Jenny discusses the 19th century shipwrecks on the coastline of Victoria through the lens of three vessels, the Sacramento, Joseph H Scammell and the Schomberg.
Three speakers share stories about the migration of their German families to Victoria and Tasmania. Michael Rumpff traces his family back to Frankfurt using Trove and German archives, beginning with the marriage record for his great-grandparents in Victoria. Michael Considine talks about German migration from Nieder-Weisel, north of Frankfurt, focusing on some families that settled in and around Ballarat. David Webster speaks about his research into the Glaum family from Hesse, also not far from Frankfurt. David discusses the sources he used to trace a branch of the Glaum family who migrated to Victoria in the 1850s.
During the 1880s the city Melbourne expanded and developed dramatically. Land prices boomed and a great number of people invested in housing developments. In the 1890s the boom collapsed leaving many insolvents. Penny Mercer looks at these times through the lens of her family. Mentions her Davies, Mercer and Hearle families.
Dr Mollenhauer describes her researches into the history of Irish Step Dancing in Australia
The presenter describes the life of Thomas Wainewright who was transported to Hobart for fraud. He became an artist and his portraits provide documentation of personalities in Hobart before 1850. Thomas painted one of the presenter's ancestors.
Neil relates the story of Novello Nettelingham Burr, who was born on the Victorian goldfields, married into the Cant family who had Mormon convictions, lived in Utah before returning to a life in Footscray.