Watch Believing in Australia

Postwar migration saw Australia transformed from a broadly Christian monoculture to a successful multi-faith society.

Religious cults are an endless source of fascination to those looking on, and pain to many who are caught up in them, while other forms of religious extremism drive Australians to fight far-off wars and wreak terror at home.

The sharpest dividing line in Australian society was once a religious one: the often bitter division between Catholics and Protestants marked the postwar era and left its legacy in our education system.

This episode looks at what drove Christians from the pews from the 1950s onwards, charting the social changes that saw a boom in non-belief.