1 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker 2 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode, just say play 3 00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From The Australian, I'm Claire 4 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:25,120 Speaker 1: Harvey a special bonus episode of The Front for you today. 5 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: It's the second in a special series honoring The Australian's 6 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:38,160 Speaker 1: sixtieth anniversary. We've asked six of the nation's most celebrated 7 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: thinkers to pen their reflections on the past six decades 8 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: in essays available to read at The Australian dot com 9 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: dot au right now. Today, the journalist and author Trent 10 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 1: Dalton follows the thread that binds the thousands of stories 11 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: he's written in more than two decades of journalism. It's 12 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:01,319 Speaker 1: that special Australian brand of resilience. Dalton came up as 13 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: a feature writer for the Weekend Australian magazine, but exploded 14 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: onto the global stage with his semi autobiographical novel Boy 15 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: Swallows Universe in twenty eighteen. That's today's episode. 16 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:27,959 Speaker 2: I want to briefly consider the notion that resilience is 17 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 2: formed from love. So often do we Australians carry on 18 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 2: in the memory of someone we've lost or in the 19 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 2: name of someone we love. What if it's actually loved 20 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 2: that's been keeping this whole wild and shimmering island moving 21 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 2: forward for all these years. 22 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: This is the world renowned author in journo, Trent Dalton. 23 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: He's reading an excerpt for an essay he's written about 24 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: resilience for The Australian. 25 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 2: I never really had to do twenty three years of 26 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 2: journalism to work out why my mom kept standing up, 27 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 2: moving forward, carrying on through her darkest hours. I've always 28 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 2: known it was love, love of her four sons and 29 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 2: love of me. 30 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,080 Speaker 1: Stories about resilience kind of Trent Dalton's thing. He's written 31 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: thousands of them about Australians who faced absolute terror and 32 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 1: came out the other side, more often than not with 33 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: a smile. But none is more compelling, more heartbreaking, more 34 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: stirring than Trent's own story. Dalton grew up in the 35 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: outer western suburbs of Brisbane with his single mum and 36 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 1: three brothers. His beloved stepdad shared their home for a 37 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,519 Speaker 1: while too. Down the road lived the former convict Slim Halliday, 38 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: who escaped twice from Brisbane's Boggo Road jail before his 39 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: conviction for the murder of a Gold Coast taxi driver. 40 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: To Trent Dalton, Slim was just a funny old bloke 41 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: who helped out with babysitting and family errands from time 42 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,639 Speaker 1: to time. But he was also a man who shared 43 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: his uncharacteristic wisdom with a young family finding its way 44 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: in the world. As a kid growing up in Brisbane 45 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: in the eighties, Trent Dalton saw the worst of it abuse, addiction, dealing, 46 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: domestic violence, mental illness. His mom and stepdad were both 47 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: in prison for dealing heroine before he was old enough 48 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: to drive. Unless you count the time Slim holiday let 49 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: Trent sit on his lap and steer his truck down 50 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: the street when he was barely more than a toddler. 51 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 2: You know, you just carry these rocks. I had some 52 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,840 Speaker 2: rocks from my childhood that I carried around deep inside 53 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 2: me that I never told anyone about stuff that my 54 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 2: mom went through. And you know, I'm talking about domestic violence, 55 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,360 Speaker 2: and I'm talking about imprisonment and things that I buried 56 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 2: deep inside me that I explored as a journalist. 57 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: After almost twenty years in journalism, many of them spent 58 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: as a feature writer for the Weekend Australian magazine Trent 59 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: Dalton shared a pivotal moment with the mum he adores 60 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: as they loaded groceries into her car. She gazed at 61 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,080 Speaker 1: his then seven year old daughter and said, I wouldn't 62 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: change any of it. Not long after, he sat down 63 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:25,359 Speaker 1: to write his own story for the next year. In 64 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: the late hours, after work was finished for the day 65 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,080 Speaker 1: and his kids were in bed, Trent wrote the semi 66 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: autobiographical novel Boy Swallows Universe. It chants the turbulent nineteen 67 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:40,040 Speaker 1: eighties suburban childhood of Eli Bell and his older brother 68 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: August or Gus for short. Fittingly, Dalton's mum was the 69 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:48,840 Speaker 1: first person to read it. They agree it's equal parts 70 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,480 Speaker 1: fact and fiction. There's a free spirited young mum struggling 71 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: with addiction, a doting stepdad battling his own demons. Slim Halliday, 72 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: whom they called the Houdini of Boggo Road, features prominently. 73 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:07,159 Speaker 1: Some parts of the novel are embellished impossible, even, like 74 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:10,560 Speaker 1: the fact that Eli's taciturn older brother Gus can see 75 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: into the future and writes his predictions in the air 76 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:17,479 Speaker 1: with his fingertip. But others are as real as real 77 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:21,600 Speaker 1: can be. The desperate longing, Eli feels for his incarcerated 78 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: mother his own experience, writ large Boyce. Swallow's Universe was 79 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,799 Speaker 1: an instant bestseller. In fact, it was the fastest selling 80 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: debut novel in Australian history, with more than a million 81 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 1: copies sold. Earlier this year, Netflix took this extraordinary story 82 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:49,719 Speaker 1: of Australian resilience global arm Melo Baum, I've got a story. 83 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:54,159 Speaker 1: What kind of story? It's a crime story. The seven 84 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,760 Speaker 1: part series stars Australians who've made it big in Hollywood, 85 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: Travis Fimmel, Simon Baker and Phoebe Tonkin. Things are going 86 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: to gets so good we'll forget that. Over Bear, the 87 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: streaming giant said in January. The TV adaptation is its 88 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,600 Speaker 1: most successful Australian title to date, racking up almost eight 89 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,919 Speaker 1: million views globally in the first fortnight after its release. 90 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: And you told me you wouldn't to be a good person. 91 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 2: This is a test. 92 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 1: Dalton says in his essay that it's our collective resilience 93 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: that defines us as a nation. 94 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 2: These journalistic endeavors, I assure you have transformed my life. 95 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 2: They have shaped me as a father, a husband, a brother, 96 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 2: a son and a man. I have no doubt this 97 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,479 Speaker 2: obsession is rooted in my need to make sense of 98 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 2: the ways in which, through much of the nineteen eighties 99 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 2: and the ninety nineties, I watched someone I love very 100 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:52,719 Speaker 2: very much, my Mum, overcome everything from drug addiction to 101 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 2: imprisonment or domestic abuse, drawing on nothing from what I 102 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 2: could observed, particularly Australian kind of inbuilt human resilience. 103 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:10,160 Speaker 1: But if the global appeal of his own story, real 104 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,440 Speaker 1: and imagined, is anything to go by, resilience is a 105 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: fundamental part of the human experience. 106 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 2: I'm deeply honored and deeply questioning of why anyone would 107 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 2: ever tell me a story, and I get so proud 108 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 2: when they do. Ordinary Australians can be just as interesting, 109 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 2: and I love that if you sit with them long enough, 110 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 2: their story will get that interesting. There's time. It's the 111 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 2: time you're willing to put in, and I promise you 112 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 2: every one of us has an incredible tale to tell. 113 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 1: Coming up what Trent Dalton learned about resilience from ordinary 114 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: and extraordinary Australians. Join ours subscribers to read more stories 115 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: just like this one at the Australian dot Com. You 116 00:07:56,840 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: it might just wind up being a best seller be 117 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: back after this break. For a long time, Trent Dalton's 118 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:20,920 Speaker 1: day job was writing features about the best and worst 119 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: of Australian life for the Weekend Australian magazine. 120 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:31,280 Speaker 2: It was so weirdly cathartic and weirdly healing and deeply 121 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 2: empowering to go write those stories because of those incredible 122 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 2: women on that newspaper. I was led by a woman 123 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,560 Speaker 2: named Christine Midapp on the Weekend ozmag for years and 124 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 2: she's become a deep friend. But I think weirdly she 125 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,200 Speaker 2: suspected that I needed to do these things. I have 126 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:49,640 Speaker 2: no idea why she would just gently tap me on 127 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 2: the shoulder and ask me to go do these types 128 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 2: of stories. And I just think she suspected it was 129 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:57,760 Speaker 2: a well somewhere deep inside that I could draw from, 130 00:08:57,800 --> 00:08:59,720 Speaker 2: and I really did, and I did it for a 131 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:03,079 Speaker 2: decad And when I talk about resilience, I'm talking about 132 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:09,080 Speaker 2: this unseen thing that Australians have where we are bid 133 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 2: and I firmly believe we do it through love. I 134 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 2: think we do it for each other, we do it 135 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 2: for our families, and I've really got an open heart 136 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:19,840 Speaker 2: for the people who can't abide any longer. I wrote 137 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 2: so many stories about the people who succumbed, you know, 138 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 2: the people who couldn't get out of the cracks, and 139 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:27,440 Speaker 2: I loved that we had space for those people as 140 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:28,400 Speaker 2: well in our pages. 141 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:32,720 Speaker 1: Over the years, Trent has knocked on the doors of 142 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:37,200 Speaker 1: much loved Australians like Mick Fanning and Betty Cuthbert. He 143 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:41,320 Speaker 1: sat with flood and bushfire victims, with workers, with parents, 144 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,480 Speaker 1: with those who'd experienced great loss, great joy, and everything 145 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 1: in between. 146 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,520 Speaker 2: I watched their faces turn from darkness to light as 147 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:54,880 Speaker 2: they shrugged their shoulders houseless and broken, and found silver 148 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:59,679 Speaker 2: linings and the most absurd truths. Well, at least it's 149 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 2: not as bad as last time. That was invariably when 150 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 2: some misguided and young media person standing in the main 151 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,280 Speaker 2: street to grant them battling a bad case of intra 152 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:12,960 Speaker 2: rectal craniolitis, would whisper something out of his rear ends 153 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:19,600 Speaker 2: such as why the fuck didn't they move? Why because 154 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:23,439 Speaker 2: they had nowhere else to go, because they were penniless, 155 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:27,119 Speaker 2: because they were screwed by God and they're chosen insurer, 156 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:29,840 Speaker 2: and because they were resilient. 157 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: Many of those yarns have stayed with Trent, but one 158 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: is forever wedged in his consciousness. It's the story of 159 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:42,720 Speaker 1: Paul Stanley, whose fifteen year old son Matthew, was killed 160 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:45,560 Speaker 1: in a coward punch attack in two thousand and six. 161 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,960 Speaker 1: Dalton calls Paul Stanley the most resilient man he knows. 162 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:53,400 Speaker 1: Rather than be swallowed by his grief, he established a 163 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: foundation in his son's name and worked to transform the 164 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: way Queensland deals with youth violence in social se In 165 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:04,040 Speaker 1: his essay for The Australian, Dalton recalls the time he 166 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:05,559 Speaker 1: visited Paul at his home. 167 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 2: I will never forget the way he walked me out 168 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:14,119 Speaker 2: to the car after our chat, sunset in the suburbs, 169 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:18,960 Speaker 2: birds whistling. He asked me, just in the interests of 170 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 2: filling a silent space with small talk, how the rest 171 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:27,600 Speaker 2: of my week was shaping up? And I told him 172 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:29,640 Speaker 2: that my wife was scheduled to give birth to our 173 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:32,720 Speaker 2: daughter in the Martyr Hospital in a matter of days. 174 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 2: I explained I was going to be a dad. And 175 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,400 Speaker 2: Paul threw his head back and he laughed, and he 176 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:41,480 Speaker 2: looked back at me. I could see there were tears 177 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 2: in his eyes. I swear to you now they were 178 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,520 Speaker 2: tears of joy. This man, who had just spent four 179 00:11:47,559 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 2: brutally honest hours talking about the tragic loss of his son, 180 00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 2: had somehow, somehow dug deep inside himself to find the 181 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 2: resilience and the love, to find joy inside a quiet 182 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,000 Speaker 2: sub urban moment between two men standing beside the Toyota 183 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 2: hatchback that I drove my daughter home in three days later. 184 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 2: You will never do anything more beautiful in your life, 185 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:14,800 Speaker 2: Paul said. 186 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: His reflections on the Australians past six decades have made 187 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: it abundantly clear to Dalton that the paper's fundamental purpose 188 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,320 Speaker 1: is to shine a light on these stories, to bear 189 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,480 Speaker 1: witness and to help make sense of the madness. 190 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 2: I think the paper's role is to absolutely reflect our 191 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 2: nation at any given time, and to do that you 192 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:43,480 Speaker 2: need to get to all parts of this country of ours. 193 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,280 Speaker 2: But the beautiful thing is that I had these people 194 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 2: around me in really high important positions who said it 195 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:53,200 Speaker 2: was important to tap into that stuff as well, that 196 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:55,720 Speaker 2: that stuff belonged, that was just as important as the 197 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 2: stuff in the business pages, or the stuff in the 198 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:01,319 Speaker 2: sport pages or the culture pages. And it's really important 199 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 2: in journalism to speak to those people who have fallen 200 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:04,199 Speaker 2: through the cracks. 201 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,960 Speaker 1: You can read Trent Dalton's stunning essay about resilience right 202 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot au. This episode 203 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:25,959 Speaker 1: of the Front was produced by Kristin Amient with support 204 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:27,360 Speaker 1: from Bianca far Marcus