In 1999 a young American dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. He was an Alaskan firefighter, seemingly with everything to live for. So why did he risk it all to go into the wilderness alone? And how do you search for someone who doesn't want to be found?
In 2022, host Erin Parke became obsessed with the saga of Robert Bogucki, which became a media circus and prompted everyone involved to think about life, death and who we are when everything easy is stripped away. It's a story that spans three decades, two continents and a bizarre cast of characters. From booty-wearing bloodhounds, to a larger-than-life, cigar-chomping American named Gunslinger, the search for the missing man became a spectacle in itself.
In season 5, Expanse: Nowhere Man, Erin sets out to discover why some people are pushed to lose themselves in the wilderness on a search for meaning. At a time when so many of us feel lost, just how far would you go to feel found?
New episodes released each Wednesday.
Expanse is an internationally award-winning podcast that explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.
In Series 4: Uncropped, host Danielle O'Neal goes from a mosquito-laden lagoon in far north Queensland to the Australian government's classified UFO files, to the US Congress as she seeks to understand what happened, its legacy and why believable people say seemingly unbelievable things.
Spies in the Outback (Series 3) won the Excellence in Radio Broadcasting award at the Northern Territory Media Awards in 2024 for the story of Pine Gap, a secret US/Australian defence base hidden in the outback.
From the Dead (Series 2) won silver in the Documentary: History category at the New York Radio Festival awards. It delves into a wild tale of survival at sea off Tasmania's rugged southwest coast.
Pink Diamond Heist (Series 1) was shortlisted in the New York Radio Awards, Documentary: History category. This season takes you on a rollicking ride through Western Australia on the trail of a diamond heist.
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In 1999 a young American dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. He was an Alaskan firefighter, seemingly with everything to live for. So why did he risk it all to go into the wilderness alone? And how do you search for someone who doesn't want to be found?
In 2022, host Erin Parke became obsessed with the saga of Robert Bogucki, which became a media circus and prompted everyone involved to think about life, death and who we are when everything easy is stripped away. It's a story that spans three decades, two continents and a bizarre cast of characters. From booty-wearing bloodhounds, to a larger-than-life, cigar-chomping American named Gunslinger, the search for the missing man became a spectacle in itself.
In season 5, Expanse: Nowhere Man, Erin sets out to discover why some people are pushed to lose themselves in the wilderness on a search for meaning. At a time when so many of us feel lost, just how far would you go to feel found?
New episodes released each Wednesday.
Expanse is an internationally award-winning podcast that explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.
In Series 4: Uncropped, host Danielle O'Neal goes from a mosquito-laden lagoon in far north Queensland to the Australian government's classified UFO files, to the US Congress as she seeks to understand what happened, its legacy and why believable people say seemingly unbelievable things.
Spies in the Outback (Series 3) won the Excellence in Radio Broadcasting award at the Northern Territory Media Awards in 2024 for the story of Pine Gap, a secret US/Australian defence base hidden in the outback.
From the Dead (Series 2) won silver in the Documentary: History category at the New York Radio Festival awards. It delves into a wild tale of survival at sea off Tasmania's rugged southwest coast.
Pink Diamond Heist (Series 1) was shortlisted in the New York Radio Awards, Documentary: History category. This season takes you on a rollicking ride through Western Australia on the trail of a diamond heist.
A quarter of a century after he survived the Great Sandy Desert, Robert Bogucki is back for an odd-couple road trip with the Aboriginal tracker who helped search for him all those years ago.
After almost six weeks in the desert, Robert Bogucki is found alive in what quickly becomes known as ‘The miracle in the desert’. But now he has to survive the tabloid television treatment and a fierce public backlash.
When a bicycle is found abandoned on a remote track in the Great Sandy Desert it triggers an urgent search. Who is this mystery man and why has he walked into one of Australia’s deadliest landscapes?
It’s 1999, and a young American man is missing in the Australian outback. Police soon realise there’s something very strange about this case – the man appears to have plunged into the desert on purpose, and seemingly doesn’t want to be found.
A bombshell is dropped in US Congress that makes a lot of people start thinking about UFOs, now called UAP, differently. Danielle O’Neal tries to understand the implications of everything she’s heard and grapples with the unanswered questions.
Despite an alarming coincidence being uncovered in the government’s UFO files, a young intelligence officer recommends the files are closed and investigations shut down. Decades on, while the U.S. is taking a serious look at unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) the legacy of that decision has kept UFOs in the sneered-at periphery in Australia.
The Tully phenomena spreads, with unexplained circles starting to crop up around the country. Reports of them all are filed away by the RAAF in the secret UFO files. But, one young UFO researcher is determined to get access to those files and see just what they hold.
Hoards of people descend on the Pennisi property to take a look at this ‘saucer nest’, sending the family running for cover. Turns out, in the years to come that would be the least of their worries. Rumours of covert surveillance and odd happenings leave the people at the heart of this mystery looking over their shoulders.
On a hot morning under blue skies, a young banana farmer saw something he couldn’t explain that sent his pulse racing. It looked like a flying saucer and it left behind a mysterious mark. The chain of events it set off would change everything.
In 1966 a Queensland farmer thought he saw a UFO that left behind a real physical mark in some reeds. That sighting set off a chain of events that would haunt him for decades and leave a lot of unanswered questions.
Danielle O’Neal delves into what happens when people say seemingly unbelievable things.
Host Alex Barwick hears just how far Pine Gap’s reach is today, uncovers the secrets of stolen land and explores what it means for Australia to have a spy base hidden in the heart of the country.
Host: Alex Barwick
Supervising producer: Piia Wirsu
Sound engineer and producer: Grant Wolter
Executive producer: Blythe Moore
Additional production and research: Elsa Silberstein
Special thanks: Eric George, Robert Mailer, Tim Roxburgh, Jane Connors, Mark Maley, Elizabeth Beal, ABC Alice Springs, and everyone who agreed to speak with us
Further reading:
David Rosenberg - Inside Pine Gap
Brian Toohey - Secret
Kieran Finnane - Peace Crimes
Desmond Ball - A Suitable Piece of Real Estate
The Cold War has finally ended but Pine Gap, or ‘The Base’ as it’s become known, is expanding and it’s getting involved in conflicts across the world. Host Alex Barwick finally goes inside Pine Gap and meets a spy who has spent years working within the perimeter.
Nuclear fear prompts thousands to flood to Alice Springs in the 1980s to try and close Pine Gap and reveal its secrets. This time the woman are in charge and they don't want Australia involved in nuclear war.
As the Cold War enters the 70s, it becomes clear that Pine Gap is really a spy base with eyes on the Soviets – and it's putting Alice Springs in the nuclear crosshairs.
In the grip of a crippling drought in the 1960s, Alice Springs sees an economic lifeline when America promises to build a 'space base' on the edge of town. But once Pine Gap's bizarre, oversized golf ball-like structures are finally built, mysterious things start happening - the 'space base' isn't quite what it seems.
When America promised to build a space base in outback Australia in the middle of the 1960s space race, few suspected it would put Australia in the nuclear cross-hairs in decades to come.
That space base, just 18ks from Alice Springs, would come to be known as Pine Gap - possibly the most secretive place in Australia.
Three of the remaining crewmen set off on a do-or die mission to find help, and fate steps in.
In this final episode of From the Dead, the impacts of the disaster are felt long after the event.
In 1999 a young American dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. He was an Alaskan firefighter, seemingly with everything to live for. So why did he risk it all to go into the wilderness alone? And how do you search for someone who doesn't want to be found?
In 2022, host Erin Parke became obsessed with the saga of Robert Bogucki, which became a media circus and prompted everyone involved to think about life, death and who we are when everything easy is stripped away. It's a story that spans three decades, two continents and a bizarre cast of characters. From booty-wearing bloodhounds, to a larger-than-life, cigar-chomping American named Gunslinger, the search for the missing man became a spectacle in itself.
In season 5, Expanse: Nowhere Man, Erin sets out to discover why some people are pushed to lose themselves in the wilderness on a search for meaning. At a time when so many of us feel lost, just how far would you go to feel found?
New episodes released each Wednesday.
Expanse is an internationally award-winning podcast that explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.
In Series 4: Uncropped, host Danielle O'Neal goes from a mosquito-laden lagoon in far north Queensland to the Australian government's classified UFO files, to the US Congress as she seeks to understand what happened, its legacy and why believable people say seemingly unbelievable things.
Spies in the Outback (Series 3) won the Excellence in Radio Broadcasting award at the Northern Territory Media Awards in 2024 for the story of Pine Gap, a secret US/Australian defence base hidden in the outback.
From the Dead (Series 2) won silver in the Documentary: History category at the New York Radio Festival awards. It delves into a wild tale of survival at sea off Tasmania's rugged southwest coast.
Pink Diamond Heist (Series 1) was shortlisted in the New York Radio Awards, Documentary: History category. This season takes you on a rollicking ride through Western Australia on the trail of a diamond heist.
