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Trial by Water

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald·Hosted by Michael Bachelard·14 episodes

True CrimeSerialized investigationAustralian true crimeWrongful convictionCourtroom evidenceNewspaper-backedSeasonal

Trial by Water is an investigative podcast series about Robert Farquharson, who has been locked up for decades for an unthinkable crime: murdering his three sons in a dam on Father’s Day, 2005. Now scientists and lawyers are asking the question: did we get it wrong? And is this man in prison for a crime he didn’t commit?

Why listen

Trial by Water is a tightly reported Australian true crime documentary led by Michael Bachelard, built around the question of whether Robert Farquharson was wrongly convicted of murdering his three sons. It combines courtroom evidence, forensic disputes, witness memory, police assumptions, and family tragedy into a serialized investigation that rewards listeners who like careful reporting over sensationalism. It is a strong fit for fans of wrongful conviction stories, legal mysteries, and newspaper-backed investigative journalism.

Series(2)

Episodes

1 hr
Oct 31, 2025
Diagnosing Murder, Episode 4: The List

Kabir and Dipika's case reaches its dramatic conclusion. And, while officials say they're not keeping track of how many shaken baby cases there are in Australia, an unlikely duo – the loved ones of people imprisoned for shaking – work night and day to find out.  For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/podcast/diagnosingmurder. Subscribe now to theage.com.au or smh.com.au to access the special Good Weekend investigation.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

56 min
Oct 24, 2025
Diagnosing Murder, Episode 3: The Engine Room

Once forensic physicians believe a child might have been shaken, their next step is to look for a perpetrator. When they call in police and child protection, the investigation starts in earnest. It all starts inside Victoria's beloved Royal Children's hospital.  For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/podcast/diagnosingmurder. Subscribe now to theage.com.au or smh.com.au to access the special Good Weekend investigation.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1 hr
Oct 17, 2025
Diagnosing Murder, Episode 2: The Science

Doctors and lawyers can't come to a consensus on the science of shaken baby syndrome 50 years after it was first proposed as a theory. Does shaking a baby actually lead to the brain damage seen in historical and current cases? And why has the argument become so heated that some describe it as a war?   For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/podcast/diagnosingmurder. Subscribe now to theage.com.au or smh.com.au to access the special Good Weekend investigation.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

46 min
Oct 10, 2025
Diagnosing Murder, Episode 1: The Theory

One evening Kabir's baby stops breathing. When he and his wife Dipika rush to hospital, they expect their daughter will receive the best treatment possible. Instead, the doctors turn on them.  For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/podcast/diagnosingmurder. Subscribe now to theage.com.au or smh.com.au to access the special Good Weekend investigation.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3 min
Sep 28, 2025
Listen Next - Alva Beach: Death At The Door

If you're looking for your next investigative podcast, take a listen... One tragic night in 2018, what began as an NRL grand final party in a quiet town on the Queensland coast spiralled into a storm of lies, drunken embellishment and a bungled emergency response. By dawn, two men - Tom Davy & Corey Christensen - were dead, killed by a teenager they’d never met.  Seven years on, 60 Minutes’ Adam Hegarty has travelled to Alva Beach to uncover the truth behind one of Australia's most baffling legal cases that raises the burning question: How do two family men lose their lives, and no-one be held accountable? Through new interviews and hours of unheard recordings, this investigation digs deep into a case that still haunts families, confounds lawyers and raises troubling questions about justice in Australia. Listen on Spotify - Alva Beach: Death At The DoorListen on Apple Podcasts - Alva Beach: Death At The Door Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4 min
Sep 25, 2025
Introducing: Diagnosing Murder

For decades, families in Australia and overseas, have been accused of one of the worst crimes imaginable. Diagnosing Murder is an investigative podcast about parents who've had their children taken away, sat in the dock and even done time in prison. All for something they insist they didn't do – shake their baby. Can we trust the science behind shaken baby syndrome? Or are innocent people being locked up for a crime they never committed? Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/diagnosing-murder/id1843555473Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3LqYqSCZHW4vtA0yhiaJKB?si=f8c56f4b638b4a24Listen on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrLulycax358g-04ndbBaBg3ED4Dnyv0S&si=CVXIqoUI6AJ6DD5xSubscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

0 min
May 19, 2025
Coming soon - the 40/20 NRL podcast

40/20 is a brand new NRL podcast from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. During this year's State of Origin and Finals series we'll be breaking down the biggest stories from across the game with the best journalists and NRL insiders from around the country. We'll be giving you press pass access as we breakdown the latest news, controversy and performances from the biggest matches in the Rugby League calendar. To listen to our episodes as soon as they drop follow 40/20 wherever you listen to podcasts.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 min
Apr 6, 2025Episode 8
Bonus Episode: Farquharson Inside

Robert Farquharson has now spent nearly two decades in prison for murdering his three sons. We've made multiple requests to Corrections Victoria to interview Farquharson, but each request has been turned down. So today, we turn to two of his longest-standing supporters, who speak to and visit Farquharson regularly, to understand what his life is like on the inside.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 min
Dec 19, 2024
Bonus Episode: The Psych Report

When we first released this podcast, we found a gaping hole in the evidence against Robert Farquharson. It seemed like nobody had done a psychological evaluation of a man who was said to have murdered his three sons out of a desire for revenge. But now, a Freedom of Information request we submitted to police has come back. It turns out there was a psychological report -- of sorts. So what did it say? And what was its effect on the case?Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

40 min
Jul 25, 2024Episode 6
Bonus Episode: Your questions answered

Since releasing the Trial by Water podcast, we’ve been contacted by a lot of people. Some have wanted to ask questions, some to give feedback – positive and negative – and others to tell their stories.  The evidence in this case is so broad-ranging that we couldn’t touch on everything in the series itself. But there are themes to the questions and comments, so in this bonus episode, Trial by Water host Michael Bachelard sits down with the show's executive producer, Ruby Schwartz, to talk through some of those questions. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

56 min
Jul 5, 2024Episode 5
The Golden Thread

As lawyer Luke McMahon prepares a new fight for Robert Farquharson’s release, we discover something new: that Farquharson and his ex-wife believed that police investigators were trying to pin the crime on him just days after the crash. So would it be a problem if the system had a strong impression, right from the start, that Farquharson was guilty? For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/trialbywater or smh.com.au/trialbywater. Subscribe now to access the special Good Weekend investigation, which features never-before-seen 3D models recreating key scientific evidence, video, audio and other interviews.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

58 min
Jun 28, 2024Episode 4
The Dad Test

In the story of Robert Farquharson, there's one thing that’s hardest to understand: his behaviour in the minutes and hours after the crash. Because on that night, his actions seemed so far outside normal behaviour for a father that the police, the media and the general public all came to the conclusion that he must have murdered his three sons. But is that true? Or is there some other explanation for his unsettling behaviour that night? For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/trialbywater or smh.com.au/trialbywater. Subscribe now to access the special Good Weekend investigation, which features never-before-seen 3D models recreating key scientific evidence, video, audio and other interviews.   The original version of this episode included a re-enactment of parts of Robert Farquharson's formal police interview. We decided to do the re-enactment because of a legal threat from Victoria Police that we would be in breach of a 2009 law, and potentially liable for imprisonment, if we included the audio of the original interview. But since then we’ve clarified that parliament never intended the law to apply to old recordings, so we’ve replaced that re-enactment with the actual interview of Robert Farquharson.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

57 min
Jun 21, 2024Episode 3
Bad Memories

There were two key witnesses in the Robert Farquharson case. The first was Greg King, an old friend of Farquharson, and the story he told provided police with something they desperately wanted for their case - a motive for murder. The other witness, Dawn Waite, came forward four years after the crash. She said she had actually seen Robert Farquharson on the night of the crash, as he was sizing up his exit from the road. But how reliable are they? And how much can we trust our memories? For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/trialbywater or smh.com.au/trialbywater.  Subscribe now to access the special Good Weekend investigation, which features never-before-seen 3D models recreating key scientific evidence, video, audio and other interviews.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

58 min
Jun 14, 2024Episode 2
Strands of the Rope

A day after Robert Farquharson drove his car into the dam with his three sons, the homicide squad took over the investigation. Sceptical of his story and suspecting Farquharson's motive was revenge, they began delving into every aspect of his account. Had he really coughed and passed out? Or would the evidence show he deliberately steered off the road and into the dam to murder his children? For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/trialbywater or smh.com.au/trialbywater. Subscribe now to access the special Good Weekend investigation, which features never-before-seen 3D models recreating key scientific evidence, video, audio and other interviews.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

56 min
May 31, 2024Episode 1
Trial By Water, Episode 1: Father's Day

On Father’s Day, 2005, Robert Farquharson crashed his car into a dam. He survived, but his three children who were in the car with him didn’t. At first it seemed like a tragic accident. But quickly, it turned into a murder investigation.   For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/podcast/trialbywater or smh.com.au/podcast/trialbywater. Subscribe now to access the special Good Weekend investigation, which features never-before-seen 3D models recreating key scientific evidence, video, audio and other interviews.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4 min
May 26, 2024
Introducing: Trial by Water

From The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Trial by Water is a new investigative podcast series about Robert Farquharson, who has been locked up for decades for an unthinkable crime: murdering his three sons in a dam on Father’s Day, 2005. Now scientists and lawyers are asking the question: did we get it wrong? And is this man in prison for a crime he didn’t commit? Episode 1 will arrive on Saturday, June 1.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.