About the documentary
In the early seventies, homosexuality was a crime throughout the country.
That’s why men like Dr George Duncan were forced to meet other gay men in secret. One of Adelaide’s beats lay along the banks of the River Torrens, but it was a dangerous place. The Vice Squad, a special police unit designed to stop crimes of immorality and depravity, was known to patrol the river-side in search of lawbreakers. It was considered “sport” to throw suspected homosexuals into the river, but this humiliating act of violence turned deadly one autumn night in 1972. Dr Duncan, a Law Professor at the University of Adelaide, was the victim of such an attack. A non swimmer, who’d lost one lung to tuberculosis as a child, Dr Duncan drowned that night.
His death rallied the gay community and state politicians and sparked a chain of events that would ultimately lead to the 1975 decriminalisation of homosexuality in South Australia, the first Australian state to do so. A mistrial and botched investigation by Scotland Yard meant that former members of the Vice Squad suspected of his murder were never convicted.
This radio documentary was made thirty years later, in 2002. It tells of the chilling yet enlightening search for truth in the voices of the gay community who lived through the times and those who came after.
Credits
The Killing of Doctor George was produced and presented by Nicky Page at Radio Adelaide in 2002, with producers from The Aqueerium: Logan Bold, Diana Hopkinson, Lex Lindsay, Rebel Rogers and Raymond Zada
Featuring: Malcolm Cowan, Ray Goodlass, Dr Jill Matthews, Dr Deborah McCulloch, Dr David Hilliard, Ian Purcell, Gary Spence, Asta Cox, Dr Michael Pilling, and Sandra Kanck
First broadcast on The Aqueerium, May 11 2002
Re-broadcast on Sound Seekers, December 26 2012
