Australian true crime and mystery stories

Confession time: crime terrifies us, but when it’s entertainment, we can’t get enough. We follow journos reanimating cold cases, chase theories down Reddit rabbit holes and watch dramatic universes inspired by real-life events.

Now, the NFSA casts a magnifying glass over true crime and mysteries – the films, documentaries, news stories and podcasts that feed our collective fascination.

Award-winning journalists Rachael Brown and Hedley Thomas delve into true crime podcasting. And the NFSA Player’s True Crime & Mysteries collection is available on demand. 

WARNING: Some of the content and descriptions in the articles and clips on this page are graphic in nature and may be upsetting to some viewers.

Watch now on NFSA Player

Three curious unsolved mysteries now available to stream on demand on NFSA Player.

Stranger than fiction

Six dramatised stories exploring some of Australia’s most high-profile crimes, criminals and police investigations, offering gripping narratives and compelling performances.

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A family group of five males with the matriarch in the centre.
Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2010) is loosely based on the murder of two young Victorian police constables, known as the ‘Walsh Street Police Shootings.’ The film features an A-list cast, including Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, and Jacki Weaver. Weaver plays the crime family matriarch ‘Smurf,’ a role that earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards.

film poster for 'Nitram' showing a young man with long blonde hair facing a wall with his back turned to the camera
Nitram

Nitram (Justin Kurzel, 2022) examines the months leading up to the devastating 1996 Port Arthur massacre and features American actor Caleb Landry Jones in the role of the killer.

Part of a poster for the film 'Snowtown' showing a teenage boy facing the camera, he's partially obscuring a bearded man standing behind him with his arms folded.
Snowtown

Snowtown (Justin Kurzel, 2010) is a chilling account of the infamous ‘Bodies in the Barrels’, murders, named after the discovery of eight bodies in an empty bank vault in the South Australian town of Snowtown in May 1999.

upper body shot of a menacing looking man standing in a road near a forest.
Catching Milat

Catching Milat (Peter Andrikidis, 2014) is a two-part, fictionalised account of the investigation by police Task Force Air into the 1990s backpacker murders in NSW.

A promotional image featuring the cast of Series 1 of 'Underbelly'
Underbelly

The first series of Underbelly (Tony Tilse, 2008) is a 13-part crime drama based on the Melbourne gangland wars from 1994 to 2004. Although highly acclaimed with an all-star cast, it did receive criticism for glamorising real-life underworld figures.

A film poster for 'Evil Angels' featuring Meryl Street holding a baby.
Evil Angels

Evil Angels (Fred Schepisi, 1988) is based on events following the death of nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain in 1980.

Curiouser and curiouser

Four of the more bizarre Australian crime stories from the NFSA's collection.

In 1935, a captured shark near Coogee Beach regurgitated a man's tattooed arm, igniting a series of events leading to two murder investigations. The case inspired the 1960 teleplay The Grey Nurse Said Nothing, written by Sumner Locke Elliott and broadcast live on Channel 7.

Read more and watch a clip from the teleplay.

In 1984, Brisbane horse racing was rocked by the 'Fine Cotton Affair,' a scam involving horse substitution. A betting syndicate, including many of the racing elite, orchestrated this infamously hare-brained scheme.

Read more and watch a news report.

On 21 April 1976 a gang of armed robbers stole around $16 million from bookmakers at Melbourne's Victoria Club. It was one of the biggest heists in Australian history. How did they get away with it? 

Read more and watch a clip from Crime Investigation Australia.

Forensic investigations from a bygone era

The ‘Pyjama Girl’ case of the 1930s and '40s and the 1960 kidnapping and murder of Graeme Thorne offer insights into the evolving science of forensic investigation.

Read the article

image of police looking down a culvert and an inset of a newspaper

The 'Pyjama Girl' Mystery

On 1 September 1934, the body of an unidentified young woman was found in a culvert on the side of a road near Albury, NSW, dressed only in silk pyjamas. Until 1944, her murder was considered one of the most baffling unsolved murder cases in Australian criminal history.

Wide shot of a street corner in Bondi with labels on it from a police investigation.

The kidnap of Graeme Thorne

In 1960, eight-year-old Graeme Thorne was kidnapped on his way to school in Bondi. Shortly after, the boy’s mother received a ransom demand for his return. The case was history-making and used groundbreaking forensic work to bring Graeme's murderer to justice.

More crime and mystery articles from the collection

One of the most shocking and violent attacks on Victorian police was the orchestrated murder of two young constables in the early hours of 12 October 1988. Read about the Walsh Street police shootings.

Ronald Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia, on 3 February 1967. What were the events leading from Ryan's escape from prison through to the day of his execution? Find out more about Ronald Ryan.

Prime Minister Harold Holt entered the surf at Cheviot Beach, Victoria on the afternoon of 17 December 1967 and was never seen again. Read about the many theories, allegations and rumours surrounding his disappearance.