Behind the curtain: Our life in Morwell

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A changing season in Morwell.

I'm ABC Investigative Reporter Rachel Brown.

And I'm Stephen Stockwell.

It is Friday, the 4th of July, and we're on to the fifth day of jury deliberations in the trial of Erin Patterson.

Welcome to Mushroom Case Daily.

The small town mystery that's gripped the nation and made headlines around the world.

On the menu was Beef Wellington, a pastry filled with beef and a pate made of mushrooms.

At the heart of this case will be the jury's interpretation of Erin Patterson's intentions.

12 men and women have begun the process of determining Erin Patterson's fate.

It's a tragedy what covered me.

I love them.

Rach, we have been living in Morwall now for 10 weeks, waking up to the view of the rolling hills either side of the Latrobe Valley, framing the steam that pours from the Loyang power station.

And Stocky, I remember the other day it had a purple tinge and you thought it might be like the papal decision.

The steam changes colour when the jury has a verdict.

Correct.

I haven't seen any other changes yet, so we wait.

The other thing I've noticed outside the window but outside court for

is the changing colour of the leaves.

So when we came the tree, there's this beautiful tree outside court for all green, bushy, and then we watched it slowly turn to reds and yellows and now not many leaves are left on that tree.

I was also looking out the window of court yesterday and saw a tree that had completely lost all of its leaves.

You've been here for an entire season, Stocky.

We have, we've had a lot of questions about what it's been like living in Maul as we've been making this podcast.

So we thought we'd tell you a little bit about what it's been like and how we've been kind of living as we put this together.

Like this is really Rach our life at the moment.

We have been here for just over two months now.

We've been covering the trial there in Patterson.

We are working during the day.

We're at court all day.

Then at night, we come home to the studio to record the pod.

And that studio is also the house that we live in.

And so we are living in the same place that we're working.

We live in our office.

The circle continues.

And it is interesting because when we cover cases at home, we can go home to our lives or the gym or our friends.

And one of the court liaison staff last night was going to a play rehearsal.

And I thought, oh, that's right.

People have lives and do things and we just come back and work.

But it's an interesting...

We're in this kind of microcosm, aren't we, Stocky, where this is all we do and all we talk about.

And so we're so immensely, deeply engrossed in it now.

I've been thinking about how much I know and how much I've learned over the last month and it is all related entirely to one thing.

But one of the other things that I've learned a lot about is the lovely town of Moor, the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland generally where we've been living and we've had so many questions from people asking what it has been like living here for this period of time and what Moor was like as well.

What Gippsland's like, what this area is like, how people have found this.

And so we wanted to answer some of those questions while we have some time.

We're waiting for the jury to consider their verdict.

Yeah, I'm lucky, Stocky, because I used to work here.

So when I was a baby cadet, I was based at ABC Gippsland, and so I read the news at Sale.

So it has been a really nice chance to come back, not to Sale, but back to Morwell and live in a different part of the community.

Yeah, we've got a question here from Libby, and Rachel, you're uniquely positioned with your experience here to give us an insight into this.

Libby says, Hi, Rachel and Stockie, thanks for the absolutely captivating podcast.

I've been tuning in, and even my 11-year-old son is intrigued to listen.

I live on the Sunshine Coast now, but lived for many years in the Morwell area.

I'd love to know what effect the case has had on the local town.

What do the locals think?

Yeah, Stocky, the case itself

is just the topic of conversation everywhere we go.

You know, the good, the bad, the ugly.

And everyone has an opinion.

I'm not going to say what those are, but we hear it everywhere we go.

And it has deeply affected, personally,

communities in Gippsland, particularly in Corranborough.

And so I hope this podcast has never shied away from from that because three people lost their lives Heather Gail and Don and Ian Wilkinson very nearly lost his as well so these communities have been deeply scarred and we've never forgotten that and I also

I feel for them because they had the Jaden Lesky case in Maui and that stigma unfortunately and unfairly has never really left Moe I don't think and I did worry about South Gippsland and whether this case you know might affect opinions opinions of these communities as well.

I don't think it's had the same negative effect.

And maybe we were saying yesterday the trial is in Morwell, but the lunch was in Lee and Gatha and the families were from Curromborough.

So perhaps it hasn't stuck just to one town.

What do you think?

When we got here,

I didn't want to kind of raise this as a topic of conversation with people when we were talking to people in the street and cafes around town just because I didn't want to kind of bring it up if it wasn't something they wanted to talk about.

But what I've found is that people are quite happy to kind of like

volunteer their opinions on the case, is the way that I frame it.

So, you know, they're quite happy to kind of start that conversation once they know what you're here for.

So, you know, I don't go around saying I work at the ABC, I'm covering the trial of Aaron Patterson.

Often, people, you know, after you go somewhere a few times and they haven't seen you before, go, oh, what are you doing in town?

You go, I'm here, I work for the ABC.

And they're like, oh, what are you doing?

And it kind of comes out.

And then they will, you know, quite often, quite happily, just volunteer an opinion on what they think has happened or ask what I think is going on and how that might turn out.

I think it's lucky the trial and it couldn't have been held there but that it wasn't held in Corranborough because I think it would have been a different situation.

The scars are still quite deep there.

Yeah.

Thank you for your wonderful question Libby.

Thank you Rach.

Another question here from Penny in Hobart.

Hi Mushroom Case Daly.

Thanks for the reporting and insights.

Well done.

I have a couple of questions.

As Morwill is a small country town and there are many people closely involved in the case how hard was it to get a jury of 15 people who have no prior contact or knowledge of any of the victims or family of the victims?

I don't actually know how hard, but I could try to guess by the time that impanelment took.

We were worried it might take a long time.

So they start with a big pool just in case people know

some of the victims or perhaps the accused or even

police officers in the case, Stocky.

They don't want any real strong connections to anything in the case.

So we thought they might go through

a long, protracted impanelment process.

But at the start of that process, we weren't allowed to sit through that this time.

So, you know.

But at the start of that, they were told, you know, tell us if you know anyone.

Anyone who's listened to media coverage or listened to podcasts, you should recuse yourself.

But the process was actually a lot quicker than I thought.

Penny's question continues on.

Penny asks, how is Mulwell itself affected?

Are the cafes, hotels, restaurants full?

Is it a boom business for the service industry in the town with so many reporters and court officials staying?

Yeah, you would think it would be, wouldn't you?

And it probably is, but I have a

chuckle in my voice because we said that to someone, oh, you're going to go under when we go.

And it was a beautiful girl in a cafe and she said, oh, honestly, we're looking forward to it.

We're two staffed down.

We don't know how much longer we can keep this up.

Yeah, no, it's been great.

There's a few cafes around the court that would have done very well out of this, I reckon.

But there aren't actually really that many of us when you bring out the total pool.

And it's not like the population of Morwell's descended on it again.

You've got less than kind of probably about 40, 50 people extra in town when you look at the media, another 20 from the court staff.

That's the kind of extra number of people that are here.

Some of those people are staying in Tralgon as well.

What I was going to say, we're spreading ourselves across the pubs and cafes of Tralgan and Morwell.

Yeah.

A question here from Duncan in Brunswick, which is in Melbourne.

He says, hello, Rachel and Stocky.

Thank you for your very informative and entertaining podcast.

I understand the press are staying in Morwell.

Are the lawyers staying there too?

And Justice Beale, do they have special quarters or do they travel up and down to Melbourne each day?

I won't tell you where they're staying.

I don't think they will appreciate that.

But the lawyers and Justice Beale, I understand, are spread over Morwell and Tarelgan, just like us.

Yes, they are staying down here.

They're here.

I think they go home on weekends, like we do sometimes.

But yeah, for the most part, they're here.

Question here from Dave in Geelong, similar vein.

Hi, all.

Absolutely loving the Mushroom Case Daily podcast.

You've painted a fantastic and detailed picture of the proceedings inside the courtroom, but we're fascinated by what's going on outside the the courtroom.

I'm wondering if you can give us some insights, including he's listed a few questions.

Let's just answer the ones that we want to.

Rach, where is everyone staying, eating, relaxing?

How does everyone travel to and from court?

What's the vibe in Morwell?

What's happening at the pubs and clubs?

I'm lucky.

I have a driver, Dave, and his name is Stocky.

So we wake up, we talk through the plan for the day, have breakfast, and then Stocky thankfully drives me into court every morning.

I don't think we've had to catch many Ubers, Ubers, have we, Stocky?

We caught one to Turalgon once.

We just usually have sometimes breakfast at one of the two nearby cafes, definitely lunch there.

I've had some amazing soups

during this cold weather.

And where's everyone staying, Stocky?

So there's like a combination of places.

So we've got people in hotels, you know, rented accommodation, houses, the like.

So it's sort of spread across.

And, you know, the people who've got, you know, what I've noticed in the kind of divide is that a lot of the broadcast media, so the TV, the radio, journalists are based in Moore because they've got to be a bit closer to the courtroom for live crosses and things like that.

And more of the print journals, so your papers, so, you know, The Age, The Australian, The Daily Mail, they're based in Taralgon.

And some of the other podcasters who are out there.

And some of the other podcasters.

There's been a move around as people's, you know, this trial's continued for longer than we're expecting.

Dave, wonderful question.

Thank you, Rach.

Question here from Hannah Lauren Ingrid from Fitzroy in Melbourne.

Hey, Stocky and Rachel, we love the pod.

We assume you stay in Moore all over the weekend.

What do you guys get up to in your spare time in the area?

Well actually we've been hitting home for a lot of the weekends, Sana Lauren and Ingrid.

So we are here during the week often traveling to Morwell on the Sunday night.

So we're fresh on Monday morning.

So we'll come in on Sunday night and then we'll work through.

We'll produce the episodes that we've been doing on Fridays, record them, get them published, and then jump in the car and head back to Melbourne to spend a couple of nights with our friends and families in our own beds.

So that's what's what's happening there.

I have, you know, in some of the spare time that we've had, I have stayed down.

I had a wonderful weekend out on Waratar Ridge, South Gippsland recently, exploring Wilson's promotory, which was absolutely delightful.

And outside of that, you know, trying to go for a swim, a bit of a walk, a bit of a run, things like that.

Rach, how about yourself?

Sadly, for the first...

six weeks or eight weeks of this trial, I think I was heading home but spent it in hospital.

One of my family members has been quite sick.

So Stocky, I've been spending my time either in a courtroom or a hospital room.

But I wanted to give a shout out to the amazing staff at John Faulkner Hospital.

The care they show people in there is incredible.

So thank you very much for looking after my family member.

And it also reminded me watching them of the incredible people, Stocky, that we've seen come through the trial and give evidence from Coramborough, Lee and Gather, Dandenong and the Austin Hospital.

It's a rare breed of angels that can do that job.

So a big shout out to them.

But yeah, I have been spending most of my weekends at home this weekend.

Maybe if the jury is still sitting, I'll spend it here.

I was talking to one of my colleagues last night about maybe going up to one of the ski fields.

Yep, if we're still here on Sunday, my plan is to go for a walk somewhere, exploring the wonderful hills either side of the La Tro Valley that I mentioned earlier, or down to Wilson's Prom.

Question here, Rach, from Sarah in Warrigal.

Hi, team, absolutely love the pod.

What's one thing that you would recommend people to pull off the freeway and have a break?

Also, if you haven't been to Lock, it's a lovely spot.

Definitely worth a drive with or without iNaturalist.

Well, Sarah, the thing I would recommend, and it's actually a pretty easy drive if you pull off the highway to head into Morwell, take the first exit to Morwell when you're heading down the freeway from Melbourne, cruise into town, and there is a beautiful rose garden just near the courthouse, actually.

So I'd recommend going through that.

The timing might not be great.

I think they've actually just pruned it.

So, you know, there's still a few there, but it's, you know, it's looking a little different to what it was when we arrived.

But it's a spot where I have tried to find time to go for a wander through some afternoons to get a bit of fresh air, a bit of a break from some of the proceedings that we've been following in court.

And that is where Funky Tom May went for a walk that morning, I think, maybe.

Yeah, I've just made that assumption.

I don't know if that's where he went for that walk, but it's close by.

It's an obvious spot.

It's beautiful.

It's under a blanket of fog this morning.

It is.

But it is stunning.

I like on the drive back to Morwell, and I used to do this on the way to Sale as well, just coming into Yarrogen.

If you turn to your right, not for too long, keep your eyes on the road but it's just this picture postcard rolling hills dairy cows I just loved that view and it's a beautiful little town so that would be my recommendation thank you Rach thank you Sarah wonderful question yeah well worth popping in and just finding out a bit about more if you're if you're ever going past it is an easy little jaunt off of the highway question here Rach Ange in Sydney loving the pod thanks for all the in-depth coverage early on you mentioned there was a lot of media and an overflow room a media room at the the court this week you said you'd been able to spend some time with some people from other networks.

Is there interest from around the world or is it just Australian media?

How do you all get on?

Is it friendly or competitive?

Well, Ange, we've been spending time with the media the whole time we've been here.

We're all in a room together.

I think I mentioned in an episode about a week or so ago, I spend more time with, you know, other media from Channel 10, Channel 7, The Guardian, The Australian than I have with other ABC colleagues.

There's obviously ABC colleagues in the room that I'm spending time with as well, but anyone who's not here covering the case, I have not seen basically for 10 weeks.

And it is very friendly.

One of the things that's really interesting about court reporting is that there is no exclusive.

We can't break any news around this.

Like we're all getting the same thing.

We can't report anything outside of what's being heard in the courtroom.

So we're all working off of the same information.

We're just making sure we're getting it to as many people as we can through all the different networks.

And so it is quite collegiate.

Yeah, I thought about this last night, why we're all such good mates.

And I think it does have a lot to do with that, that we're working off the same textbook.

We can't can't tell you anything the jury doesn't hear.

So no one's racing off to find people that might know more that we can bring you because we're just not allowed.

I don't know whether that will change after the trial, but certainly we have to stick to a certain script while we're here.

And everyone generally has been.

quite great at doing that.

Yeah, everyone's been wonderful.

The one thing I have been thinking is that, you know, while we're all getting along really well at the moment,

when the you know, when we hear about the verdict, as we're all trying to get basically a good spot, how far that that collegiality extends

in those moments.

But I was talking to another ABC reporter last night about how we, you know, how close we've all become through this whole process and how we'll look back on this.

So it's been one of the most lovely things for me, actually, that this community and the ecosystem we're in

with our colleagues and the other networks, but also

most of what we've been talking about in this episode, Stocky, is the community and the townspeople and the friendships that we've made there.

Yeah, yeah, and that's it.

It's not just the community and the collegiality that we get and we experience from other media.

It is the people in Morwell as well.

They're a part of that.

We've got a list of people that we'll shout out towards the end of the year because we've made some really wonderful friends here, some people that have really looked after us.

We'll be coming back.

Sorry, Morwell.

We absolutely will be.

Also to Angel's question about

interest from around the world.

There's the BBC here.

Who else do we have?

We've got The Guardian covering it for here and also abroad.

Daily Mail's got people people over from the UK at the moment.

Reuters is here.

I think a couple of people from Reuters are here at the moment as well, actually.

And then we also get a lot of emails, requests for crosses from Stocky and I from networks overseas, anywhere from UK, US, Ireland.

Yep.

Yeah, there's been a whole bevy of people interested in this case.

There is a, yeah, really is global interest in this one.

Wonderful question, Ange.

Thank you, Rach.

Laura from Byron Bay.

She is living in London at the moment, though.

She says she was once an associate to a Supreme Court judge in New South Wales, but is long out of the law now.

My question is about your own level of emotion, often expressed on the podcast as you go through this experience, and particularly while waiting for the verdict.

You say how tense and on-edge you are.

You are clearly invested in the outcome, and I'm interested to know how you can explain this.

You cannot hope for one result or the other.

Whichever way it goes, some families will be devastated.

Yeah, Laura, you are spot on.

This is, you know, the families will be devastated either way.

You know, this is a case that is involved, that is, only here because three people have died.

It's had a huge impact on two towns.

And it's interested, you know,

you say we're invested in the outcome.

I was thinking about this last night and I actually realized I don't have an investment in the outcome.

Like I'm not weighted one way or the other in this situation.

I've been here reporting on it.

And I think the emotion that we have is purely around making sure we are in the right places at the right time to bring you mushroom case daily when there's a verdict.

So, we, the longer it goes on, I feel like the more tense we get because we have more time to think about the things that could go right and the things that could go wrong.

Yeah, I think I said the other day I was tense because we were recording when we probably should have been at court, just in case it came back.

And

we don't get much notice, we'll probably get about five minutes' notice.

So, that's where my edginess comes from.

And also, we're so in it, We're so immersed in it.

And every day we were in that courtroom, you can't really escape the fact, the toll, you know, the Patterson and Wilkinson families have been sitting in there most days.

And as you said, Stocky Three People lost their lives.

And I don't think there are any winners in this.

You know, families have been broken apart.

Friendships have been imploded.

We can't escape that because we see it every day.

And that, to me, is one of the starkest things about this this trial and what we've tried to reflect in this podcast.

It's not just a case.

Some of you might hear it as a case, but people are living out this nightmare right now.

And we haven't shied away from that.

Yeah, you know, we're reminded every day.

You know, Ian Wilkinson,

the surviving lunch guest, been in court a lot of the time.

So very hard to kind of, you know, take yourself away from the impact of this as we're reporting on it.

So probably goes a little bit of the way to explaining how tense and on edge we are, Laura.

But a wonderful question.

Thank you, Laura.

Thank you, Rach.

Another question here from Margot.

Hi, Rachel and Stocky.

Thanks for a fantastic podcast.

I listen whenever I'm cooking.

I wanted to ask you a question about the style of the podcast.

Generally, I've noticed that you do not share your own opinions about the case, which I'm very curious about.

Is it because of journalistic guidelines or restrictions that prevent you from sharing your personal views?

Thanks, Margot.

And it's a really good question, actually.

And it's both, well, it's a lot of things.

It is journalistic guidelines and restrictions legally.

It's ABC charter guidelines that we follow.

I got this question a lot when I put out my first podcast, Trace Stocky.

And I would say to people, look, that's not my role.

You know, it's not, it doesn't matter what my opinion is.

Our role is to lay out all the facts.

You make up your own mind.

The most important people here are the jury.

Only their opinion matters.

So we do have to be really careful because it's not about us and opinions can

and have affected trials and i don't think that's the role of a journalist those things should be played out in the legal system so we do have to be very careful of that and also not let things we know or don't know or feel or don't feel seep into our coverage and our commentary and even our tone stocky yeah absolutely um thank you rach great question um margo um as we've been living in more rach it has been a um you know we've been we were here in uh I think, maybe even the end of summer, certainly the middle of autumn we arrived.

And we have been here through, I think, maybe the entirety of autumn and now what is well into winter,

blanket of fog covering the town today, and it is certainly quite cold.

And Nat, Chloe, and Disco the dog seem to have clocked the weather

because they have been doing their research, it seems.

And they say, hi, Stocky and Rachel.

We have a question for Stocky.

Stocky, we understand you're a die-hard shorts wearer.

Are your league still braving the cold more winter?

Have you had to try out wearing pants?

Yeah, really

strangely intimate level of knowledge about my sutorial habits there, Nat, Chloe, and Disco.

I have been wearing jeans this whole time because it is basically freezing cold.

Not freezing cold the whole time, but it is quite cold.

There's a few people I've seen getting around in shorts.

We had a juror wearing shorts one day early in the trial.

And then there was also one of the ABC reporters who was getting around in a pair of shorts for a bit as well.

He has also stopped that.

Yeah.

Those people learned their lessons quite quickly.

So it is, yeah, pretty cold.

You know, several layers a day we're working on.

But thank you for the wonderful question and also, I guess, that general well-being inquiry there.

Rach, our final question is from Natalie.

Natalie says, hi, Rach and Stocky, thank you so much for your thoughtful and steady coverage of the Aaron Patterson trial.

Been tuning in and really appreciate the way you're handling such a complex and sensitive story.

My family run a small fruit and vegetable store at a Melbourne market.

And in light of the case we've had quite a few interesting conversations with customers about mushrooms.

Some people jokingly swearing them off, others just curious or cautious.

We sell a wide range of gourmet and wild forage mushrooms including oyster, chestnut, pine and slippery jacks.

Being mushroom season now, we've been bravely covering mushroom recipes on our socials and have seen a bit of a resistance there.

Obviously this is a bit of a lighter question and not related to the trial itself but I've been wondering have your own attitudes toward mushrooms changed throughout covering this story.

Hi natalie thanks for that i'll have to check out your store next time i'm at the market because no it hasn't changed my habits we go to steak night on a tuesday here in morwell i usually get the mushroom sauce i do remember last year when i was out here doing interviews about the case some people told me that yeah people had started backing off mushrooms uh some stores were reporting sales had fallen stocky do you remember that

But I'm not seeing it here, are you?

No, no,

there's a mushroom toastie on the menu in one of the cafes, mushroom soups at another one of the cafes, still mushroom sauces, mushroom beef and mushroom pies, things like that.

It hasn't seemed to affected

any of the places around town.

No one's being overt about it, I think is the thing to kind of make the point about.

Like we spoke about this early when making this podcast about like whether or not there's things with mushrooms on the menu around town, and there are.

But people aren't making like a thing out of it.

It's just, you know, these are items that have been on the menus for a long time.

And, you know, you just kind of notice it a bit more when you're here covering.

This is like avocado.

yeah exactly yeah um but my you know my attitudes towards mushrooms haven't changed at all in this process um natalie has pointed out that the uh the case for other people does seem to have changed some um consumer attitudes towards buying and cooking mushrooms uh which is a wonderful insight because you actually get a lot of questions sent to mushroom case daily at abc.net.au about whether or not this has changed attitudes toward mushrooms.

So we now have an insight here from Natalie, who sells mushrooms.

Racha, I'd love to, you know, just talk about some of the people we've met around town that, you know, we've spoken about about some of the media that we are friends with, that we hang out with, but there are so many people around town that have looked after us, have been just

had wonderful conversations with them.

And so I thought we'd, you know, take a bit of time out of the pod to thank a few of these people, you know, Shay at the Bolo, who will take our order over the phone if we're running late, making the podcast and are going to miss the cutoff for the kitchen.

8 p.m.

And we'll also

pop our meals under the heat lamp to keep them warm in some of those instances as well.

Yeah, thanks, Shay.

You're a gem.

There's Michelle, Island, Rhee, Britt, and Monty at the cafe, and they had us all in for dinner last night.

And I love seeing their smiling faces in the morning.

And as you said, Stocky, it's a very heavy case.

So things like this really make my day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura is at one of the other cafes in town.

Todd, yet another cafe.

We have been drinking quite a lot of coffee, it turns out.

Trying to share the love around the many cafes that are in Morwall.

There's the guys at the deli who remember Stocky, one day I said, don't worry, I'm having a salad.

And one of them's like, Rach, you don't want a salad?

You're right.

I don't.

There's Jenny at the pub, Annie, the security guard with a hilarious sense of humor.

Annie is probably one of the best storytellers I've met in my entire life.

My life is based around storytelling.

I've met a lot of storytellers, and Annie had an entire table of journalists in stitches with, you know, almost every week

when we're there.

And she comes around for a bit of a chat.

So

she's fantastic.

You know, Claudia and the the pay-it-forward coffees that she's doing at the cafe as well.

Again, lots of coffee going around.

And there's Ian at court, one of my favourite security guards.

He's a legend.

He keeps our spirits up with lots of stories and motivational speeches, Stocky.

And Ian as well,

such a lovely man.

We've mentioned him on the pod previously.

He brought us the musk sticks.

And the other day, I popped his head into the media room while I was actually publishing an episode of Mushroom Case Daily.

He's a fan of the pod.

So I spent a bit of time, you know, I don't know know how interested he was, but I was showing him how we put the pod together, how we publish all of that, which was absolutely lovely.

And him and the other security guards

at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts have been fantastic.

We see them every single morning.

Their patience as I rummage for my keys and try and get my laptop out of my bag is an inspiration.

So shout out to Jeff, Rob, Steve, Brendan, Dynfia, Ethan, Craig, Daniel, Jackie, and Cindy.

They have rainfall figures, they have tips for the weekend, they see us every morning and every afternoon and very kind and friendly.

So, thanks, guys.

Yeah, we've made sure certainly over the last couple of weeks to

just keep their spirits up with an array of sweet treats, spagholis here and there, just to make sure they can get us through that little detector as well as possible.

I'm going to walk into a building sometime and just out of habit, flip my belt over and put my arms out to my side so someone can security one me because it's the only way I've entered a building for the last 10 weeks.

Rach, we have got people listening to Mushroom Case Daily all over the world.

Obviously, there's people around the town here in Moore that are listening, but people all over the world as well.

And I thought it'd be fun to just shout out a few of them as we tend to on a Friday.

So I'll start in England because we've got Michelle in sunny South Shields, Alison in the New Forest, which I used to walk around when I was a child.

Rob and Eleanor in Kent and Laura in Devon.

An alarming number of people from England talking about how sunny it is there.

I have my suspicions.

But Rach, we've also got people listening in Ireland as well.

We do.

We've got Hannah, County Down in Ireland, Steph in Kildare.

Then in Scotland, we've got Susan, Sarah in Glasgow.

I was booed off a karaoke stage in Glasgow once.

Sarah.

And Emma on the Isle of Barra.

In Europe, we've got Kirstie, who's Victorian living in Poland.

James in Berlin, Joe in Berlin.

Unsure if they are known to each other.

Brenda and Anne in Cologne, Yolanda in Sweden, Laura in Finland, Deborah in Greece, and in Khent in Belgium.

In North America, we've got Freya, San Francisco, Diane in New York City, and Colin in Canada.

We've also got Rob and Eleanor in Kent, New Zealand, and we had this email as well from Kate in Greensboro, who was listening to an episode where she heard someone talking about how they were doing the Camino Trek in the French Pyrenees and got in touch to let us know that she listens from her car, a

2002, you know, just general runabout while driving around Greensboro, trying to get her two-year-olds to go to sleep.

And this reminded me that some of the places that people are listening might not sound as exotic, but it is the routine and the connection that has made this podcast special.

So I wanted to shout out some of the listening habits and locations of Mushroom Case Daily listeners, starting with Beck in Perth, who listens while walking her golden retrievers, Bonty and Bruce.

There's Naomi, who spends her lunch breaks discussing the pod with her colleagues, Kim and Tim in Burswood.

Emily, who listens from her couch with her partner Matt and her cat, Miso.

Rach in New Zealand, who listens with her hubby while cooking dinner.

Tim, who's in Newcastle listening on his ride to work.

Erin, who listens while feeding her baby at night.

And I think Christian's been doing a lot of that too.

Christian Silver, Little Baby Silver.

Doing the early morning listen while

caring for his newborn overnight.

Sophia in Western Australia, who we keep company while she's doing her puzzles in the evening.

Sarah, who listens while tidying up after the kids have gone to bed.

And Steph, who is 11, who listens with her dad.

And speaking of listening, I would highly recommend the ABC Listen app.

How's that for a segue?

It is a wonderful place for not just Mushroom Case Daily, but all sorts of other ABC content.

It has been wonderful to see the number of people who have downloaded the ABC Listen app at my suggestion and email back to go, oh, Stocky, there's so much wonderful stuff on here.

What a treat.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, actually not a joke.

That is something that has happened a number of times.

So I'm stoked that you've been able to find something on there and would recommend jumping on the ABC Listen app.

You'll get your Mushroom Case Daily episodes there before you will get them anywhere else.

Rach, what happens now?

We continue to wait, Stocky, but we'll be back with you if they've got a question or if there's a verdict.

Thank you, Rach.

Mushroom Case Daily is produced by ABC Audio Studios and ABC News.

It's presented by me, Rachel Brown, and producer Stephen Stockwell.

Our executive producer is Claire Rawlinson, and a huge thanks to our true Prime colleagues who keep helping us out.

Our commissioning executive producer Tim Roxborough and supervising producer Yasmin Parry.

Thanks to senior lawyer Jasmine Sims, our legal queen, for her legal advice every single day, and to the Victorian newsroom and audio studios manager Eric George, this episode was produced on the land of the Gunai Konai people.

You ever watch the news and think, whoa, this seems unprecedented?

Unprecedented.

It's unprecedented.

This has never happened before.

This is unprecedented.

Well, that's not always quite true.

I'm Matt Bevan, and my show, if you're listening, is about finding times that what's happening now has happened before and figuring out what we can learn from it.

Learning from history.

I mean, who could imagine?

Find new episodes on ABC Listen every Thursday.