Overview of 'Australian Story' Season 16

Episode 1 - The Man On The Mantelpiece

Release Date: 2011-02-07

Maggie MacKellar was a city dweller who seemed to have it all – a successful academic career, a devoted husband, a young daughter and another baby on the way.

Episode 2 - On Your Bike

Release Date: 2011-02-14

When Doug Sunderland succumbed to the blues after losing his wife and being diagnosed with cancer, his GP told him to 'get back on his bike'. He did... and it 'saved his life', so much so, that he decided to ride around Australia solo, surviving on tinned food and sleeping by the road.

Episode 3 - The Third Act

Release Date: 2011-02-21

For the last 48 years Jacki Weaver has been one of Australia's best loved actors. Now 63, she has achieved a stunning career high by being chosen as one of the Best Supporting Actress nominees for this year's Oscars.

Episode 4 - Dogs Of War

Release Date: 2011-02-28

Wildlife photographer Jennifer Parkhurst's passion for dingos set her at odds with park rangers - and brought her to the brink of disaster...

Episode 5 - Take No Prisoners

Release Date: 2011-03-07

On the eve of his retirement from public office, the nation's longest serving Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, reflects exclusively on his sixteen years in the top job.

Episode 6 - Girl Most Likely

Release Date: 2011-03-14

Jade Hopper is a young woman on the cusp of the toughest decision of her life - to pursue her dream of becoming a world no. 1 tennis player or to court success from her law studies.

Episode 7 - The Terminator

Release Date: 2011-03-21

Two years ago, former Navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder was testing new sonar equipment in Sydney Harbour when he was attacked by a shark and pulled from the water, barely alive.

Episode 8 - Across The Night Sky

Release Date: 2011-03-28

Last year a Victorian court sentenced Robert Farquharson to a minimum 33 years jail for deliberately driving his three sons to their death in a dam on Father's Day.

Episode 9 - Mr Quigley's Quandary (Part 1)

Release Date: 2011-04-04

Part 1 of the program about lawyer and politician John Quigley whose three decades in the public spotlight have drawn controversy, enmity and notoriety.

Episode 10 - Mr Quigley's Quandary (Part 2)

Release Date: 2011-04-11

The conclusion to our story on Western Australian lawyer and politician John Quigley.

Episode 11 - Under Her Wing

Release Date: 2011-04-18

Eight years ago Elizabeth Clayton was living in Fiji when she rescued a young man known as the 'chicken boy'. His name was Sujit and he'd been kept in a hen house as a child and then tied up for 22 years in an old people's home.

Episode 12 - In The Jet Stream

Release Date: 2011-04-25

Band manager David Powell took the Melbourne rock band JET from obscurity to ARIA triumph and then onto the international stage. But fate was less kind to David – today he is lucky to be alive to tell his story.

Episode 13 - Shattered

Release Date: 2011-05-02

On 22 July 2007, Peter Hodgkins threw a rock at a car from an overpass at Kiama, NSW, smashing the skull of beauty therapist Nicole Timbs and changing both their lives forever.

Episode 14 - 15th Anniversary Special (Part 1)

Release Date: 2011-05-09

Part 1 of our celebration of 15 years of Australian Story featuring Ric Birch, Gina Rinehart, John Button and Estelle Blackburn, Pauline Hanson, Sam and Jenny Bailey, Nick Ross and Allan Fels.

Episode 15 - 15th Anniversary Special (Part 2)

Release Date: 2011-05-16

The conclusion to our celebration of 15 years of Australian Story featuring Gayle Shann, Chris Sarra, Beth Heinrich, Greg Combet, Belinda Emmett, Bob Irwin, Gemma Sisia and Michael Ware.

Episode 16 - Hearts Of Gold

Release Date: 2011-05-23

Brian Sherman rose to great wealth and success as a businessman. His son Emile is a co-producer of 'The King's Speech', winner of this year's best picture Oscar. But what really unites the family is their overwhelming passion for animal welfare.

Episode 17 - Mind Of His Own

Release Date: 2011-05-30

Charlie Teo is a Sydney neurosurgeon, loved by patients but unpopular with some in the medical establishment. He is credited with prolonging the lives of many people with tumours that were considered inoperable.

Episode 18 - The Girl From Boryslaw

Release Date: 2011-06-06

Sabina Wolanski was left alone in the world at 17 when her family were killed in the Holocaust. In 2005 she addressed a gathering of state dignitaries in Berlin, received a standing ovation and reduced journalists to tears.

Episode 19 - Conviction (Part 1)

Release Date: 2011-06-13

For three and a half years, Newcastle pathologist Dr Simon Palfreeman has been shuttling between Australia and Bulgaria negotiating that country's complex and controversial justice system to try to help his 24 year old son.

Episode 20 - Conviction (Part 2)

Release Date: 2011-06-20

The conclusion of our story on Dr Simon Palfreeman, the Newcastle pathologist on a mission to help his son who's serving twenty years in a Bulgarian jail.

Episode 21 - Love and Other Drugs

Release Date: 2011-06-27

When Sally Nielsen's fiance Sam Goddard suffered a catastrophic stroke, she ignored the advice of some of those closest to her and stuck by him. Now her efforts have produced an amazing medical breakthrough.

Episode 22 - Desperate Remedies (Part 1)

Release Date: 2011-07-04

Penelope Dingle was a former model and actor married to TV science guru Peter Dingle. At the age of 43 she was diagnosed with a common cancer regarded as highly curable if it’s caught early...

Episode 23 - Desperate Remedies (Part 2)

Release Date: 2011-07-11

The conclusion to the story of Penelope Dingle whose untimely death had shattering and unexpected repercussions for those closest to her.

Episode 24 - City of Angels

Release Date: 2011-07-18

Alisa Latto was born with a life threatening genetic condition – one shared by her two siblings and her mother, Rosemary... This story follows her difficult journey to motherhood.

Episode 25 - Trust Me Mr Chandler

Release Date: 2011-07-25

International banker Sascha Chandler had a secret he'd been harbouring since childhood. Two years ago he decided to deal with his demons and joined forces with a dogged NSW detective to bring to justice one of the country's most elusive and dangerous predators.

Episode 26 - A Measure of Courage

Release Date: 2011-08-01

Captain Hec Waller and Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean both saw service during the darkest days of the Japanese advance towards Australia during World War II. Despite their heroism neither was ever nominated for the Forces' highest accolade, the Victoria Cross.

Episode 27 - A Plague On All Their Houses

Release Date: 2011-08-08

An encore edition of our bittersweet story of Queensland vet Ben Cunneen and his co-worker, Natalie Beohm who were exposed to the Hendra horse virus with devastating consequences.

Episode 28 - Ita Tells Me So (Part 1)

Release Date: 2011-08-15

Ita Buttrose and those closest to her go on the record with their recollections of a trail blazing career and a momentous period in Australia's social history in Part One of a candid, moving, and surprising double episode.

Episode 29 - Ita Tells Me So (Part 2)

Release Date: 2011-08-22

In Part Two Ita Buttrose talks candidly about men, dating, loneliness, family, media ethics and grabbing life by the throat, at any age.

Episode 30 - The Trials of Jonty Bush

Release Date: 2011-08-29

In the space of a few years Jonty Bush lost two of her closest family members in separate and unrelated crimes. Instead of succumbing to grief and anger, she took up the challenge to change the world and in the process changed herself...

Episode 31 - Paint the Town Black

Release Date: 2011-09-05

Not since the mighty Phar Lap has a horse captured the public imagination like Black Caviar. She remains unbeaten after thirteen runs and has been declared the best racehorse in the world.

Episode 32 - Brand New Day

Release Date: 2011-09-12

Three years ago Gavin Larkin used his marketing nous and high profile contacts to create a national day of awareness called R U OK? Day. But not long after the launch, the super fit indomitable Gavin was anything but okay...

Episode 33 - The Courage of Her Convictions

Release Date: 2011-09-19

When Catherine Smith was found not guilty of attempting to murder her own husband it was a turning point in one of the most extraordinary cases in Australian criminal history.

Episode 34 - Scared Straight

Release Date: 2011-09-26

TV Drama legend Sue Masters teamed up with 'Bra Boys' Maccario de Souza and his friends Mark Matthews and Richie Vas to work on a big screen documentary about big wave surfing, alcohol fuelled violence and the sequence of events that finally frightened the young men into cleaning up their lives.