Podcasts · History · Society & Culture

Expanse

ABC Australia

45 episodes · in order

Season 7 Expanse: Disappearing in the Devil's Triangle

More about the show

The Barrington Tops is rugged and unforgiving. With impenetrable bush and towering mountains, it eats up people and planes. It's sometimes called the 'Devil's Triangle'. And it guards a mystery that hasn't been answered in 45 years.

On a freezing night in August 1981, a small six-seater plane vanished. The pilot's panicked call, '5000!', was the last anyone would hear of the five men on board.

As the search for wreckage grew more desperate, odd details emerged. Unsettling questions arose about what exactly these men were doing, where they were going and why, on a dark night, were they flying into such dangerous place?

In season seven of the ABC’s multi-award-winning Expanse podcast, host Keely Johnson uncovers conspiracy, desperation, and rumours of a cover-up as she investigates how a plane carrying five men can just... vanish.

Are all the stories true... Or is this a case that shows us just how far we’ll go to explain the unknown?

This season is a descent into obsession, grief, and the relentless pull of unanswered questions.

Expanse is an internationally award-winning podcast that explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.

The Nannup Four (Season 6) is a haunting investigation into the 2007 unsolved disappearance of four people, including a child, from the isolated WA town of Nannup, amid rumours of a cult-inspired murder/suicide.

Nowhere Man (Season 5) is a story spanning three decades, two continents and a cast of colourful characters as host Erin Parke investigates why someone with everything to live for would gamble with death in one of Australia's deadliest landscapes.

Uncropped (Season 4) starts in 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 (Season 3) unpacks the story of Pine Gap, a secret US/Australian defence base hidden in the outback, which has shaped a place, a town, and people. And might now be shaping far more than that in conflicts across the world.

From the Dead (Season 2) delves into a wild tale of survival at sea off Tasmania's rugged southwest coast, to find out how someone thrown into the unimaginable can survive the unsurvivable.

Pink Diamond Heist (Season 1) takes you on a rollicking ride through Western Australia on the trail of a diamond heist. How do you pull off the perfect heist?

Episodes

  1. INTRODUCING — Expanse: Pink Diamond Heist

    · 2:57 · Trailer

    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…

  2. 01 Pink Diamond Heist | The Argyle Intrigue

    · 22 min · S1 E1

    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…

  3. 02 Pink Diamond Heist | A Heist is Born

    · 30 min · S1 E2

    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…

  4. 03 Pink Diamond Heist | Lynette

    · 33 min · S1 E3

    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?

  5. 04 Pink Diamond Heist | How to Catch a Thief

    · 39 min · S1 E4

    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…

  6. 05 Pink Diamond Heist | Roddan's Diamonds

    · 31 min · S1 E5

    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…

  7. INTRODUCING – Expanse S2: From the Dead

    · 4:00 · Trailer

    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…

  8. 01 From the Dead | The Blythe Star

    · 28 min · S2 E1

    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…

  9. 02 From the Dead | Lost at Sea

    · 32 min · S2 E2

    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…

  10. 03 From the Dead | The Search

    · 32 min · S2 E3

    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,…

  11. 04 From the Dead | Missing: Presumed Dead

    · 27 min · S2 E4

    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…

  12. 05 From the Dead | Back From The Dead

    · 44 min · S2 E5

    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.

  13. INTRODUCING – Expanse S3: Spies in the Outback

    · 4:15 · Trailer

    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…

  14. 01 Spies in the Outback | Selling a space base

    · 30 min · S3 E1

    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…

  15. 02 Spies in the Outback | Politics, pressure and protest

    · 31 min · S3 E2

    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.

  16. 03 Spies in the Outback | The women get wild

    · 31 min · S3 E3

    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.

  17. 04 Spies in the Outback | The spy who loved Alice

    · 30 min · S3 E4

    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…

  18. 05: Spies in the Outback | The secrets of Pine Gap

    · 44 min · S3 E5

    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…

  19. INTRODUCING – Expanse S4: Uncropped

    · 3:31 · Trailer

    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.…

  20. 01 Uncropped | The sighting

    · 27 min · S4 E1

    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…

  21. 02 Uncropped | Who is visiting?

    · 35 min · S4 E2

    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…

  22. 03 Uncropped | The UFO files

    · 36 min · S4 E3

    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…

  23. 04 Uncropped | UAP in the USA

    · 32 min · S4 E4

    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…

  24. 05 Uncropped | The legacy

    · 39 min · S4 E5

    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…

  25. INTRODUCING — Expanse: Nowhere Man

    · 3:00 · Trailer

    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…

  26. 01 Expanse: Nowhere Man | Ghost in the desert

    · 29 min · S5 E1

    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?

  27. 02 Expanse: Nowhere Man | Trackers

    · 29 min · S5 E2

    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.

  28. 03 Expanse: Nowhere Man | The green berets

    · 31 min · S5 E3

    Robert Bogucki has been given up for dead, but the drama’s only just beginning.

  29. 04 Expanse: Nowhere Man | Alaska

    · 33 min · S5 E4

    After years obsessing over the case, Erin Parke has made contact with the elusive and enigmatic Robert Bogucki.

  30. 05 Expanse: Nowhere Man | Miracle in the desert

    · 30 min · S5 E5

    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.

  31. 06 Expanse: Nowhere Man | Lost and found

    · 33 min · S5 E6

    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.

  32. BONUS Expanse: Nowhere Man | Gunslinger

    · 23 min · S5 E7

    The search for Robert Bogucki brought together a cast of colourful characters, including a cigar-toting, moustachioed American named Garrison ‘Gunslinger’ St Clair.

  33. INTRODUCING — Expanse: The Nannup Four

    · 3:31 · Trailer

    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…

  34. 01 Expanse: The Nannup Four | The people in the blue house

    · 30 min · S6 E1

    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…

  35. 02 Expanse: The Nannup Four | Selling snake oil

    · 30 min · S6 E2

    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…

  36. 03 Expanse: The Nannup Four | Down the rabbit hole

    · 33 min · S6 E3

    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…

  37. 04 Expanse: The Nannup Four | A question of belief

    · 34 min · S6 E4

    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.

  38. 05 Expanse: The Nannup Four | Simon says

    · 36 min · S6 E5

    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…

  39. 06 Expanse: The Nannup Four | Northcliffe

    · 35 min · S6 E6

    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…

  40. BONUS | Who was Tony Popic?

    · 24 min · S6 E7

    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.

  41. BONUS | Inside the Nannup Four police investigation

    · 26 min · S6 E8

    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.

  42. Behind the scenes | S6 host Dominique Bayens in conversation

    · 20 min · S6 E9

    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…

  43. UPDATE | Expanse: The Nannup Four - Hope on the horizon

    · S6 E10

    Host of season 6, Expanse: The Nannup Four, Dominique Bayens has been following the developments of the case of four people who disappeared from the isolated town of Nannup.

  44. UPDATE | Expanse: The Nannup Four - A new search

    · 25 min · S6 E11

    It's been a busy few months for host Dominique Bayens, working alongside search organisers and chasing down loose ends. It all comes together with some crucial new information coming to light as a community-led search…

  45. INTRODUCING | Disappearing in the Devil's Triangle

    · 3:58 · Trailer

    The Barrington Tops is rugged and unforgiving. With impenetrable bush and towering mountains, it eats up people and planes. It’s sometimes called the ‘Devil’s Triangle’. And it guards a mystery that hasn’t been…

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