Expanse

Flight VH-MDX appears to have vanished, and authorities launch a massive search across the unforgiving Barrington Tops landscape to find it. With freezing temperatures setting in and survival experts giving the men just days to live, every hour counts.

The Barrington Tops is rugged and unforgiving. With impenetrable bush and towering mountains, it eats up people and planes. It’s sometimes called the ‘Devil’s Triangle’. And it guards a mystery that hasn’t been answered in 45 years.

It's been a busy few months for host Dominique Bayens, working alongside search organisers and chasing down loose ends. It all comes together with some crucial new information coming to light as a community-led search for the missing Nannup four kicks off.

What goes into making a season of Expanse? What considerations are made when telling the stories of people's lives? Host of Expanse: The Nannup Four, Dominique Bayens, sits down with fellow podcast host Phil Vine to take you behind the curtain.

A family friend and former policeman continues to search for answers for Jim and Cath McDougall decades after the Nannup four vanished. The family and friends of Chantelle McDougall try to find their own answers, as one last glimmer of hope emerges.

Jim and Cath McDougall are left reeling as the true depth of Simon Kadwill’s deception is revealed. Dominique tracks down people from his past, and hears from someone who has never spoken before who provides a startling insight into how Simon might have ended up on the path he did.

Dominique travels across the country to meet the two people who might be able to help her understand how Chantelle came to be living a reclusive life in a hidden corner of Western Australia, alongside a self-styled spiritual guru 18 years her senior.

A chance encounter in the streets of Melbourne in 1998 leaves a friend wondering what Chantelle McDougall has been pulled into. Dominique hears about the escalating pattern of control Simon Kadwill exercises over Chantelle.

If you can add to this story, or have information you think might be important, please get in touch by emailing [email protected].

In this episode, we cover topics like:

Chantelle McDougall and her daughter 5-year-old Leela vanished from Nannup, Western Australia in 2007, while entwined in the "Truth Fellowship" cult.

Who are the missing people who disappeared into this cult?

The baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?

Four people who were part of an online doomsday cult disappeared from a small Australian town.

The 2007 disappearances of the "Truth Fellowship" Cult: Simon Kadwill, 45, Chantelle McDougall, 27, Leela McDougall, 5, and Tony Popic, 40

Missing people who have disappeared into cults?

Baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?

How can four people just vanish? Odd tales emerge in Nannup case.

When three adults and a child disappear without a trace from the isolated bush community of Nannup in 2007, it sparks disturbing theories about what might have happened. What was going on in the little blue house, and could understanding that hold the key to the disappearance?

Host Dominique Bayens starts unpicking the rumours of cults, hidden identities and bizarre behaviour.

If you can add to this story, or have information you think might be important please get in touch by emailing [email protected].

In this episode we cover topics like:

Chantelle McDougall and her daughter 5 year old Leela vanished from Nannup, Western Australia in 2007, while entwined in the "Truth Fellowship" cult.

Who are the missing people who disappeared into this cult?

The baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?

Four people who were part of an online doomsday cult disappeared from a small Australian town.

The 2007 disappearances of the "Truth Fellowship" Cult: Simon Kadwill, 45, Chantelle McDougall, 27, Leela McDougall, 5, and Tony Popic, 40

Missing people who have disappeared into cults?

Baffling mystery of a cult Nannup family of four who disappeared in 2007. What happened to them?

How can four people just vanish? Odd tales emerge in Nannup case

When four people disappeared from a blue farmhouse on the outskirts of the Western Australian town of Nannup in 2007, they left behind the scatterings of a life, a note pinned to their door and a question: was the disappearance a choice... or murder?

In season six of ABC’s multi-award winning Expanse podcast, host Dominique Bayens investigates how those left behind have come to terms with what happened.

It’s 1999, and a young American man is missing in the Australian outback. Police soon realise there’s something very strange about this case – the man appears to have plunged into the desert on purpose, and seemingly doesn’t want to be found.

A bombshell is dropped in US Congress that makes a lot of people start thinking about UFOs, now called UAP, differently. Danielle O’Neal tries to understand the implications of everything she’s heard and grapples with the unanswered questions.

Despite an alarming coincidence being uncovered in the government’s UFO files, a young intelligence officer recommends the files are closed and investigations shut down. Decades on, while the U.S. is taking a serious look at unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) the legacy of that decision has kept UFOs in the sneered-at periphery in Australia.

The Tully phenomena spreads, with unexplained circles starting to crop up around the country. Reports of them all are filed away by the RAAF in the secret UFO files. But, one young UFO researcher is determined to get access to those files and see just what they hold.

Hoards of people descend on the Pennisi property to take a look at this ‘saucer nest’, sending the family running for cover. Turns out, in the years to come that would be the least of their worries. Rumours of covert surveillance and odd happenings leave the people at the heart of this mystery looking over their shoulders.

On a hot morning under blue skies, a young banana farmer saw something he couldn’t explain that sent his pulse racing. It looked like a flying saucer and it left behind a mysterious mark. The chain of events it set off would change everything.

In 1966 a Queensland farmer thought he saw a UFO that left behind a real physical mark in some reeds. That sighting set off a chain of events that would haunt him for decades and leave a lot of unanswered questions.

Danielle O’Neal delves into what happens when people say seemingly unbelievable things.

Host Alex Barwick hears just how far Pine Gap’s reach is today, uncovers the secrets of stolen land and explores what it means for Australia to have a spy base hidden in the heart of the country. Host: Alex Barwick Supervising producer: Piia Wirsu Sound engineer and producer: Grant Wolter Executive producer: Blythe Moore Additional production and research: Elsa Silberstein Special thanks: Eric George, Robert Mailer, Tim Roxburgh, Jane Connors, Mark Maley, Elizabeth Beal, ABC Alice Springs, and everyone who agreed to speak with us Further reading: David Rosenberg - Inside Pine Gap Brian Toohey - Secret Kieran Finnane - Peace Crimes Desmond Ball - A Suitable Piece of Real Estate