The Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler

Frank Burkin and Kevin Garr both joined the RAAF when they were young boys and after training as armourers they expected to join a squadron, working close to the military action. However, they both found themselves part of a top secret operation handling toxic chemicals, like mustard gas and phosgene.

Alison told Richard on Thursday's Conversation Hour that she was born on the kitchen table, delivered by her grandmother, in the cottage at Back-O-Hill. The name means simply 'back of the hill', which was in reality some fields and a road and their cottage. It's in Scotland, "in the middle of nowhere".

Every minute of every day someone in the country dials the number 13 11 14. It's the number of the Lifeline telephone counselling service, that's available every hour, every day of the year.

Dr Keith Suter is no stranger to the media - he's often commenting on radio and television about terrorism, warfare and national security. He's highly sought-after because he has a knack for explaining big, tangled messy issues clearly and concisely, without undermining the complexity of the thing.

Of all the nicknames you could choose for yourself, 'Dr Death' isn't probably going to be high on your list. But it's often one used in association with Monday's Conversation Hour guest -voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitchske.

Two guests on the Conversation Hour today. Firstly Anne Henderson, from the Sydney Institute, who's been looking into the life of the extraordinary Enid Lyons. And a very different political figure but one also right at the forefront of the federal political scene -one of the country's leading lobbyists, Bruce Hawker.

On the Conversation Hour today, private detective Keith Schafferius talks about his years specialising in child retrieval. Over the last three decades he's slipped in to countries like Poland, Yemen and the Phillipines to retrieve children for a deeply-anxious mother or father.

Tony Kevin is a Canberra-based retired diplomat. He's in his 60s, with a wife and young children, and last year, he undertook an enormous challenge; he walked across Spain, from Andalusia in the south, all the way to the north, following a "camino", an old pilgrim's route.

Tony Kevin is a Canberra-based retired diplomat. He's in his 60s, with a wife and young children, and last year, he undertook an enormous challenge - he walked across Spain, from Andalusia in the south, all the way to the north, following an old pilgrim's route called a "camino". He came back feeling happier, fitter and thinner than he'd been in years, and tells his story in a new book called Walking the Camino.

The two Johns on the Conversation Hour - John Coggan, the hear transplant farmer who recently broke the Guiness World Record for planting the largest paddock of wheat in the world, and Professor John Fraser the transplant doctor who sat by John's bedside for weeks as he hovered between life and death.

Rob McConchie is known as one of ABC Radio's 'Living Treasures'. For twenty five years working in the rural department she's covered natural catastrophes like drought, floods, cyclones and fires - and a few man-made dramas as well, working as chief rural political correspondent in Canberra.

Andy Vestey, Gary Hall and Elizabeth Anderson are foster parents, who between them currently have twelve children in their care. Children who are fostered invariably come from adverse situations in their own families - often they're malnourished, neglected, or abused and it takes a lot of work by the foster parent to earn the trust of the child and make them feel secure and loved.

Matt Cunnington is one of Australia's most sought-after tattooists. When he was growing up there were some golden rules set down by his parents: don't smoke, don't shoplift - and don't get a tattoo. But Matt's fascination got the better of him.

Richard Fidler is back with the Conversation Hour this morning. Today his guest is a man Richard met on his travels up north -veteran sports broadcaster Charlie King. Charlie was born in Alice Spring to an Aboriginal mother and Irish father -their love story is an amazing one in itself and one that Charlie never tires of telling! Charlie grew up a mad sports lover but never imagined he'd be able to earn his living at it.

Tania Major was the 2007 Young Australian of the Year, but first came to public attention several years ago as the youngest person ever elected to ATSIC. Tania tellls her story to Richard Fidler today. Then we hear from Joan Sauers who has just published her new book on "The Sex Lives of Australian Women" - the anonymous and very candid comments from nearly two thousand Australian women.

Tiffany Bond always wanted to join the police force. When she was a little girl she used to read Nancy Drew and the Famous Five, but she identifed most with Trixie Belden, the girl detective. Tiffany used to pretend to be a cop but she doesn't know where the fascination came from "no one in my family was with the police or anything."

Gillian Calvert is a voice for children and a defender of their rights while Ian Moss is a man whose voice and ability on the guitar have earned him the title of "legend" in the rock n' roll industry. Both Gillian and Ian are Angela's guests on the Conversation Hour today.

Ju Ju Sundin is a leading educator in childbirth preparation and has spent more than 30 years supporting and teaching women here in Australia and overseas.

Richard Kingsford is an Environmental Scientist with a passion for birds and water. Over twenty-two years, he's travelled thousands of kilometres, flying just above the water, counting birds. The aerial bird surveys, for which he's renowned, have shown a dramatic collapse in numbers, due not just to the drought but also the effect of diverting water for irrigation.

Neil Balnaves and Dr Gordion Fulde - Neil Balnaves has worked for more than 40 years in the entertainment and media industry producing some of Australian TV's best know hit dramas including Police Rescue, Blue Heelers, Water Rats and Blue Murder. Dr Gordion Fulde is known as the father of Emergency Medicine in Australia, Gordian is the longest Director of an Emegency Department in a major hospital in Australia.

The retiring Democrats Senator, Natasha Stott-Despoja, officially finished her term as of midnight on Monday 30 June. Natasha entered the house at the age of 26 years, the youngest female ever to enter parliament.

Artist, Sally Bin Demin grew up in Broome in the years after the war, learning the traditions of many differerent cultures, and loving the pure environment , with the rich blue ocean, the red earth and the brilliant sunsets - which today inspire her work. Roz Smith left the suburbs of Sydney to live in the wild , prospecting for gold, hunting wild pigs for food and washing in the river. And wait until you hear about her very unusual collection. It may make your eyes water!

Antoine Bloeman was perhaps the hardest-working magistrate in our legal system. In the course of his working week he would fly up to four thousand kilometres across the Kimberley. Susan Bradley is another Kimberley identity. She came to the area over 30 years ago and is now deeply imbedded in the place, known by pretty much everyone as "The Queen of the Kimberley".

The ABC's forum on the changing face of Northern Australia was held in Darwin today. Nowhere are those changes more apparent than in the Territory capital, and its feel is like nowhere else in the country. It's a mix of the wild old frontier Australia, and the ancient and enduring Aboriginal culture with a fair bit of the spice of South East Asia.

Richard Fidler continues his Conversations from the North and today two international guests - President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta and Wimar Witoelar, satirical journalist, public affairs commentator and key advisor to former President Abdurahman Wahid.

On his first week of programs from Northern Australia, Richard's first guest is Cooktown geologist, musician and adventurer Gav Dear. The lure of the north got him out of university in Brisbane in his teens sending him on a course of adventure through the Territory and the Kimberley and northern Queensland.

Dr Veruthaslam Padayachey has lived and practised as a doctor in the Queensland town of Maryborough for thirty years. In an earlier life he worked in South Africa escaping the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa with the secret police threatening and intimidating him right up until the moment he got out.

More than 17,000 Australian servicemen and women served in the conflict between North and South Korea from 1950 to 1953 - yet it remains a little known chapter in our proud ANZAC history. The efforts of those men and women were unacknowledged for so long, the Korean War came to be known as "The Forgotten War".

Paul Thomson is an inspirational educator. I was lucky enough to stand on the shoulders of a few giants who taught me how to think in a philosophical way. Not to have the right answers all the time but at least to look for them. To have a philosophy which recognises and values above all else the rights of a child.

Peter Russo describes himself as an ordinary guy, but he's no ordinary lawyer. And Fiona O'Loughlin is no ordinary comedienne.