Re:sound #180 The Tit for Tat Show

This hour: the story of Sandra Willson.

2013 / TCF / WBEZ 91.5, USA


This hour: the story of Sandra Willson.

Tit for Tat: The Story of Sandra Willson
by Catherine Freyne, with sound engineer, Phillip Ullman (Hindsight [ABC Radio National], 2011)
In Australia, Sandra Willson is known for many things: she established the first halfway house for women leaving prison, she was a consultant on a popular TV series and an important figure in the gay rights movement. When Willson died in 1999, she left behind an unpublished memoir and a slew of personal papers. From these sources as well as archival interview tape, producer Catherine Freyne tells the story of Willson's life, from the murder that put her in prison to her later activism. Readings from Willson's memoirs are done by actor, Linda Cropper.

This episode of Re:sound was produced by Katie Mingle.

produced by

Catherine Freyne

Catherine Freyne has been making social history documentaries at ABC Radio National since 2008. In 2010 Catherine was the SMSA-sponsored writer at the Dictionary of Sydney. In 2011 she curated the ABC Innovation/ ABC Archives online project 80 Days That Changed Our Lives. In 2012 she won the NSW Premier’s History Award in the multimedia category for her Hindsight documentary Tit for Tat: The Story of Sandra Willson. She likes Muriel Rukeyser’s notion that ‘the universe is made of stories not atoms’ and has a particular penchant for the true ones. She loves birds, underdogs and primary sources.


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