Happy New Year to all our RN listeners and readers. We hope you celebrated in style.

To ring in 2022, we're bringing you a host of exciting new stories, along with some highlights from last year, which you might have missed. 

Since the pandemic started, it's felt like Australia's states have more power than ever. But a dig through Australia's past reveals our federation hasn't always been smooth sailing. So what might the future hold?

Then, unleash your inner Sherlock Holmes to explore the "horror radio" murder of the 1940s, when a man was convicted of murdering his colleague over his unsavoury choice of radio station. Fresh archival documents lend new insights into this fascinating and unusual case.

Finally, catch up on ABC podcast, Days Like These, which hands over the microphone to one unique individual each episode to tell their personal story.

From the inhospitable landscapes of post-revolution Iran to the icy waters of the Thredbo River, travel far and wide to hear their true tales of escape, adventure, love, disaster and triumph.
 

Until next time,

Anna Levy, deputy digital editor
 

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Australia's Federation has always been an uneasy alliance, some historians say. After all, the nation was a little over three decades old when Western Australia voted to secede.

In 1946, Trevor McKenzie was sentenced to death for murdering a man over, among other things, his choice of radio station. Archival documents, opened to the public for the first time, shed new light on this 75-year-old murder.

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In the last 12 months, drownings in Australia have risen by 20 per cent, and not always in the places you might assume. It's more important than ever to heed these experts' water safety advice.