Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

About Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

Welcome to Strewth, where we uncover Australia's most captivating tales of true crime and mysterious happenings. Yarns so extraordinary they'll make you stop and say, "Strewth!" From the sun-scorched outback to the seedy underbelly of our biggest cities, Australia harbours some of the world's most perplexing mysteries. Stories so bizarre that even hardened detectives could only mutter that distinctly Australian expression of disbelief. Each episode takes you deep into extraordinary cases through atmospheric storytelling and meticulous research. You'll walk alongside the detectives, feel the frustration of families seeking answers, and experience the shock of communities torn apart by inexplicable events. Strewth reveals how these cases shaped Australian society and exposes the dark undercurrents flowing beneath the nation's beautiful facade. From colonial-era crimes to modern forensic breakthroughs, these are the stories that made headlines and left investigators scratching their heads. New episodes weekly. Because some stories are too strange not to tell.

Publisher

Mark

Category

history · true crime

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Sept 2025

Latest episode

20 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

75 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Oct 2026

   The Shark Net - Australian True Crime

   The Unsolved Disappearance of Bevin and Brad Simmonds On a glassy winter morning in 2003, Bevin Simmonds and his ten-year-old son, Brad, motored out to a shark net off the western coast of Cape York. By late morning the net was still there, half cleared, and they were gone. Up to eleven aircraft searched the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the police officer who ran the search later told a court it was the only one of his career where no trace was ever found, of the people or of their boat. What followed was a feud between two fishing families, an affair, a microphone hidden behind the dashboard of a car, and a murder trial in which one of the most important voices could only be heard on tape. So what happened out at that net? The Cape Documentary - https://www.stan.com.au/watch/revealed-the-cape-2023 Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: ABC News. (2003, June 14). Police searching off western Cape York for father and son. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-06-14/police-searching-off-western-cape-york-for-father/1870124 ABC News. (2003, December 16). Missing father and son unlikely to be found: Police. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-12-16/missing-father-and-son-unlikely-to-be-found-police/106748 ABC News. (2005, October 17). Murder trial hears no trace of missing father, son found. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-17/murder-trial-hears-no-trace-of-missing-father-son/2125960 ABC News. (2005, October 20). Satellite concerns surface at murder trial. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-20/satellite-concerns-surface-at-murder-trial/2128198 ABC News. (2005, October 21). Gulf murder trial nears end. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-21/gulf-murder-trial-nears-end/2128990 Australian Missing Persons Register. (n.d.). Bevin & Brad Simmonds. Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/BBSimmonds.htm Cassey, B. (2023, July 1). My 'stills' in brilliant Stan doco "The Cape". Brian Cassey Photographer. https://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/blog/images/2023/07/my-stills-in-emmy-nominated-doco-the-cape/ Croke, L. (2026, September 18). The Block's Jolene's shocking connection to one of Australia's most haunting unsolved murder mysteries. Now To Love. https://www.nowtolove.com.au/entertainment/the-block-jolene-bevin-brad-simmonds-unsolved-mystery/ Ferreira-Rowe, J. (2023, June 18). From Emmy® nominated Michael Ware and Justine A. Rosenthal, 'Revealed: The Cape' is now streaming, only on Stan. Stan News. https://www.stan.news/from-emmyr-nominated-michael-ware-and-justine-a-rosenthal-revealed-the-cape-is-now-streaming-only-on-stan Hui, C. (2026, September 22). Before she was on The Block, Jolene's family was at the centre of a national cold case. Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/the-block-jolene/ (https://www.mamamia.com.au/the-block-jolene/) Ross, I. (2023a, June 19). New Stan Original documentaries Revealed: The Cape and Revealed: Reefshot tell truly unmissable stories. Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/stan-original-documentaries-review/ Ross, I. (2023b, July 28). A family turf war, double murder, and an affair: The cold case that haunts Far North Queensland. Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/bevin-and-brad-simmonds/

2. 

   13 Oct 2026

   The Disappearing Prime Minister - Australian Mystery

   What happened to Harold Holt? On a Sunday in December 1967, the Prime Minister of Australia went for a swim off a beach near Portsea and never came out. More than three hundred people searched the water for him, and no trace of his body was ever found. Fifty-eight years later, depending on who you ask, Harold Holt drowned, was killed by the CIA, ran off with his lover, or was dragged under by Chinese frogmen and carried away to Beijing in a submarine. In this episode of Strewth we work through the theories, from the frankly ridiculous to the one a coroner finally signed off on in 2005, and ask why a man who had nearly drowned off that same beach seven months earlier swam straight back out past the breakers. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: National Archives of Australia. Harold Holt's disappearance, Fact sheet 144. https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/fact-sheets/harold-holts-disappearance Victoria Police and Commonwealth Police. Joint report into the disappearance of Harold Holt, January 1968, including witness statements. National Archives of Australia, A1209, 1968/8063. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4982285 Johnstone, Graeme (State Coroner of Victoria). Finding into the death of Harold Edward Holt, 2 September 2005. Coroners Court of Victoria. (Quoted via ABC reporting below.) Frame, Tom. The Life and Death of Harold Holt. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2005. https://archive.org/details/lifedeathharoldh00fram Grey, Anthony. The Prime Minister Was a Spy. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1983. Grey, Anthony. Hostage in Peking. Michael Joseph, London, 1970. ABC News. "Inside the disappearance of Harold Holt", 1 November 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-01/disappearance-harold-holt-inside-search-operation-australia/12817236 ABC News. "Harold Holt: 50 years since Australia's first 20th century PM disappeared", 17 December 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-17/harold-holt-50-years-since-prime-minister-disappeared/9259680 ABC News. "Coroner rules Holt conspiracy theories fanciful", 2 September 2005. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-09-02/coroner-rules-holt-conspiracy-theories-fanciful/2094682 Griffiths, Tom. "How Harold Holt was lost". Inside Story. https://insidestory.org.au/how-harold-holt-was-lost/ National Film and Sound Archive. "Allegations and conspiracy theories". https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/98238-allegations-and-conspiracy-theories Australian Screen Online. Curator's notes, The Harold Holt Mystery (1985). https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/the-harold-holt-mystery/notes/ Archives Hub. Anthony Grey Archive, University of East Anglia, including the papers of Ronald Titcombe (embargoed). https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/b33f32ee-49ca-3a61-a1b9-29cc2f69a4b7 Who Killed Harold Holt? Presented by Ray Martin. Nine Network, 20 November 2007. The Prime Minister is Missing. Directed by Peter Butt. ABC Television, 2008.

3. 

   6 Oct 2026

   The Bookshop Murder: Part Two - Australian True Crime

   The Murder of Maria James - Part 2 of 2 In 2013, a council electrician named Alan Hircoe opened a newspaper and saw a photograph of a priest. He recognised the face. Years earlier, he said, while working at the presbytery of St Mary's in Thornbury, he had seen that priest come in from the garden with blood on his face and hands. The priest was Father Anthony Bongiorno, and he had tried to force his way into Maria James's bookshop on the afternoon she was murdered. But he had an alibi, and police believed the DNA had cleared him. Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact me - strewthpodcast@gmail.com Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay Sources: Coroners Court of Victoria. Finding into Death with Inquest: Maria Theresa James (COR 1980 1820). Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English. Delivered 31 March 2022, amended 4 April 2022. Findings index: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/inquests-findings/findings Victoria Police. "Cold case: Maria James." https://www.police.vic.gov.au/cold-case-maria-james Victoria Police. "Reward: Maria James." Published 14 June 2024. https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reward-maria-james (https://www.police.vic.gov.au/reward-maria-james) Brown, Rachael. Trace (podcast), Season 1. ABC, 2017. Brown, Rachael. "Trace: The unsolved murder of Maria James." ABC News, 21 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/trace-the-unsolved-murder-of-maria-james/8612964 Brown, Rachael. "Trace: Witness saw paedophile priest covered in blood near cold case murder victim Maria James' house." ABC News, 28 June 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/trace-priest-seen-covered-in-blood-near-maria-james-crime-scene/8652936 "Trace: Police admit DNA bungle wrongly cleared paedophile priest as suspect in cold case murder." ABC News, 12 July 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/trace-police-admit-to-major-dna-bungle-in-maria-james-cold-case/8694870 "Trace: No sign of conspiracy in Maria James investigation, Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says." ABC News, 14 September 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/victoria-police-investigating-trace-case-dna-mix-up/8944596 "Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence." ABC News, 6 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/maria-james-inquest-begins/100436294 "Dead priest had the motive, means and opportunity to commit unsolved murder, detective tells inquest." ABC News, 27 September 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/unsolved-murder-inquest-hears-of-priest-and-a-murderer/100491298 "Maria James's family calls for a priest's exhumation, if DNA testing doesn't offer answers." ABC News, 4 November 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-04/application-to-exhume-priest-is-unsolved-murder-case/100499632 "Coroner delivers open finding in inquest into the 1980 murder of Melbourne woman Maria James." ABC News, 31 March 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-31/maria-james-coronial-inquest-findings/100943730 "Police offer $1 million reward to solve the cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James." ABC News, 14 June 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-14/maria-james-cold-case-murder-victoria-police-reward/103972070 "Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Maria James inside Melbourne bookshop." The Guardian (Australia), 14 June 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/14/maria-james-murder-victoria-police-offer-1m-reward-thornbury-melbourne-bookshop "Sons make $1m plea to solve mother's bookshop murder." AAP, 14 June 2024. https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/police-offer-1-million-reward-to-solve-bookshop-murder "Killer's link to bookshop murder examined." AAP via The Canberra Times, 21 September 2021. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7439775/killers-link-to-bookshop-murder-examined/ "DNA unknown when Maria James was killed." AAP via The Senior, September 2021. https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/7435659/dna-unknown-when-maria-james-was-killed/

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

16 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

324 ratings

Contact Strewth - Australian True Crime and Mystery Podcast

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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