I Was Actually There returns to unpack more defining moments in Australia’s recent history
Gripping, powerful and moving, I Was Actually There returns for season two, exploring Australia’s past through the eyes of those who lived it. The new season premieres Tuesday 7 October at 8pm on ABC TV, with every episode available to stream the same day on ABC iview.
From the makers of the ABC’s acclaimed series You Can’t Ask That, I Was Actually There brings together the recollections of those at the heart of the action as well as those who witnessed it from the sidelines.
Along with carefully chosen archive footage, much of it unseen or previously overlooked, I Was Actually There weaves conversational fragments into cohesive narratives, bringing intense moments back to life.
Each episode reveals new ways of seeing the past, challenging what we think and what we know.
What you saw depends on where you were standing. History is personal.
I Was Actually ThereSeason Two:
Episode One: Black Saturday Bushfires, 2009
Episode Two: September 11 Terrorist Attack, 2001
Episode Three: The Dismissal, 1975
Episode Four: Cronulla Riots, 2005
Episode Five: Fairlie Arrow Abduction Hoax, 1991
Episode Six: Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Tragedy, 1998
PRODUCTION CREDITS: A Docker Media production for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Finance by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen NSW. Executive Producer: Kirk Docker. Series Producers: Loni Cooper and Josh Schmidt. Producers: Lizzie Norman and Laura Grace. Created by Kirk Docker, Aaron Smith and Jon Casimir. ABC Commissioning Editor: Julie Hanna. ABC Head Documentary and Specialist: Susie Jones.
As temperatures hovered in the mid 40s, bushfires of unprecedented size tore across the state. One hundred and seventy-three lives were lost, thousands were left homeless and entire communities destroyed.
Premier John Brumby would describe it as “by a long way, the worst day ever in the history of the state.”
James Dorney was working on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center South Tower. He saw the North Tower erupt before his eyes.
While most were running away, Channel Ten correspondent Michelle Stone, in New York for the US Open, raced toward the chaos.
This episode of I Was Actually There offers a range of unique perspectives on the events of September 11, from expatriates, family members, journalists, photographers and first responders. In a single morning, they found themselves at the epicentre of a catastrophe that changed their lives forever.
It was a move that shocked the nation. Fifty years ago, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. The government was dissolved and an election called.
I Was Actually There looks at the day through the eyes of the senators, MPs, colleagues, aides, journalists, and protesters swept up in the chaos.
Half a century on, views on the legitimacy of Kerr’s actions are still strongly held. Whitlam and Fraser would develop a friendship in later years, but no other event has divided the rest of us in quite the same way. Our constitution remains unchanged.
On a hot December Sunday, racial tensions boiled over at Sydney’s Cronulla beach. The fuse had been lit a week earlier by an altercation between off-duty lifesavers and men described by police as “of middle eastern appearance”.
Fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol and the encouragement of nationalist groups, the crowd became violent, turning on anyone who even looked vaguely non-anglo.
The event, and the deep-seated issues it highlighted, reminds us how easy it is to let the racism genie out of the bottle, even in a place as supposedly chilled out as beachside Cronulla.
I Was Actually There : In the episode broadcast on 7 October 2025, an end card stated that the Black Saturday bushfires occurred on 28 February 2009. In fact they took place on 7 February 2009, as prominently stated at the start of the episode. The end card has been corrected on ABC iview and for all repeat broadcasts.
I Was Actually There : End cards in two episodes published on ABC iview contained errors and have been updated. The end card in season 2 episode 2 (‘September 11 Terrorist Attack’) incorrectly stated the overall death toll of the World Trade Center attacks and the number of first responders who died in the attacks. The end card in season 2 episode 3 (‘The Dismissal’) referred to Gough Whitlam having resigned as Labor leader after the 1978 election; the election in question took place in December 1977. Both cards have been corrected on ABC iview and for broadcast.
When nightclub singer Fairlie Arrow disappeared from her Gold Coast home in 1991, the tabloid media went to town.
Arrow was reported as abducted, in the clutches of “an obsessed fan”. The nation was glued to its television sets. Spoiler alert. It was all a hoax.
For two days, Fairlie Arrow was holed up in a motel room, watching everyone lap up her big lie. Determined to sell the story as real, Arrow placed herself bound and gagged on the side of an isolated roadway, where she was discovered by teenagers out for a joyride in a hand-me-down Toyota Corona.
More than 30 years later, she insists celebrity was never her motive. So where does the truth lie?
The 1998 Sydney to Hobart race was a moment when nature asserted its dominance with terrifying force.
Six lives were lost, five yachts sank and hundreds of sailors were pulled into a brutal fight for survival as the sea turned violent and merciless.
Of 115 boats, only 44 finished the race. Others turned back, limping into the safe haven of Eden, where locals stepped in to help the shell-shocked crews.
It was the largest peacetime search and rescue operation in Australian history. This episode asks what drives us to face the risks of the unknown - and what happens to us when those risks become nightmares.
