Episodes

Internationally celebrated actor Geoffrey Rush believes he hails from a long line of farmers but an exploration of his heritage sees him discover an ancestor fighting for justice in the face of corruption and another desperate to succeed in a golden age of creativity.

Actor Toni Collette delves into the enigma of her grandparents and uncovers a tale of abandonment and tragedy, a secret wartime affair, and an unexpected ancestor. A DNA test serves only to deepen the mystery.

Successful Chef and Restaurateur, Luke Nguyen discovers his Grandfather had a wife and child in China, who he left behind, when he migrated to Vietnam and began a second family. Luke searches a remote corner of China to bring this long lost family back into the fold. He then travels to Vietnam and looks into the troubled history of his parents’ homeland, searching for clues to explain his own painful past.

Actor David Wenham rose to fame as ‘Diver Dan’ in the long-running TV series SeaChange. He has inhabited countless characters in a 30-year career spanning theatre, TV and film but the characters in David’s own bloodline remain largely unknown to him.

Sporting legend Dawn Fraser is a hands-on grandmother who wants to know more about her own grandparents. This Aussie icon discovers she has South American heritage.

Comedian Peter Rowsthorn turns his humour on his first Australian family – finding ancestors with a knack for stealing. Then a long held family secret is revealed with Peter investigating his grandfather’s mysterious death. The new connection to a grandfather he never met sees Peter pondering whether to change his surname to better reflect his real heritage.

Iconic entertainer Greig Pickhaver, known for his comedic alter ego HG Nelson, investigates the leading characters in his family history. His search uncovers a great-grandfather, Samuel Rinder, who in the late 19th century, made his fortune as a sheep trader during Bendigo’s boom years. As a wealthy man about town, Rinder spent much of his time and money down at the racetrack, but when economic recession loomed, he turned to crime.

A lifetime spent in journalism has seen Ray Martin witness some of the defining moments of his time. Looking into his own history he finds his forbears too were on the frontline of nation shaping events - discovering an ancestor at the scene of Australia's greatest armed rebellion. On his maternal side he walks in the footprints of his Indigenous ancestors to solve a long-standing family mystery. And he follows his convict trail back to Ireland to find a notorious bandit with a rebel heart.

The program brings together the best moments of this award winning genealogical series combined with revealing insights on what it was like to take part in the show from Adam Hills, Magda Szubanski, Adam Goodes, Richard Roxburgh, Kerry O'Brien, Tina Arena, Maggie Beer and Vince Colosimo. The retrospective shines a light on Australia's cultural and historical past, and gives the viewer a real sense of how profound the journey has been for many of the Australians who have taken part.