What goes into making a season of Expanse? What considerations are made when telling the stories of people's lives? Host of Expanse: The Nannup Four, Dominique Bayens, sits down with fellow podcast host Phil Vine to take you behind the curtain.
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Season 6 Expanse: The Nannup Four with Dominique Bayens
In 2007 four people disappeared from a blue farmhouse on the outskirts of the Western Australian town of Nannup, leaving behind the scatterings of a life, a note pinned to the door and a question: was the disappearance a choice… or murder?
As police and family try to piece the puzzle together to find the Nannup Four, what emerges is a bizarre story of secrets, hidden identities and rumours of a dark online cult.
In season six of ABC's award-winning Expanse podcast, host Dominique Bayens investigates the unsettling circumstances around the disappearance, speaking to the people left behind - who still question what they could have done differently.
Because when something like this happens, and you're left staring back, how do you live with the choices you've made?
Expanse is an internationally award-winning podcast that explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.
In Series 5: Nowhere Man, Erin Parke followed the story of a young American who 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 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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It has been months in the making, but police are opening up the files on the missing Nannup Four for Expanse host Dominique Bayens, and there's news on another search.
Since the podcast started rolling out, a lot of people have got in touch with information. Two people have been able to shed light on some previously unknown parts of the story.
A family friend and former policeman continues to search for answers for Jim and Cath McDougall decades after the Nannup four vanished. The family and friends of Chantelle McDougall try to find their own answers, as one last glimmer of hope emerges.
Jim and Cath McDougall are left reeling as the true depth of Simon Kadwill’s deception is revealed. Dominique tracks down people from his past, and hears from someone who has never spoken before who provides a startling insight into how Simon might have ended up on the path he did.
Tony Popic is talking about an end of days, Simon is seeing spirits and Chantelle is forced into a difficult decision as increasingly troubling hints something's not right come to light.
Dominique travels across the country to meet the two people who might be able to help her understand how Chantelle came to be living a reclusive life in a hidden corner of Western Australia, alongside a self-styled spiritual guru 18 years her senior.
A chance encounter in the streets of Melbourne in 1998 leaves a friend wondering what Chantelle McDougall has been pulled into. Dominique hears about the escalating pattern of control Simon Kadwill exercises over Chantelle.
If you can add to this story, or have information you think might be important, please get in touch by emailing expanse.abc@proton.me.
In this episode, we cover topics like:
Chantelle McDougall and her daughter 5-year-old Leela vanished from Nannup, Western Australia in 2007, while entwined in the "Truth Fellowship" cult.
Who are the missing people who disappeared into this cult?
The baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?
Four people who were part of an online doomsday cult disappeared from a small Australian town.
The 2007 disappearances of the "Truth Fellowship" Cult: Simon Kadwill, 45, Chantelle McDougall, 27, Leela McDougall, 5, and Tony Popic, 40
Missing people who have disappeared into cults?
Baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?
How can four people just vanish? Odd tales emerge in Nannup case.
When three adults and a child disappear without a trace from the isolated bush community of Nannup in 2007, it sparks disturbing theories about what might have happened. What was going on in the little blue house, and could understanding that hold the key to the disappearance?
Host Dominique Bayens starts unpicking the rumours of cults, hidden identities and bizarre behaviour.
If you can add to this story, or have information you think might be important please get in touch by emailing expanse.abc@proton.me.
In this episode we cover topics like:
Chantelle McDougall and her daughter 5 year old Leela vanished from Nannup, Western Australia in 2007, while entwined in the "Truth Fellowship" cult.
Who are the missing people who disappeared into this cult?
The baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?
Four people who were part of an online doomsday cult disappeared from a small Australian town.
The 2007 disappearances of the "Truth Fellowship" Cult: Simon Kadwill, 45, Chantelle McDougall, 27, Leela McDougall, 5, and Tony Popic, 40
Missing people who have disappeared into cults?
Baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?
How can four people just vanish? Odd tales emerge in Nannup case
When four people disappeared from a blue farmhouse on the outskirts of the Western Australian town of Nannup in 2007, they left behind the scatterings of a life, a note pinned to their door and a question: was the disappearance a choice... or murder?
In season six of ABC’s multi-award winning Expanse podcast, host Dominique Bayens investigates how those left behind have come to terms with what happened.
The search for Robert Bogucki brought together a cast of colourful characters, including a cigar-toting, moustachioed American named Garrison ‘Gunslinger’ St Clair.
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.
After years obsessing over the case, Erin Parke has made contact with the elusive and enigmatic Robert Bogucki.
Robert Bogucki has been given up for dead, but the drama’s only just beginning.
The clock is ticking to bring Robert Bogucki out of the desert alive, and police turn to Aboriginal trackers to try to find their man.
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.
The search is called off and the men are declared dead, leaving loved ones reeling.
But on the raft, the men have one final hope for salvation.
In this episode time runs out for the men, as they have a make-or-break opportunity.
When the Blythe Star fails to turn up at port as scheduled, the authorities are left scratching their heads.
Meanwhile, the families of the crew reel at the news the ship is missing.
In this episode, bungles, bickering and birthday cards create mayhem on land.
When the Blythe Star fails to turn up at port as scheduled, the authorities are left scratching their heads. Meanwhile, the families of the crew reel at the news the ship is missing. In this episode, bungles, bickering and birthday cards create mayhem on land.
As 18-year-old Mick Doleman farewelled young love to set sail on the Blythe Star, he could never have seen what was coming. Just 14 hours into their journey, Mick’s life – along with those of his rag tag crew of shipmates – would change forever as they scrambled to save themselves from a sinking ship. In this episode of From the Dead, host Piia Wirsu discovers the uneasy signs that all was not right when the Blythe Star set sail.
When a ship called the Blythe Star disappeared without a trace in 1973, it kicked off the largest sea and air search Australia had ever seen.
Ten men were left clinging to life in an emergency raft, at the mercy of the wind and currents. In the days to come they were pushed to the extremes of endurance.
Imagine finding a diamond in your roof? Unexplained diamonds have turned up in odd places, but the tech has come a long way since our heist and scientists can now figure out where they come from. Diamonds are the ultimate stealth wealth but tracing is making it tougher for thieves. Our Argyle diamonds went on a wild ride but in the end, some were recovered. Why have they reappeared all these years later and where is the rest of the multi-million dollar haul?
Our less than smooth criminals managed to out-fox and outlast their police pursuers for about four years, helped by suspect dealings. How did they manage it? Was it in fact the ultimate inside job? This time we dive deep into the bent security guard, the mouthy crook and the dodgy coppers as numerous investigations try to put a full stop to this crime. From the remote Argyle mine to the ateliers of Europe, this heist required brains, bluster and bravado to pull it off.
What would you do if you found your husband washing diamonds in the sink? For the woman at the centre of our story this was a life changing moment. How did Lynette go from lipstick sales to diamond courier?
How do you pull off the perfect heist? Would you believe there's actually a recipe for it? While some heists are of Mission Impossible proportions, our caper is a little more domestic. Less motion sensors, infrared beams and seismic instruments; more shampoo bottles, kitchen sieves and lipstick. But what it lacked in high tech it made up for in sheer daring. So what goes into the anatomy of a heist and how did ours get started?
In all my years of journalism, there is one story that's stuck with me. Twenty years ago I was out bush chatting to diamond explorers about a heist that happened in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. I couldn't believe it when some of these diamonds recently turned up in my hometown of Perth. Buckle in because it seems everyone wants to know more about what really went on, even those that had a front-row seat.
It's a heist of grand proportions, and a story straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. Millions of dollars of diamonds smuggled out of the remote Kimberley, in Western Australia then around the world. But the diamonds weren't lost to the eighties when this heist happened, the stolen gems are back in circulation. On Pink Diamond Heist: how did no-one notice diamonds were being smuggled out of the world's most secure mine? Who were the culprits behind this multi-million dollar heist? And where are the stolen diamonds now?