She explains how that affirmation has helped her make peace with her big personality, something that made life difficult for her socially when she was a child.
“I found the whole journey is actually letting me express all of these different parts of myself. It’s like, OK, red carpet, do the whole thing but do it barefoot. I’ve managed to get away with not wearing shoes for anything so far. And now it’s a brand.”
Gina discusses her 35-year friendship with actor Hugh Jackman, her extraordinarily close relationship with her ex-husband Lee and, most movingly, how sharing the loss of her three-year-old daughter to cancer with a national audience has helped her.
“I lost my daughter 10 years ago and all of a sudden she’s alive again in all of these people who are coming up to tell their stories of loss or grief.”
Producers: Lisa McGregor and Olivia Rousset.
Man Underground | Arnold Dix
Monday 15 April 8:00 pm
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
Arnold Dix became a hero to millions of people across India when he helped rescue 41 men from a tunnel collapse high in the Himalayas.
Man Underground explores the bizarre and circuitous career path that culminated in this moment of international recognition. For Arnold Dix wears many hats – barrister, scientist, flower farmer, truck driver, engineer and tunnelling expert.
Dix explains the difficult situation that faced him at the site of the collapse and the pressure he felt as the whole of India became transfixed by the unfolding drama.
“We showed the world that good people working together can do the impossible,” he says.
Airs Monday April 15, 8:00pm (AEST), on ABCTV, ABC iview and YouTube.
Out of the Chaos | Anna Coutts Trotter
Monday 22 April 8:00 pm
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
When Federal Labor Minister Tanya Plibersek learned her daughter Anna had been abused during a high school relationship, it was the beginning of the family’s brutal fight for justice. Now Anna Coutts-Trotter is on a mission to support other survivors grappling with the aftermath of abuse. (Australian Story: Tom Hancock)
Anna Coutts–Trotter is on a mission.
The 23-year-old was in a teenage relationship when she experienced serious physical and emotional abuse.
But it was only after she told her father and mother, Federal Labor Minister Tanya Plibersek, what had happened that the family’s fight for justice began.
After surviving an often-brutal court process, Anna has co-founded Survivor Hub, a peer-led support group where survivors can connect safely and overcome the isolation that so many experience.
One in Seven Trillion | Leila McDougall
Monday 29 April 8:00 pm
Off the page, Leila McDougall’s life reads like a blockbuster, full of obstacles, adversity, triumph, loss and love.
The young farmer from Victoria has overcome dyslexia, beaten cancer, won Mrs Australia and Farmer Wants a Wife, and started a charity event to get farmers talking about mental health.
Determined to draw attention to the issues her community faces, Leila struck a cunning plan, bluffing her way into acting school as the first step in making her own feature film about life on the land.
“I just made up a resume saying I’d done all these courses and sent it in and somehow they passed it and let me in,” Leila says.
Leila’s husband was right behind her. Together the couple stumped up $500,000 to help produce the film.
“When someone does die by suicide, we don’t talk about it, like it’s still a taboo subject,” Sean McDougall says.
Leila ended up starring in the film, which was directed by Chopper actor Simon Lyndon, who has also battled his own demons.
“One of the reasons why I connected so much with this film is because I had been having some pretty severe personal mental health struggles of my own,” the first-time director says.
The film Just a Farmer premiered earlier this year and received a shout-out from acting royalty Hugh Jackman.
It’s a remarkable achievement from someone with no background in film.
“The odds of someone who is not an actor or a writer getting a feature film off the ground are 1 in 7 trillion,” acting coach, Damian Walshe-Howling says.
Producer: Ben Cheshire.
Face to Fake | Chelsea Bonner
Monday 6 May 8pm
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
Modelling agent Chelsea Bonner has been at the forefront of the fight to change perceptions of beauty.
As the daughter of Tony Bonner, who played Jerry the helicopter pilot in Skippy, Chelsea grew up in a family where both parents were revered for their looks.
Australian Story first met Chelsea in 2016 when, as a modelling agent, she was fighting to change the industry to be more inclusive.
Now Chelsea is taking on an even bigger battle — artificial intelligence — where algorithms are creating fake models and alarming beauty standards.
Off Menu: An Australian Story Trilogy
Monday 13 May 8:00pm
Over the next three weeks, Australian Story goes behind the scenes at some of Australia’s top restaurants, revealing the unique and deeply personal stories that have shaped owners Josh Niland, Shaun Christie-David and Kylie Kwong.
First course: Josh Niland
“Josh Niland is one of the most interesting chefs on the planet right now” - Jamie Oliver
It was a fear of failure that pushed young chef Josh Niland to wild experimentation.
“Everything was going to go to shit, and I needed a plan for how to get out of it” - Josh Niland
To save money, he began using the parts of the fish he’d been throwing away, making bold culinary concoctions – think ice cream from eyeballs – with stunning success.
“Some chefs do things that sound extraordinary, and you think, well, there’s a reason why people haven’t done this before. But when Josh invents something, you think why hasn’t everyone been doing this forever?” - Nigella Lawson
Josh is arguably Australia’s hottest chef right now and his 'nose to fin’ approach has made a big splash worldwide. But he reveals the genesis of his drive and love of food: a life and death battle when he was just eight years old.
Course two of the Australian Story three-week special: Off Menu airs Monday May 20, 8:00pm (AEST), on ABCTV, ABC iview and YouTube.
Off Menu - Shaun Christie-David
Monday 20 May 8:00 pm
Introduced by Australian Story presenter Leigh Sales
Shaun Christie-David runs a restaurant empire like no other.
While he may be Australia’s ‘most unlikely’ restaurateur — he can’t cook, stuffs up orders, swears when excited (which is often) and doesn’t care about making money – he’s found the recipe for success with an open mind and big heart.
In the second instalment of Australian Story’s restaurateur trilogy Shaun and his team show how they’re changing lives one meal at a time.
Stream Off Menu: Shaun Christie-David, 8:00pm (AEST), Monday May 20 on ABCTV, ABC iview and YouTube.
Kylie Kwong has announced she is closing her Sydney restaurant on June 26 and quitting as a restaurateur, ahead of her episode to be broadcast next Monday.