Episode
60 Minutes Australia: 2012-12-23
Overview
The Treasure Hunter You're about to embark on a grand adventure with one of our last great explorers. Bob Ballard scours the world's oceans looking for submerged treasure and he's found plenty of it over the last fifty years. Deadly Encounter Witness an underwater drama that is quite simply mind blowing. A face-to-face encounter with a four-and-a-half metre wild crocodile. God's Angels Get ready to meet some real teenaged hell-raisers. Brynne, Savannah and Tess are trainee exorcists; all-American school girls who slay demons in their spare time. Armed with just a bible, holy water and a handbag-sized cross, they fearlessly take on the forces of darkness wherever they may lurk. And, nowadays, that seems to be everywhere. The Catholic Church is performing more exorcisms than ever before, while the girls can scarcely keep up with demand. And we’ll give them this much. They do put on one devil of a show.
Details
- Series
- 60 Minutes Australia
- Season
- Season 2012
- Episode
- Episode 36
- Air date
- 2012-12-23
Episode context
2012-12-23 is Episode 36 in Season 2012 of 60 Minutes Australia. It aired on 2012-12-23.
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Episode 33: 2012-12-02
Mind over Medicine We’ve all heard about placebos, those phoney sugar pills that doctors sometimes hand out to trick people into thinking they’ve been medicated. It’s all about using the extraordinary healing power of positive thinking. Well, now researchers are making revolutionary advances in the science of placebos. So much so, it’s gone way beyond swallowing fake tablets to cure minor ailments. They’ve now got patients undergoing pretend operations to fight disease and chronic pain, and the results are nothing short of remarkable. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producers: Jo Townsend, Phil Goyen Accidental Genius It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood movie, an ordinary bloke takes a blow to the head and then, suddenly, incredibly is transformed into a genius. Far fetched right? Well you’re about to meet three people who’ve gone through that experience in real life. They’ve all suffered some kind of brain damage and survived to become gifted musicians, mathematicians and artists. Scientists call them acquired savants. It’s a fascinating field of study and it could just hold the key to making us all a whole lot smarter. Reporter: Liam Bartlett Producer: Howard Sacre The Master He’s given us some of Hollywood’s most memorable moments: Jaws rearing from the ocean, a young Drew Barrymore face to face with E.T, Indiana Jones trapped in a snake pit. And those are just a few scenes from an incredible career that spans four decades and 27 films. Stephen Spielberg is the most successful film maker of his generation, maybe of all time. Yet, as Lesley Stahl of American 60 Minutes discovered, he still panics before every new project. Reporter: Lesley Stahl, CBS 60 Minutes Producers: Ruth Streeter, Rebecca Peterson The Vanishing When Liz Hayes first met conservationist Chris Darwin two years ago – great, great grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin – she was a little taken aback. He’s unconventional to say the least. And unusually generous. To combat what he calls our “biggest extinction period in history”, he bought up vast tracts of prime Australian bush. So, when the miners and their trucks began to muscle in on his land, he embarked on a series of experiments just like his famous Great Great Granddaddy. (This story is an update to the original story broadcast on: 27th June, 2010) Reporter: Liz Hayes Producer: Jo Townsend
Episode 37: 2012-12-30
Wall to Wall It's an album that defined one generation and became a rallying cry for another. 33 years have past since Pink Floyd released "The Wall" but the music is as powerful and relevant as ever. Revenge Lust, sex, betrayal and revenge - this story is as juicy as any soap opera and almost as farfetched. It started out as a love triangle between an international model, her sports star boyfriend, and her unscrupulous and obsessed mother. And it spiralled out of control from there.There was a murder plot, a couple of Nigerian hit men, and a sensational trial. But what makes this tale truly incredible is how a wronged daughter chose to deal with her mother's treachery. Chilling Out Liam Bartlett has just returned from a place so piercingly cold, it gives him the shivers just thinking about it. It's not Antarctica or even the top of Mount Everest. It's actually a tiny village in central Siberia. In Oymiakon, it's so cold your eyelashes freeze together and you're constantly on guard against frostbite. If it's warmer than minus 55 degrees Celsius, then it's a good day. So rug up as we venture to the coldest town in the world.
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Episode 32: 2012-11-25
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Episode 31: 2012-11-18
High Dive Whoever could forget that dive at the Beijing Olympics? Or the look of pure joy on Matthew Mitcham’s face when he realised he’d won gold. But behind the smiles and Matthew’s extraordinary athleticism, all was not as it seemed. You see, there’s another, darker side to Matthew. A tortured childhood, battles with depression and, most disturbingly, the revelation that he was hooked on drugs – addicted to crystal meth or ice, as it’s known. And as Matthew’s life unravelled, he feared he would lose everything he loved and had worked so hard for. Reporter: Liz Hayes Producer: Stephen Taylor Brute Force Reckless, dangerous, even thuggish. You’d think we were talking about a violent street gang. But these are the words used by the New South Wales coroner this past week to describe members of that state’s police force. She was ruling on the death of a Brazilian student during a Sydney arrest in March. That young man, Roberto Curti was tackled by eleven officers. He was doused in capsicum spray and tasered 14 times. It was a horrible way to die and one that continues to haunt the close-knit family he’s left behind. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producers: David Alrich, Steven Burling Song Bird She’s had one hundred hit singles and written songs for The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Kylie Minogue and Adele. Carole King is, quite simply, the most successful and prolific female songwriter of all time. In fact, over the last fifty years, her music has been recorded by one thousand singers. For those too young or too befuddled to recall the 1960s and early seventies, the songs of Carole King provide a perfect snapshot of the time. It was an age when love and optimism reigned supreme and the earth moved in quite wonderful ways. Reporter: Charles Wooley Producer: Steven Burling, Phil Goyen
Episode 30: 2012-11-11
The GoPro Revolution They’ve revolutionised the way we see our world and created a new breed of film makers who are as crazy as they are daring. GoPro cameras are tiny; small enough to be attached to a bird, strapped to a base jumper’s helmet or swallowed by a shark. The video they produce is, quite simply, extraordinary. You feel like you’re right there in the middle of the action. As you’ll see it’s one wild ride but a ride you can safely enjoy from the comfort of your own sofa. Reporter: Liam Bartlett Producers: Stephen Rice, Howard Sacre Stopping the Clock It’s the great dilemma of young women everywhere – how to build a successful career, without missing out on motherhood. Now, doctors have found a new way for women to have babies well into middle age and beyond. This revolutionary procedure is called ovarian tissue freezing. It quite literally puts a woman’s biological clock on ice. But here in Australia, the surgery is considered so controversial, it’s only available to cancer patients; women who are left infertile by the very treatment that saves their lives. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producer: Sandra Cleary Driving Blind Right now, a young driver – probably a man – is about to make a potentially lethal decision. He’s blind drunk and he knows it. But he’s going to get behind the wheel of his car anyway. The terrifying thing is he’s probably done it before. And, worse still, there are others in the car in search of a good time. Gaol, stiff fines, the constant scare campaigns – nothing, it seems, can stop this stupidity. The result is carnage. A rising toll of young people killed and seriously injured. And behind the appalling statistics are shattered families. Look into the eyes of Ebony Dunsworth’s parents and, like us, you’ll despair. Reporter: Michael Usher Producer: Howard Sacre
Episode 29: 2012-11-04
A Father’s Fight When Michael Roberts fell madly in love with a beautiful American woman, he never imagined his life would end up as strange and as chilling as any crime thriller. Theirs was a whirlwind online romance. Within weeks of meeting, Michael had packed his bags and moved halfway across the world. It proved a fatal mistake. You see, Michael’s new wife, the mother of his two young children, turned out to be a cold blooded killer. And just when you think it can’t get more sinister, more unbelievable, there’s another twist to the tale. Reporter: Michael Usher Producers: Danny Keens, Hannah Boocock The Contenders It’s the greatest show on Earth right now. And for good reason, this American election campaign has everything. There are Mormons and millionaires, celebrities and shock jocks. Then just when it seemed campaigning had settled into a steady rhythm, along came hurricane Sandy. That monster storm kept President Obama and his rival Mitt Romney off the hustings for a couple of days. But behind the scenes, the party machines kept chugging on. Liz Hayes sat down with two of the most influential and entertaining cogs. Reporter: Liz Hayes Producer: Phil Goyen The Majestic Mantas It has to be one of nature’s greatest shows. Certainly we’ve never witnessed anything like the dancing manta rays of the Maldives. Their mesmerising underwater ballet only happens at one place on Earth and, even then, only rarely. So, it’s devastating to think that these massive and majestic creatures are being hunted to extinction. And, if we’re not careful, the curtain will come down on their hauntingly beautiful performance forever. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producer: Gareth Harvey
Episode 27: 2012-10-21
Built on Lies Who could ever forget those images after the Christchurch earthquake, of the local television station reduced to rubble? One hundred and fifteen lives were lost in that building. Now one of the key people responsible for its construction has been revealed as a monumental impostor. Brisbane man Gerald Shirtcliff conned his way into the building trade. For 42 years, this fraud masqueraded as an English engineer called Will Fisher. He stole Mr Fisher’s name, his birthday and his professional qualifications. It was a monstrous deception, a real life “Catch me if you Can” – as audacious as it was evil. Reporter: Liam Bartlett Producer: Stephen Rice First Words Imagine not being able to communicate with your own child, never knowing what they’re thinking or how they feel. That’s what life’s like every day for the parents of severely autistic children. And it’s just as distressing for the kids who have no way of expressing themselves and often lash out in frustration. But finally, there’s a way. Just as computer apps have revolutionised our lives, they’re also changing how autistic children interact with their world. Now they’re truly connecting with their mums and dads for the first time. And if you think that’s remarkable, consider this: world first technology has made it possible for doctors to see how autism affects the brain, providing hope that we’ll one day find a cure to this most mysterious of conditions. Reporter: Michael Usher Producer: Phil Goyen Frozen Frontier As a 60 Minutes reporter, Charles Wooley has been lucky enough to have travelled to every continent on earth – bar one. Antarctica, that vast icy wilderness at the bottom of the world. Well, finally he made it. Charles spent an unforgettable week there and the images will stay with him forever. The incredible scale, the wildlife, the night-less skies, the frightening emptiness and, amazingly, the colours of ice. Australia is the biggest stakeholder in this beautiful land and we’ve pushed harder than anyone to protect it from exploitation. But, as Charles discovered, change is on its way. Reporter: Charles Wooley Producer: Nick Greenaway
Episode 26: 2012-10-14
Fatal Distraction Most of us have done it at some time or other. And it’s as dangerous as it is crazy. Now, new research has found that texting while driving is far riskier than we ever thought. Start punching out a conversation on your phone and your chance of having an accident jumps enormously. You may as well be hurtling down the highway blindfolded. Yes, we know it’s hard to resist a beeping mobile, but this story should make every one of us think twice before we text behind the wheel because a few seconds of distraction is all it takes to shatter lives. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producers: Nick Greenaway, Hannah Boocock Switched at Birth Imagine making a decision – just one decision – that would haunt you for life and rip away everything you loved. Back in 1991, Sandy Dawkins and Megs Clinton Parker discovered that their two-year-old sons had been switched at birth, that they were each raising a child that was not biologically their own. They could have swapped the boys over then and there. But they didn’t. For the next two decades, we watched as Sandy and Megs tried to make their bizarre relationship work. But, perhaps inevitably, it all fell apart. Now, 23 years later, there’s been yet another and even more extraordinary twist in this bitter family saga. Reporter: Peter Overton Producer: Nick Greenaway Trip of the Tongue Imagine waking up one morning and not sounding like yourself, in fact sounding like someone from an entirely different country. Liam Bartlett has just spent a few fascinating days with three otherwise normal women who have the medical world completely stumped. One day they felt sick, the next they were jabbering away with thick foreign accents. One can now pass for Russian. Another has developed a French lilt. The third sounds Chinese. It’s called Foreign Accent Syndrome and it’s a condition that’s as rare as it is strange. Reporter: Liam Bartlett Producers: Howard Sacre, Gareth Harvey
Episode 25: 2012-10-07
Total Recall You have to wonder, what on Earth was Arnold Schwarzenegger thinking? There he was, one of the most famous men in the world, a massive movie star and the governor of California, with a glamorous political wife in Maria Shriver and a brood of kids. Then he goes and sleeps with the household help. And it wasn’t a simple one night stand either- the affair resulted in a child – a boy called Joseph who is now 15-years-old. The scandal broke in May last year and Schwarzenegger hasn’t said a word about any of it – until now. His confessional with Lesley Stahl of the American 60 Minutes program is one of the most compelling interviews we’ve ever seen. Schwarzenegger certainly regrets what he’s done but is he sorry? We’ll leave that for you to decide. Reporter: Lesley Stahl, CBS 60 Minutes Producer: Rich Bonin One Way Ticket Every year, thousands of young Australians fly off for a gap year adventure. Their travels take them all over the world, often to poor and dangerous places that make their mums and dads fret. But Karen Bourke wasn’t worried when she waved her son off at the airport. After all, Glenn was only going to New Zealand and that’s almost as safe as home – right? But the world capital of adventure tourism can be a deadly place as Glenn and eight others so tragically discovered. Reporter: Liam Bartlett Producers: Gareth Harvey, Ali Smith Terry Terrific Sometimes just leading an ordinary life can be an extraordinary achievement. That’s certainly the case for 17-year-old Terry Vo. Seven years ago, Terry was playing backyard basketball when an attempted slam dunk brought a brick wall crashing down on him. The accident severed both his hands and his left foot. World-first surgery reattached those limbs. But what really amazed us was how this brave little boy smiled through everything. Tara Brown has been following Terry’s progress from the start and is pleased to say his story just gets better and better. Reporter: Tara Brown Producer: Stephen Taylor
Episode 24: 2012-09-30
Bali – 10th Anniversary Special We thought it could never happen to us, that Australia was immune to the horror of terrorism. But then, ten years ago, a series of bombs ripped through Bali’s nightclub district and we lost our innocence. 202 people died that night, including 88 Aussies. Over the past decade, we’ve followed the survivors as they’ve rebuilt their lives. Some have done it publicly, defiantly thumbing their noses at the terrorists. Others like Carren Smith have struggled out of view – until now. On Sunday night, we revisit some of our inspirational survivors and, for the first time, Carren shares her incredible story. Reporter: Peter Overton Producer: Jo Townsend Going Native Keeping wild animals locked up, whether in a zoo, a cage or a backyard will always be controversial. In Australia, we’re not allowed to keep our native animals as pets. But it’s quite another story over in America where Aussie wildlife has become the latest must-have accessory. Michael Usher found fully-grown kangaroos being fussed over like household cats and dogs and tiny marsupials marketed as pocket pets. It’s a multi-million dollar industry; it could also hold the key to saving our precious animals from extinction. Reporter: Michael Usher Producer: Phil Goyen Firestorm Allison Langdon has just been to the gates of Hell. A place, where right under your feet, under homes and roads, immense fires burn out of control, fuelled by enormous deposits of coal. These fires are scarring the land and poisoning the people in a forgotten corner of India. It’s an environmental disaster and it’s raged unchecked for close to a hundred years. Now, over a million people are quite literally living on top of a firestorm. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producer: Gareth Harvey
Episode 22: 2012-09-16
In the Pink On stage, she’s a feisty rock chick – a woman with a big voice whose songs can make a bloke feel very small indeed. Just ask her husband. So it always surprises us how approachable and down to earth Pink is. When Peter Overton caught up with her in Los Angeles recently, she had hubbie Carey Hart and new daughter Willow in tow. They’re as normal a family as you’d find and incredibly welcoming. Motherhood clearly suits Pink, we would even say she’s mellowed since our last meeting. But some things don’t change. She still packs a wicked sense of humour. Reporter: Peter Overton Producer: Steven Burling Breaking the Silence We thought it was a haven, a model school where disadvantaged young boys and Catholic brothers all lived together as one big happy family. You may remember it from the famous lottery that raised millions in its name. But Boys Town, in Beaudesert Queensland, wasn’t the Godly place we all believed it to be. For many of the boys there, it was a pure hell. Those kids are grown men now. On Sunday night, after a lifetime of shame, they’ve found the courage to talk about what happened to them at Boys Town. Their stories are some of the hardest we’ve ever heard. But for the first time, the authorities are listening. And court action has now begun in what’s becoming one of the largest cases of its type in Australian legal history. Reporter: Michael Usher Producer: Danny Keens A Lethal Mix It’s the most dangerous of brews, a potentially lethal concoction of heavy spirits and high octane energy drinks. Young people love the stuff, whether they buy it readymade or mix their own. The alcohol gets them drunk and the energy drinks keep them awake. It can be like knocking back half a dozen cups of coffee, except they’re already buzzing from a skinful of booze. The idea is to make the fun last longer. But there’s nothing fun about landing in hospital. And that’s far from the worst that can happen. Reporter: Tara Brown Producers: Stephen Rice, Ali Smith
Episode 21: 2012-09-09
Walking Tall
We all want to fit in. That’s just the way we’re wired. But for the young man you’ll meet on Sunday night, blending into the crowd is an impossible dream. Igor is dangerously tall – 8 foot – and getting bigger by the day. While the first thing you notice about Igor is undoubtedly his height, spend some time with him and you realise he’s also charming, funny, complex and heartbreakingly lonely. He also has the biggest smile you’ll ever see – you just have to find a way to coax it out of him.
Reporter: Michael Usher
Producer: Phil Goyen
Kidnapped!
It’s the kidnap capital of the world – a city where someone is snatched off the street every three hours. In Sao Paulo, just walking outside your front door can be dangerous. Not even children are safe. The men and women who track down and rescue the hostages are members of Brazil’s crack anti-kidnapping unit. Allison Langdon joined these courageous men and women for one incredibly intense week. At times, Allison felt like she had wandered onto the set of a Hollywood action movie – except on this beat the bad guys and the bullets are real.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Steven Burling
Mental as Anything
She’s a chick from the ‘burbs – a down-to-earth Aussie sheila who’s risen to the top in Hollywood.Toni Collette got her start in that wonderfully odd little Australian movie “Muriel’s Wedding”. Her role as the dumpy, wedding-obsessed Muriel from Porpoise Spit set her on the road to international stardom. Of course, it didn’t hurt that she also happened to be blessed with bucket loads of talent. In the eighteen years since, Toni has won a Golden Globe and an Emmy as well as been nominated for an Oscar. Now she’s come full circle playing Shaz in the new Australian Film “Mental.” It’s another quirky local comedy. And it’s taken her back to the place she loves best – home.
Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Sandra Cleary
Saint Catherine
In Africa, she’s considered a saint. And having seen her at work, we’re not about to disagree. Dr Catherine Hamlin has devoted her life to healing the broken bodies of Ethiopian girls who have been forced into marriage and then get pregnant at far too young an age. But today this gentle woman is angry – angry with the Australian charity that has collected millions in her name. She accuses the charity of not passing the donations on. It’s a 15-million-dollar rift that threatens a lifetime’s work.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Stephen Taylor