Trial By Water, Episode 1: Father’s Day

Trial by Water, Episode 2 will be available exclusively to subscribers from this Saturday, June 8, and on your podcast app of choice from June 15.

If you were in Australia after about 2005, you’ll probably remember the Robert Farquharson case. He was the dad who drove his three sons into a dam on Father’s Day. He got out of the car, but the boys didn’t. All three of the children drowned.

The case was in and out of the courts for years. And for the whole time, Robert Farquharson insisted it was an accident. Police were equally sure he drove them into the water deliberately.

In 2010, Farquharson was convicted of triple murder. But 14 years after the gate slammed on Farquharson, he and a small band of supporters continue to insist he’s innocent. In the past few years, a group of scientists, lawyers and doctors has joined them. They’re suggesting that the evidence doesn’t stack up, and asking: what if the system got it wrong here?

This question, and many others, are the basis of Trial by Water, a new five-part podcast investigation from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Bryan Kennedy was the best mate of Tyler, Farquharson’s middle son. He told us on the podcast of his disbelief when it was first suggested to him that Farquharson was suspected of murdering the boys.

“[My father said:] ‘Listen, Rob’s in trouble.’ I was like, ‘What the f— do you mean he’s in trouble?’ And they’re like, ‘Well, they reckon he might have done it deliberately.’ And I was like, ‘Wow – what?’

“Because I know what Rob was like. And I cannot imagine him doing it.