Season 7

This week's Australian Story sees the unveiling of a bold and controversial new vision for the future of Aboriginal people.

A group of Sydney women on a remarkable journey to Pakistan and Afghanistan to help destitute women and orphaned children.

For the first time this week one of the program's team of producers is stepping in front of the camera to tell her own story. She's Vanessa Gorman and during her time with Australian Story she has produced some of the program's most acclaimed stories. They have included "Man for All Seasons" with Wayne Bennett, "Raising the Rafters" with Pat Rafter's family and this year "Happy as Garry" with Garry McDonald. Vanessa GormanBut behind the scenes Vanessa was undergoing an ordeal of her own. Despite the opposition of her then partner, she was determined to become a mother. Two and a half years ago she lost her longed for baby daughter shortly after birth. That experience was turned into a powerful and moving one hour independent documentary "Losing Layla" which screened on the ABC. Vanessa says: "After Layla died I just wanted to read stories about this happening to other people and the message that I kept coming across was that people didn't see it as a big death. And I thought I've got this film footage. I can do something here to let the community know that this is actually as a big a death as any other death in your life." "Losing Layla" generated a massive and heartfelt audience response but it left many viewers wanting to know more and, in particular, wanting to know what had happened to Vanessa in subsequent months. "Regarding Raphael" provides the answers. It's the story of Vanessa's life after "Losing Layla". It tells of the break up of Vanessa's long term relationship with her partner Michael Shaw in the aftermath of the death of their baby. And it tells of a new relationship, another pregnancy ... and finally a healthy baby boy, Raphael.

Michael "Mo" Crossland is an 18 year old Coffs Harbour kid on the verge of realising the dream of a lifetime. A gifted baseball player, Michael was spotted by a U.S. talent scout, and offered a baseball scholarship in Texas.

In the heart of the Kimberley is some of the most mysterious and magical rock art anywhere in the world.

An unconventional plan to create a sanctuary in Cape York for Australia's war veterans is being spearheaded by Les Hiddins, better known as the 'Bush Tucker Man' from the ABC television series.

When 20 year old Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey released their teens surfie saga "Puberty Blues" in 1979 it caused a storm.

Sarah Parry has made headlines as the driving force behind the Matthew Flinders Round Australia Re-enactment voyage. But until now her unusual personal story has remained very much under wraps.

Philip Ruddock is our most controversial politician. He is the public face of Australia's immigration policy and the man responsible for detention centres and asylum seekers.

John Marsden is a former teacher who writes uncompromising books about teenagers for teenagers.

Chairman of the ACCC, Prof. Allan Fels is one of the most powerful men in Australia. He has copped a lot of flak from big business which fears the country's best known regulator. For the ordinary consumer he's a hero. This week Australian Story delves into the unusual private life of an enigma. For the first time, Professor Fels tells of the impact his professional life has had on him and his family.

Breakfast at Taffy's is the story of the city girl falling in love with a man from the bush.

Victorian artist Alex Lyall and her search for the truth about her family's dramatic past as lighthouse keepers on a desolate island.

An unlikely friendship between two blokes from the bush and how they teamed together to "save the bilby" with remarkable results.

The saga of an infamous miscarriage of justice - and the devastating consequences still being played out in the lives of three families nearly 40 years after the event.

The saga of an infamous miscarriage of justice - and the devastating consequences still being played out in the lives of three families nearly 40 years after the event.

How a suburban Australian family opened their home and their hearts to a troubled Vietnamese child twenty one years ago.

A story that reads like a Hollywood script - and it is no surprise to learn that Hollywood has acquired the rights to Geraldine Cox's epic real life adventures.

A young husband and wife legal team who took on the might of a major stockbroking firm in a landmark case.

Charts the parallel journeys of two airmen - one of them Japan's most celebrated World War Two fighter pilot; the other an obscure, novice Australian bomber pilot.

Musician Michael O'Grady and schoolteacher Amanda Jackson are just two of the 1200 new patients referred each year to the Sydney Melanoma Unit, the largest treatment centre in the world.

Leah Purcell is the girl from small-town Queensland who's becoming a kind of Cathy Freeman of the footlights.

The story of one of the most notorious and perplexing crimes in recent history - the paracetamol extortion saga in which four people were poisoned after taking tablets laced with strychnine.

The story of Jade Hopper, 10 year old tennis player and the youngest person ever to feature as the subject of an Australian Story.

We occasionally hear of an act of extraordinary generosity when a family member donates an organ to save a life. So how much more extraordinary is it when the live donor is not related, when the gift is based on friendship and an understanding of the life saving difference it will make. This week's Australian Story is about such an act of generosity. Jim Gaston worked with Charmaine Mansfield in the Queensland coastal town of Bowen. Charmaine had a rare kidney disease and her health was failing when Jim stepped in. None of her own family were able to provide a suitable match. However his decision to donate his healthy kidney to restore Charmaine's quality of life was fraught with serious considerations for his own family and their future health. This remarkable story reveals the issues exposed by live organ donation and the remarkable bond now forged by Jim's gift to Charmaine

The story of animal rights activist Lyn White.

In the Golden Era of Australian swimming in the 1950s and 60 the greatest coach was Harry Gallagher. His top swimmers, Dawn Fraser and Jon Henricks, won the prestigious Olympic 100-metre freestyle sprints for women and men respectively.

The tiny town of Walwa has its own medical practice and even a well equipped hospital. But the Walwa Bush Nursing Hospital is now facing closure. And if the hospital closes, the town's only full-time doctor will leave too.

Christine Nixon made history in 2001 when she became Australia's first female Chief Commissioner.

Australian Story revisits one of the most notorious police dramas of recent history - the shooting of three officers in their patrol car in suburban Brisbane two years ago.

One couple's journey through the agonies and ecstasies of parenthood via inter-country adoption.

"One of Australia's greatest World War Two fighter pilots.

P.J. Nicholson is desperately working to try to save the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat from extinction.

The exclusive "story behind the story" of Kerry and Kay Danes, the Australian business couple arrested and jailed in Laos and released at the end of last year after Federal Government intervention.

A mystery and one man's obsessive search to solve it.

It's a long way to the top from the small country town of Mt Barker to Hollywood. "Pride of Place" is the story of world-renowned hairdresser Kerry Warn, who works the locks of the most beautiful and famous people in the world.

Former members of the East Timorese resistance have revealed a secret plan to bust their leader Xanana Gusmao from his Jakarta prison cell in the 1990s. Jose Ramos Horta, now East Timor's Foreign Minister, says he planned a commando raid on the prison, using British special forces veterans, when it appeared Gusmao was unlikely to be released. Interviewed for the ABC's Australian Story program, Mr Horta said he had never spoken publicly about the plan, which would also have used veterans from the war in Bosnia. The program profiles Xanana Gusmao's Australian-born wife Kirsty Sword, at the time an undercover agent for the Timorese resistance, and the conduit for the plan to raid the prison. Kirsty Sword spent four years in Jakarta secretly helping the campaign for East Timor's independence, while working for an Australian aid agency and teaching English. She first met Gusmao at Jakarta's Cipinang prison in 1994, and the pair married in Dili after his release in 1999. With Xanana Gusmao tipped to become East Timor's first President after elections in April, Kirsty Sword Gusmao will be First Lady of the newly independent country.

Australian Story on February 18 features a candid, wide ranging and exclusive look at the man who's become Australia's most controversial Governor-General in recent memory - Dr. Peter Hollingworth.

One of the best loved and most talented actors and comedians that Australia has ever produced.