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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Monday, June three. It'll be a decade before the

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Speaker 1: Albanese government's huge boost in defense spending makes our military stronger,

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Speaker 1: according to a new analysis revealed in The Australian Today.

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Speaker 1: It comes as a fresh poll shows seventy percent of

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Speaker 1: Australians believe China will become a military threat within the

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Speaker 1: next twenty years. The husband of missing mum Bromwyn Winfield

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Speaker 1: was jealous and possessive, a former wife, has told The

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Speaker 1: Australian's investigative podcast into her suspected murder. John Winfield denies

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Speaker 1: all wrongdoing and has never been charged over Bronwin's nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety three disappearance. You can catch the ex wife's account

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Speaker 1: of her unhappy marriage in episode three, exclusively for subscribers

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Speaker 1: now at Bronwyn po podcast dot com. The Australian is

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Speaker 1: turning sixty and to celebrate the milestone, our journalists and

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Speaker 1: editors are delving into the archives to reflect on how

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Speaker 1: Australia and the paper has changed in the past six decades. Today,

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Speaker 1: with the Paris Olympics just around the corner, we hear

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Speaker 1: the story of a young swimmer whose youthful defiance denied

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Speaker 1: her a glittering career. There's a bit of Australian sports

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Speaker 1: law that almost everyone knows or thinks they know. Dawn Fraser,

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Speaker 1: then widely considered the greatest swimmer of all time, was

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Speaker 1: banned from swimming for a decade in nineteen sixty five.

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Speaker 2: Like most Australians, Dawn is upset by the drastic action

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Speaker 2: which we'll finish her swimming career.

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Speaker 1: In an exclusive statement to Sydney radio station two Yue,

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Speaker 1: she's a but.

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Speaker 3: I'm not going to sit there and let's people say

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Speaker 3: my name.

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Speaker 1: And here's what the man and woman in the street

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Speaker 1: think of it. Many people believe Fraser was banned for

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Speaker 1: stealing a flag from the Emperor's palace while in Tokyo

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Speaker 1: for the nineteen sixty four Olympics, a crime for which

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Speaker 1: she was arrested, but the champion swimmer apologized and the

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Speaker 1: charges were dropped. The Emperor even let Fraser keep the

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Speaker 1: flag as a gift. The band came about for another reason. Entirely.

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Speaker 3: What I discovered was that, in fact, at those Olympic Games,

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Speaker 3: there was an opening ceremony. Obviously, everyone wanted to march

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Speaker 3: at the opening ceremony.

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Speaker 1: Fiona Heirari is a writer for the Weekend Australian magazine.

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Speaker 3: But the Australian officials told Australian athletes that if they

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Speaker 3: were competing in the first three days of competition, because

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Speaker 3: they might become fatigued, they could not march in the

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Speaker 3: opening ceremony. Apparently someone turned up at the athletes village

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Speaker 3: and said, look, maybe we should march, and at least

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Speaker 3: four people Australian female swimmers decided that they would try

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Speaker 3: and get to the opening ceremony.

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Speaker 1: Two of those women were nabbed by Olympics officials before

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Speaker 1: they could board the team bus to the opening ceremony.

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Speaker 1: But Dawn Fraser and another swimmer, Marlene Damon, who was

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Speaker 1: just fourteen years old at the time and in Tokyo

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Speaker 1: to compete in the women's one hundred meter backstroke, boarded

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Speaker 1: the bus and evaded detection.

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Speaker 3: And I'm told it's because they were sitting behind someone

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Speaker 3: who was reading a broadsheet newspaper, possibly the Australian that

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Speaker 3: happened to obscure them.

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Speaker 1: Fraser and Damon did march at that opening ceremony, then

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Speaker 1: went on to compete in Tokyo. Fraser put on a

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Speaker 1: characteristically world class performance, winning gold in the women's one

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Speaker 1: hundred meter freestyle and becoming the first swimmer to win

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Speaker 1: the same event three times.

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Speaker 2: Play Fraser, Australia, You're a start away, not crasure one

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Speaker 2: way number four, Well pleasure where number before?

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Speaker 1: Marlene Damon placed sixth in her heat and it looked

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Speaker 1: like she and Fraser had got away with their cheeky

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Speaker 1: opening ceremony stunt. But less than a year later, in

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Speaker 1: March of nineteen sixty five, the Australian Swimming Union handed

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Speaker 1: down the band that still reverberates through swimming. Fraser out

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Speaker 1: for ten years. Marlene Damon copped a three year ban.

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Speaker 1: She'd only just turned fifteen, but it effectively ended a

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Speaker 1: once promising career in the pool.

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Speaker 3: So I was really keen to find out what had

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Speaker 3: happened to Marlene because really nothing much had been reported

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Speaker 3: about her then, which makes sense she didn't swim again

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Speaker 3: competitively after the age of fifteen. Some of the others

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Speaker 3: did appeal their band, some of them did swim afterwards.

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Speaker 3: Linda McGill, who was one of the women who tried

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Speaker 3: to board the bus became a champion long distance swimmer,

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Speaker 3: but I couldn't find any reference to Marlene Damon having

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Speaker 3: swum again.

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Speaker 1: Fiona went in search of Marlene Damon for a series

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Speaker 1: of articles she's written for The Australian's sixtieth anniversary celebrations.

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Speaker 3: So after trying to find her everywhere, I finally worked

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Speaker 3: out where she lived. I found her phone number. I

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Speaker 3: kept ringing her and there was no answer. I was

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Speaker 3: in Adelaide for another story, and I thought, I'm just

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Speaker 3: going to have to try and knock on her door,

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Speaker 3: which is not something I tend to do, but I

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Speaker 3: was really keen to get her in the story. And

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Speaker 3: I was literally in a taxi on the way to

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Speaker 3: her house when I had located her brother by chance,

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Speaker 3: who was a businessman also in Adelaide, and I'd rung

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Speaker 3: him and he ragged me as I was literally in

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Speaker 3: the taxi on the way to her place, and he said, yes, yes, sure,

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Speaker 3: I'm sure she'd be happy to talk to you. He

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Speaker 3: gave me a number, so instead of getting the taxi

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Speaker 3: to pull up outside her house, I got it to

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Speaker 3: stop at the pub nearby. I rang her and she

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Speaker 3: was just by chance at home that day, and she said,

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Speaker 3: I'd be thrilled to talk to you. I'd be really

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Speaker 3: happy to talk to you. And I said, oh, I'm

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Speaker 3: just in the neighborhood. So I walked down to her

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Speaker 3: house and ten minutes after I was on her front

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Speaker 3: balcony and we had a fantastic talk. And how do

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Speaker 3: you feel all these years later when you're watching the

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Speaker 3: Olympic Games swimming?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I love it and I enjoy it.

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Speaker 1: I feel as though, you know, you can relate very

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Speaker 1: well to it, even though it's changed a lot. It's

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Speaker 1: a much bigger event now, and.

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Speaker 3: She's an amazing woman who's actually lived a really positive,

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Speaker 3: fantastic life. But none of us will ever know the

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Speaker 3: true champion she could have been, because effectively that was

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Speaker 3: the end of her swimming career.

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Speaker 1: It's a real throwback to the days that probably haven't

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Speaker 1: really left us, where amateur sports are run by blazer

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Speaker 1: clad men who have the lives and hopes of young,

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Speaker 1: very young, quite vulnerable people who often make not very

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Speaker 1: great decisions in their hands, don't they. It's a really

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Speaker 1: tough penalty for these young women.

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Speaker 3: It seemed so unfair, it's so harsh for someone who

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Speaker 3: she's fifteen, And I asked her, why did you march?

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Speaker 3: And I'm not sure that she'd ever talked to a

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Speaker 3: journalist about it actually till I appeared on her doorstep

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Speaker 3: and I asked her why she marched, and she said, look,

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Speaker 3: sport was really amateur in those days. There weren't any

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Speaker 3: managers in the sense of having your own personal manager.

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Speaker 3: No one was plotting a path for you. All she

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Speaker 3: could see was the end of the pool. She's swimming,

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Speaker 3: She's at the Olympics, she's fourteen. She doesn't know if

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Speaker 3: she'll ever get back there again. And then months after

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Speaker 3: the Olympics, before she was banned from swimming, she did

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Speaker 3: so well in national competitions that she was being heralded

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Speaker 3: as the next Doorn Fraser. But she couldn't see this

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Speaker 3: future because no one was plotting her future. All she

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Speaker 3: knew was that her mum would drive her to swimming

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Speaker 3: every single morning. She'd swim and swim, and swim and swim,

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Speaker 3: get on with life. She got to the Olympics and

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Speaker 3: she was convinced she'd never get there again, and she

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Speaker 3: did not want to miss out on a marching an

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Speaker 3: Olympic opening ceremony, which I think many of us can

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Speaker 3: relate to. I mean, I still will have a dream

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Speaker 3: the marching at the Olympic ceremony, and so she did.

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Speaker 3: She matched because she just saw I'll never get here again.

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Speaker 1: And she was right.

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Speaker 3: She never got there again.

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Speaker 1: Coming up lessons from sixty years of Australian journalism. Subscribers

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Speaker 1: to The Australian have been first to hear these kinds

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Speaker 1: of stories for six decades, and we've come a long way.

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Speaker 1: As subscription also comes with breaking news alerts to your phone,

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Speaker 1: newsletters and special events. We'd love you to join us

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Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: after this break. Fiona Harari is one of the greatest

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Speaker 1: chases I've ever known. She started her journalism career as

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Speaker 1: a cadet in the Age newspaper in Melbourne and has

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Speaker 1: spent much of her career at The Australian. She's a

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Speaker 1: fast talker and a total charmer, and she wins the

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Speaker 1: trust of her subject because she's ethical and thoughtful. She

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Speaker 1: spent much of the last few months thumbing through The

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Speaker 1: Australian's huge bound archives in search of stories like the

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Speaker 1: one you heard earlier in the episode. The Australian's Deputy editor,

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Speaker 1: Petra Reese, who's leading the sixtieth anniversary coverage, said she's

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Speaker 1: convinced Fiona can track down anyone anywhere, living or dead.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's a really special series and I am so

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Speaker 3: thrilled with how it's turned out. The backstory to it

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Speaker 3: is quite interesting. About twenty years ago, I was asked

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Speaker 3: to do a series for every weekend called ad Lib,

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Speaker 3: where I would find a classified ad and I would

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Speaker 3: write the story behind it.

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Speaker 1: I remember this and you would. I remember you looking

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Speaker 1: through the classified you know, in either other papers or

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Speaker 1: our own papers, and finding what you thought might be

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Speaker 1: a good story.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I have to say when I was asked

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Speaker 3: to do it at first, I remember thinking this is

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Speaker 3: a really stupid idea work, but I'll try it, and

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Speaker 3: it turned out to be incredibly rewarding. So I'd find

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Speaker 3: these little ads and i'd ring the number up, And

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Speaker 3: the way I like to describe it often is I

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Speaker 3: might ring someone up who was advertising goats, and I'd say, Hi,

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Speaker 3: I'm ringing about your ad for the goats, and they'd go, oh,

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Speaker 3: do you want to buy the goats. Ok no, actually,

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Speaker 3: I'm a journalist at The Australian and anyway start chatting

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Speaker 3: to them, and very often, from something as obscure as

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Speaker 3: someone selling goats, you might end up with a story

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Speaker 3: about a tragedy in that family, or a really funny

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Speaker 3: story about something else. You just never knew where it went.

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Speaker 3: But very often the ad led to something entirely differently,

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Speaker 3: So some of the editors at The Australian decided for

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Speaker 3: the sixtieth clearly I could find people from ads. I

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Speaker 3: could find people who had been involved in previous news stories,

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Speaker 3: which is a great idea, except that when we had

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Speaker 3: lots of ads around the newspapers in those days came

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Speaker 3: with phone numbers and I was charged with finding one

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Speaker 3: new story for every decade the Australian's been published news

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Speaker 3: story that we had run, and then finding out what

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Speaker 3: happened next.

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Speaker 1: The Front team sits not too far from Fionna in

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Speaker 1: The Australian's Sydney newsroom. For months we've heard her on

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Speaker 1: the phone in search of the people who appeared in

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Speaker 1: the pages years and even decades ago.

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Speaker 3: Very often what I did was google these people to

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Speaker 3: see if anything had been written about them, and the

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Speaker 3: second thing I did was to find out if they

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Speaker 3: were still alive, and as you can imagine, many people

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Speaker 3: weren't after fifty or sixty years. So then I would

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Speaker 3: try and find the people. Very often, as you can imagine,

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Speaker 3: from the fifties and sixties, they had incredibly common Anglo names,

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Speaker 3: people moved states. And then if I did finally find them,

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Speaker 3: which could take literally weeks to find people, and I

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Speaker 3: was not going to give up on any of them,

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Speaker 3: sometimes they would not want to talk, and I found

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Speaker 3: that mostly that was where there were a story that

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Speaker 3: had something to do with medicine, or there was a

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Speaker 3: sort of a medical backing to a story, so it

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Speaker 3: might be the first person through whatever treatment in at

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Speaker 3: or transplant recipients, et cetera. They were the ones who

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Speaker 3: tended not to want to talk. And I think that's

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Speaker 3: fair enough. But every time I got to a dead

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Speaker 3: end with someone who was no longer alive or didn't

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Speaker 3: want to talk, I actually ended up with a better

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Speaker 3: story anyway. So that was quite good because I was

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Speaker 3: not going to give up on any of these stories.

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Speaker 1: It was the trusty landline that yielded the best results.

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Speaker 1: In Fiona's search.

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Speaker 3: I have to say, after all these years of working,

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Speaker 3: I was so determined to find these people by the

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Speaker 3: end of it. So you know, you can scour all

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Speaker 3: sorts of records online. There's nothing as good as a

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Speaker 3: phone book. People forget some people, particularly for older people,

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Speaker 3: are still listed in phone books. There's lots of records

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Speaker 3: you can access, but you still won't necessarily be able

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Speaker 3: to contact the people because you actually need an email

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Speaker 3: adress or particularly a good old fashioned phone number is

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Speaker 3: going to put you in touch most rapidly with people

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Speaker 3: these days.

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Speaker 1: Do you find Facebook useful ish.

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Speaker 3: Yes, sort of. I mean I did reach out to

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Speaker 3: some people through there, But interestingly I look the other

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Speaker 3: day and the few people that I did reach out

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Speaker 3: to through Facebook who I've subsequently interviewed, not one of

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Speaker 3: them has actually seen my Facebook message. Yes, so I'm

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Speaker 3: not so sure that it's that useful maybe for different demographics,

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Speaker 3: for younger people who are on it all the time,

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Speaker 3: although there were some younger people in this story and

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Speaker 3: they didn't reply to the Facebook messages either.

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Speaker 1: I think Facebook's now for old people they didn't reply.

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Speaker 3: I'm not sure it's well.

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Speaker 1: This exercise in reflection has been as illuminating for Fiona,

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Speaker 1: as we hope it will be for readers of The Australian.

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Speaker 1: What have you observed about the way journalism and the

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Speaker 1: Australian have changed in those years.

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Speaker 3: What I was really amazed about is how little the

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Speaker 3: news has changed. I think we all feel at the

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Speaker 3: moment that the world is spinning slightly off its axes,

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Speaker 3: but in fact there was a similar mix of stories

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Speaker 3: often in the paper about difficulties and wars in the

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Speaker 3: Middle East and in Europe and people being on edge.

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Speaker 3: That was the one thing that really struck me, and

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Speaker 3: obviously as degrees of seriousness, but the same issues have

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Speaker 3: been around I think for a long time. There are

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Speaker 3: a lot more human interest stories. I felt back in

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Speaker 3: the fifties and sixties, coverage of women was a whole

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Speaker 3: other world. I mean, there are obviously a lot more

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Speaker 3: firsts that were being recognized. You know, there was the

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Speaker 3: first Aboriginal woman to be a social worker, for example.

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Speaker 3: There are a lot more first because we're obviously a

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Speaker 3: much younger nation sixty years ago than we are now.

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Speaker 3: But it was the sameness of a lot of news

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Speaker 3: that really I found quite interesting.

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Speaker 1: Fiona Harari is a writer with the Weekend Australian magazine.

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Speaker 1: You can read her reflections on the australians past six

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Speaker 1: decades every week for the next six weeks, in the

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Speaker 1: paper and online at the Australian dot com. Dou