This week, join us on a trip back in time.

First, we're heading to Brisbane in the 1950s.

Vice is everywhere: brothels, gambling and drug dens litter the city, ruled through extortion and racketeering. At the helm is a band of crooked cops, notorious for violence.

But the women they exploit — sex workers, madams and vice entrepreneurs — have had enough. One by one, they'll take on an empire of corruption, until it's brought to its knees.

Dive in to our gripping long read, or tune in to the podcast, Dig: Sirens Are Coming, hosted by veteran crime reporter, Matt Condon.

Then, join Background Briefing in an investigation into how South-East Asian art sold in Australia passed through the hands of a suspected smuggler.

New evidence uncovered by the ABC has linked many Thai and Cambodian artworks sold here to looted historic sites and a shady Bangkok dealer.

The revelations potentially taint the supply chain of works in public and private collections in Australia and abroad.

And finally, explore the fascinating history of surgery, from Stone Age lobotomies and the "barber-surgeons" of the Middle Ages to the high-tech robotics employed today.


Until next time, 

Anna Levy, deputy digital editor
 

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Sitting on this bench in 1971, Dorothy Edith Knight was the first person in Queensland to wear a wire. She was a young sex worker at the epicentre of a police sting.

New evidence uncovered by the ABC has linked many Thai and Cambodian artworks sold in Australia back to looted temple sites and a shady Bangkok dealer. 

Without modern luxuries like anaesthetics, surgery in the past was a bloody, violent and largely unsuccessful affair.