About our stories

Last updated 11 November 2026.

Sway and Pelly's Port Stories, our short videos, tell true stories from Australia's ports and coast: the ships, the people, the animals and the places. We tell them because they really happened, and because knowing a place's past makes a visit there mean more.

Some of this history is painful

Many of these places have hard histories. Some of the ships, people and events in our stories are tied to shipwrecks, mutiny and murder, to convicts sent here in chains, to workers who died building harbours and bridges, to war, and to land taken from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These things caused real suffering, and families and communities still feel it today.

Where we stand

• We are firmly against the violence, cruelty and wrongdoing in the history behind our stories. We don't endorse any of it.
• Telling a story is not approving of it. Naming a ship, a person or an event is not praise for what was done.
• A light story is never a joke about the people who suffered. When we tell a cheerful story about a place, we are not making light of anything that happened there.
• Nobody who did real harm is drawn as a hero.
• We check the facts first, against trusted sources such as museum, government and port authority pages, and we're happy to send you the sources for any story.

Acknowledgement of Country

Sway's voyage sails past the lands and waters of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of every place in the game and pay our respects to their Elders past and present.

Tell us

If we got something wrong, or told a story in a way that hurts, please email us at [email protected]. We read every message, and we correct a story or take it down when we got it wrong.