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Private Notes
"We were at the brink. We were at the brink of losing everything, yeah even our souls basically." Damian Noll, middle brother
The Noll family describe themselves as, "an ordinary family who've faced the extraordinary". Shannon Noll, a multi-platinum recording artist, shot to fame in 2003 as the runner-up on the first series of Australian Idol. In just eight years, he has made music history with ten consecutive Top Ten singles - the only artist in Australia ever to do so.
Yet behind Shannon's success lies another very private tale of the bond between three brothers who have struggled to survive both tragedy and triumph.
Shannon grew up on the family's 100-year-old farm, 60 kilometres west of Condobolin, in the wheat bowl of Australia. He was at the bottom of the pecking order, the youngest boy with two older siblings, Damian and Adam. The brothers never doubted they would inherit the farm. They worked the land by day, and, in their time off, they made their own entertainment - Shannon singing, Damian on drums and Adam on guitar.
Then in 2001, life changed forever. A freak accident killed their beloved father, and the three Noll brothers found themselves at each other's throats - unable to agree on how to run the farm. To make matters worse, Condobolin was on the brink of the worst drought Australia had seen in a hundred years.
These events marked the end of innocence. All three brothers would have to reinvent themselves and their relationships with each other. It's been a tough journey.
This is the story of a band of brothers, saved by music, only to be separated by its success.
"He's a great storyteller. If truth is a problem there, well whose truth?" Celeste Coucke, Bryce's daughter-in-law.
For the past twenty years, Bryce Courtenay has reigned supreme as Australia's bestselling novelist. It's said that every home has at least one of his books on the shelf; and every year, he writes a novel for Christmas that generates ten million dollars for the Australian publishing industry.
This is the story of a man conditioned from childhood to win, and who discovered himself in his imagination. But the journey has come at a cost.
For Bryce, a good story always comes first. His work takes precedence over everything. It means there is little time to spare for his family - and even his new bride sees little of him when he's working. And, when he wrote about his own family's tragedy, everyone suffered the consequences.
Nothing has stopped him - until now. In 2011, fate dealt Bryce a cruel blow. Ill health has cost him a deadline. For the first time in twenty years, there will be no Bryce Courtenay blockbuster in the bookshops for Christmas, and a man for whom stories are life, faces an uncertain future.
This episode of Family Confidential exposes the private side of a man for whom the story means everything.
"They've been through so much and yet there is something that ties them inextricably together." Liz Butler, Sally Dingo's sister.
When Sally Butler met Ernie Dingo, it was the beginning of a unique bond that would bridge two very different cultures.
Against advice, the couple married - and Sally embraced her husband's complex, extended Indigenous family. Meanwhile, Ernie defied the stereotypes to become one of Australia's most famous celebrities. Already a popular film and television star, he became a household name as the host of The Great Outdoors.
But Sally had a private heartache. She had been told she was unable to have children. Then fate intervened, and Sally and Ernie became the parents of two children - a son Jurra, and a daughter Wilara. But little did the couple realise the bonds in place that already connected them.
It seemed on the surface a perfect union. But just two years ago, Ernie's celebrity came crashing down in a media storm that would cost far more than his celebrity career.
This is the story of an unconventional family - its resilience in the face of unlikely odds, and of the capacity for love to triumph amongst adversity.
"His story has been misunderstood since he was alive, it's been misunderstood since his death." Paul Holmes à Court
From the moment he burst onto the business stage in the 1970s, dashing corporate raider Robert Holmes à Court captured the public's imagination with his brilliance and daring. He was the enigmatic and dazzling outsider with a romantic, hazy past à admired, feared and loathed in almost equal measures.
With his loyal wife Janet by his side, Robert became Australia's first billionaire. He created a mammoth financial empire that, at the time of the 1987 stock market crash, was worth two billion dollars. But the crash nearly destroyed him. He retreated from the public eye, and set about rebuilding his vast fortune. The effort literally killed him. Robert Holmes à Court dropped dead of a massive heart attack on Father's Day 1990. He was just 53.
In a typically unpredictable move, Robert stunned the world by leaving no will. Instead, his widow Janet and their four children have had to decipher a tangled web of assets and debts and determine who would run the family empire.
It has taken twenty years for Robert's legacy to be resolved.
Now for the first time, this intensely private family are free to tell his tale.
"You have your ups and downs! That's the name of the game." Kevin Jacobsen
For more than 50 years, the Jacobsen name has been synonymous with Australian entertainment - from the dawn of rock-and-roll to big names such as Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand, and global hits like Dirty Dancing.
But behind the glitz and glamour is the story of a working class boy from East Hills who was given the responsibility of caring for his extended family.
Kevin Jacobsen was a born entrepreneur who soon found a way to turn the family's homespun love of music into a thriving business. He created one of Australia's earliest and most successful rock-and-roll bands around his younger brother Col, and was soon managing a string of leading artists. Over the years, the family rode the showbiz rollercoaster to success, producing bestselling shows from the Three Tenors to Bruce Springsteen, Disney on Ice to Aida. Although it left him little time with his young children, Kevin traveled the world, securing new acts and creating a family empire with his siblings.
But as a second generation came of age, the family that had once been the closest in Australian show business was in trouble. Kevin and Col had both brought their children into the family firm - and everyone was at loggerheads.
Perhaps no one outside the family will ever fully understand what unfolded. But Kevin and Col no longer speak, and 77-year-old Kevin is now on the outside of the extended family he led for so long.
"That's a potent combination - being successful, being Italian and being from Griffith - almost a red flag for someone to say, 'Well, we must have done it some other way.'" John Casella, middle brother and Managing Director, Casella Wine.
Everyone knows Yellow Tail - it has just been ranked Australia's most powerful wine brand in the world. But the story of the family that created it - a family that has come from nowhere to become Australia's wealthiest winemakers with assets close to four hundred million dollars - has been clouded by gossip and innuendo about their home town.
This is the story of a close-knit Sicilian family who risked everything for the migrant dream of success.
Leaving all they loved dear, the Casellas joined a flood of Italian migrants who transformed the all-Australian town of Griffith in NSW. Like many, they created a small family vineyard and winery - and over two generations strove to build their fortunes.
They hit the jackpot just a decade ago with a new label, Yellow Tail. Today, it is Australia's greatest wine export success - the most popular imported wine in the United States. It's made the Casellas the pride of Griffith.
But there has been a darker side to the family's good fortune. Griffith has long been in the news for all the wrong reasons, with a reputation for drugs and organised crime. As the Casella's winemaking fortunes grew, the town's dramatic past would come back to haunt them - culminating in blackmail, a dramatic police sting and a prison sentence.
Now for the first time, the family speaks out about the story behind their success.
