Grief’s timetable plays out in myriad ways. It’s nine months since Lloyd and Sue Clarke lost their daughter and three grandchildren in a most appalling murder that shocked a nation and, for them, their pain has accrued at different rates, in different ways. For Sue, first there was surreal denial. She would watch videos of her daughter Hannah, and her grandchildren Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3, to keep them close in the vain hope that they might one day come home. Now, denial is slowly g

“I was thinking it wasn’t abuse because he never hit me.” These are words that will stay with Suzanne Clarke. Her daughter, Hannah Clarke, who was burned to death in Brisbane last week with her three children, told her mother that she had questioned herself “for years” about whether she was in a domestic violence situation. With Hannah’s father, Lloyd, and her brother, Nathaniel, the devastated mother told A Current Affair her daughter’s story, of the control and manipulation that preceded her

AN ILLEGAL fire track built by Wal Bounader on his Wodonga grazing property enabled firefighters to stop a fast-moving fire-front threatening his house and the adjoining army base and a housing estate. Mr Bounader, who turns 80 this year, knew his day of vindication would come after being forced to pay a fine 20 years ago for pushing an illegal track across his 100-acre property. Mr Bounader admits he didn't bother to apply for a permit but he's glad today that his house is intact. "I'm on a hil

After reporting on the deadly 2011 Queensland flash flood disaster, I spent a year documenting accounts of heroic rescues, tragic deaths and extraordinary survival. Five years later, I returned for a follow-up study. I found some survivors had recovered, but many were far worse off. This research suggests there is a long road ahead for survivors of the current bushfire crisis. However, there are key lessons to be learned. Read more: The bushfires are horrendous, but expect cyclones, floods an

As I write this, fires are consuming huge swathes of Australia and conditions are expected to worsen. The situation is attracting global interest, and reporting has been extensive. But it isn’t always easy to find reliable information on how the situation is developing in specific areas that are home to your family and friends. The following short guide draws on my experience covering bushfires as a reporter and my academic research. It may not be exhaustive but is intended to help Australians

Allan Allaway was a baby when he was grabbed from the arms of his mother on a footpath in Townsville and taken into state care in Queensland in 1941. More than 75 years later, he has finally gained the legal right to seek compensation for beatings he endured for 14 years at the hands of the Sisters of Mercy, and for the lies they told to stop him from escaping. "I've been fighting for more than 30 years," he said on Tuesday. "I intuitively knew I could not back off and that one day we would e

A sex offender lived in the abbey on Caldey Island for seven years while on the run from police until he was found in 2011, taken back to the mainland and jailed. Paul Ashton lived among the Cistercian monks on the private island off the Pembrokeshire coast in south-west Wales as police searched for him after finding thousands of images of child abuse on his computer. Ashton was finally found after his image appeared on a Crimestoppers Most Wanted gallery. Caldey Abbey is at the centre of a sc

Summer holidays on Caldey Island were seemingly idyllic. The tiny island off the Welsh Coast at Tenby is a place of beauty and holiness, with bluebell woods, clifftop walks, tea gardens and picturesque beaches. Pilgrims come for religious retreat, staying in the island’s cottages, joining the monks in prayer at the imposing Italianate Abbey of Our Lady and St Samson. In November last year Caldey Island’s reputation for quaint charm was shored up by reports of the “only crime in living memory” t

When Susannah Birch was two years old her mother cut her throat, in a ritual sacrifice, Susannah was very lucky to survive. This was the first of her mother’s psychotic episodes as she enacted a passage from The Old Testament. Susannah remembered what her mother did and she was encouraged to talk about it by her child psychiatrist. This made for some interesting conversations with school friends. Her family used to joke that at least her mother didn’t put her in the oven. Through a challenging

'Within two minutes it went from being no water out in the street to being waist deep inside the shop.' When Queensland went under water in January this year the tiny town of Grantham suffered the greatest loss of life: 12 people died. The locals clung to fences, floated on top of cars and supported each other to survive the unexpected and sudden wall of muddy water and debris that inundated their town. You'll hear tales of fear, bravery and loss in this moving radio feature.