Maiden Australia

Latest episodes

• Madame Monnier – A Short History of Sex Work in Australia (Part Two)

  February 1, 2026 · 20 min

  During and after World War I, pubs closed early, and returned Australian soldiers routinely moved on to brothels in the early hours of the morning. One night in Perth, a returned soldier arrived with a loaded gun. He demanded to be let…

• Madame Monnier – A Short History of Sex Work in Australia (Part One)

  January 23, 2026 · 27 min

  Sex work is one of the oldest occupations in the world, and in early twentieth-century Australia, it was one of the few pathways to financial independence for women. It was risky and fraught with corruption, but for many, it was worth it…

• Margaret Tucker – The First Aboriginal to Publish an Autobiography

  March 31, 2025 · 26 min

  It’s the 1950s in Melbourne: under the Moreton Bay fig in Carlton Gardens, a woman stands before a crowd. The woman’s name is Margaret Tucker: a singer, a writer, an advocate for First Nations people. As she spoke of justice and truth…

• Fanny Finch – The Woman Who Voted Illegally

  March 16, 2025 · 25 min

  In 1856, on the Australian Goldfields of Castlemaine, hundreds of rugged miners in dirt-streaked trousers gathered to cast their votes. But among them stood an outlier—Fanny Finch. A business owner. A single mother. A woman of colour…

• Rosaleen Norton – The Witch of Kings Cross

  March 3, 2025 · 25 min

  Imagine the 1960s: a woman sits in the gutter, a cigarette between her fingers, eyes burning. Rosaleen Norton—Witch, artist, and outsider. To the media and authorities, she was a 'Devil-Worshipper,' a dangerous woman who had to be stopped…

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