Add
Private Notes
A powerful series on some of Australia’s most famous and influential families opens with the hidden face of Frank Lowy, at an extraordinary turning point in his family’s history. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the global multi-million dollar retail brand Westfield which Frank Lowy created from a small suburban shopping centre. But behind the meteoric success is a family that is still struggling to reconcile its past and its future. As Lowy comes full circle with his past, he returns to eastern Europe to finally lay the ghosts that have shaped him and his family for over 70 years. The Lowys are pillars of the Australian Jewish community, but Frank’s father, Hugo, struggled to make a living and provide for his wife and five children during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. When he disappeared suddenly, and without trace in 1944, the experience marked Frank indelibly. Years later, despite the incredible business success he enjoys in his adopted country Australia, Frank Lowy and his three sons, who have joined him at the highest echelons of corporate power, still nurse a deep, private wound. He speaks about it for the first time and the private side of the bold, tough businessman is shown to be poignantly vulnerable.
Bob Jane’s name and face is one of Australia’s most famous brands, but the cost of this fame and the lifestyle it brought, has been significant. The country’s leading ‘revhead’ made it out of tough working-class Brunswick in Melbourne to motor racing fame and a multi-million dollar tyre empire . But the flamboyant racing king has paid a large personal price along the way. Broken marriages,, family tragedy and sensational headlines in a bitter public court battle has left him a wiser, more sanguine man than the “toughest little bastard in Brunswick’’ he was named at the tender age of 14. Now 80, his crash and burn approach to life has slowed, but the fire in his belly still burns for a good ride around the track.
The racing family that has survived and thrived against the odds, the Waterhouses, tell of their bruising experience through four generations of bookmaking in Australia. Gai Waterhouse is on top of her game now, having trained some of the biggest track winners in the country, but there was a time when the mud flew at this family and the going got very rough. Family patriarch Bill, 87, has always enjoyed a reputation for toughness, from his struggling upbringing in a workers pub at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to the loss of his livelihood after the scandalous Fine Cotton affair. A hard and fast player, punting was his life and although family was important to him, his marriage to Suzanne foundered because he was rarely home. Vilified in the press, and then turned on by family members, and dragged through the courts, he and son Robbie lived on their wits when the stakes were down and pulled the family through. Now, the next generation, grandson Tom Waterhouse is, at 27, the biggest single bookmaker in the country. And Bill and Suzanne have set new odds on their partnership – on his terms.
Once the darling of the wine industry, talented winemaker Andrew Garrett and his family have now been forsaken by the industry that once celebrated them. Starting their amazingly successful business on a $3000 loan, Averil and Andrew Garrett worked their dream hard with innovative marketing and production and their label became a national and international bestseller. But their high life and rollercoaster ride came to a full stop when fire devastated the historic winery they had hoped to make the headquarters of their empire. Financially strapped with commitment to expansion plans, they were forced to take on a Japanese multinational as a majority partner, but it was the beginning of the end of Andrew Garrett. Unable and unwilling to toe the corporate line, Averil and Andrew walked away from their company and bought a magnificent property in the Adelaide Hills, planning it to be the centre of a vineyard, winery and tourist centre. But planning laws intervened, so Andrew invested heavily in vineyards and again fate turned against them. A desperate struggle to hang on to their home ended in 2004 when they were evicted. They were declared bankrupt. But worse was to come.
The Hemmes family revolutionised the Australian fashion scene with the House of Merivale and Mr John. Their name has been synonomous with style and sophistication for more than 50 years. The women are the retiring types, Merivale and daughter Bettina eternally camera shy, leaving it to the men, John Hemmes and son Justin to be the showmen. They have risen to the challenge, often branded as peacocks and playboys, revelling in the fast, shiny and new and attracting more than their fair share of gossip and innuendo. Today the Hemmes command a hospitality empire comprising a chain of glamorous restaurants and nightclubs worth a reputed $500 million. But despite the hype, enormous wealth and flamboyant exterior, this family of four is an intensely private and tight knit group. The outward glamour belies the reality of a family as real and down to earth as any other. They also have a new reality to deal with. John Hemmes has a serious illness.
Australia’s most high-profile Aboriginal family, the Mundines, whose members include boxing legends Tony and Anthony ‘Choc’, are cursed from a source that once gave them power and unity. A remarkable act of charity 60 years ago gave the Mundines an extraordinary advantage over many others in their community. The owners of a NSW cattle station, where the Mundines lived and worked, gave the family 50 acres of land to call their own. Having this property saved the family from untold suffering and dispossession by the Aboriginal Protection Board. It was a gathering place for the clan, and the children who grew up in its bushland came to cherish ‘The Square’ as it became known, and the roots it gave them. There were even jobs for all the Mundine men when a mine opened and operated right next door. A new generation grew up with the confidence and wherewithal to move to the city and build exciting new futures. Leading the charge was Tony Mundine who became a world champion boxer – and put the family, and Baryulgil, on the map. But gradually the Mundines became aware that for all their success, something was terribly wrong. In an ironic twist, the land that had given them so much was slowly but surely killing them. Now, the Mundine women, who’ve held the family pain for over 30 years, are finally telling their story. They’ve lost hundreds of their family and many are still getting sick and dying. Led by Tony and the most famous of them all, his son, ‘Choc’, the family is facing the fight of their lives.
Once known as one of the biggest ratbags of Australian rock'n'roll, Jimmy Barnes is now regarded as music royalty. But it hasn't been an easy journey. Jimmy's battles with drugs and alcohol have taken him to the brink, almost costing him his family and his life. He was saved by an unlikely love affair that has survived against the odds. Jane Barnes grew up in a very different world to Jimmy's. She spent her childhood in a traditional warm family compound in Thailand and brought her unique values to her marriage with Jimmy. This modern Australian love story reveals one man's courage to face his demons and his transformation and strengthening through the love and support of an extended, blended family.
"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.
Deborra-lee Furness and Hugh Jackman inhabit a world of international celebrity but they are driven by a far more urgent purpose.
Miranda Kerr has been named 'the sexiest woman alive'. But behind the glamour and celebrity lies a tale of a down-to-earth country family defying the stereotypes with a strong sense of family values.
Geoffrey Robertson and Kathy Lette are one of London's most celebrated and unlikely couples. But together they have taken on the British establishment and won.
No name evokes the spirit of the Australian bush more than RM Williams. This is the story of the family behind the multi-million dollar name.
The inside story of the family dynamics behind Australia's most famous priest. Tim Costello has been called 'the conscience of a generation'. But like all prophets, the road to salvation has been strewn with temptation.
Charles Blackman is one of Australia's most famous living artists. Saved from a life of poverty and hardship by art and love, he would blaze a creative trail around the globe. And his DNA is deeply imprinted in his progeny.
