Caroline Graham is a university lecturer, Walkley-award winning investigative journalist, author, and true-crime podcaster.
Caroline taught me journalism at the University of Queensland a few years back; she teaches subjects in investigative, data, and broadcast journalism. Caroline, or ‘Caro’ as her students affectionately call her, is a popular lecturer for good reason: her courses are practical and full of nuggets of journalistic wisdom, and her bubbly approach gives students a great starting point for their careers. Her 2018 podcast, Lost in Larrimah, which she co-produced with longtime journalist friend Kylie Stevenson, explored the disappearance of Northern Territory man Paddy Moriarty from the town of Larrimah, population 11. Graham produced an ABC Landline documentary in 2022 called Outback Musical, which we discuss in the episode, along with an investigative series with Stevenson in 2023 for The Australian newspaper about the crisis in Northern Territory education, particularly in remote Aboriginal communities.
Our conversation touches on Caroline’s enviable job as a university lecturer with time to conduct longform investigative journalism; her approach to teaching students journalism; her early love of writing and stories and growing up among the cane fields of central Queensland; her first gig writing at The Daily Mercury in Mackay; her work as a freelancer; why she loves human interest journalism; how journalism has shaped her own fiction writing; how she became involved in investigating the disappearance of a man in a tiny town in the middle of Australia; why she’s drawn to remote and strange places like the Northern Territory; why true crime podcasts must get the ethics right; why she thinks writing is a beautiful way to spend a life; and the experience of co-producing a true crime podcast in six-week deadline with no prior experience.
For a full episode transcript and links to Caroline’s work visit our website: http://bylinespodcast.com
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Sound production by Jonathan Koster: https://www.instagram.com/djjonnysounds