Ten Terrifying Questions with Emma Partridge!

Emma Partridge, has been covering crime for various media for many years and is now the Senior Crime Editor at Nine News. The Widow of Walcha is her first true crime book.

Today, Emma Partridge is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …

Emma Partridge

1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I grew up on Sydney’s north shore with my two younger sisters and my mum, a small business owner who ran an educational toy store. I graduated from Mosman High School before studying journalism at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, a country town in NSW’s central west. From here I worked at regional and local newspapers across NSW before landing my dream job as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald in 2013. My background as a journalist led me to cover the murder of farmer Mathew Dunbar in Walcha and eventuated in my writing a book about the case and the crimes of his partner Natasha Darcy.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

When I was 12, I wanted to be an actress or work in musical theatre. My grandfather Ronal Jackson was a well-known opera singer and from an early age I fell in love with musicals but unfortunately never had the voice for it. At age 18, I wanted to be a broadcast journalist, after being glued to the coverage of 9/11 while I was in high school and developing a thirst for news. I also thought it was a logical career choice as it combined my love of English and performance. After studying broadcast journalist for a short time at university I realised I preferred the medium of print much more as it allowed for news and current affairs to be covered in much more depth. At age 30, I had the career I had always wanted and had been working as a newspaper journalist for more than a decade. A few years later I made the move to television to try something new and explore a different way of telling stories.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?

I don’t think any of my beliefs have changed since I was a teenager, I still feel like one a lot of the time. However, I believe I have changed as a person and consider the consequences of my actions much more seriously than when I was younger, and value honesty above all else.

4. What are three things – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson was my favourite book in high school, one I read while studying crime fiction. I read it again shortly before writing The Widow of Walcha to study Guterson’s exquisite writing.

A tutorial given by former journalist Chris McGillion (a lecturer at my university at the time) had a profound effect on my writing. He placed a tomato in front of each student and asked them to write a lengthy description about it. It was a lesson about describing an object, a person or a place rather than simply stating what it is.

I am a huge fan of Helen Garner and her book Joe Cinque’s Consolation had a big impact on me. I was struck by her descriptions of the court room, the process and the characters. As a journalist, I was struck at the level of intricate detail she went into and was fascinated by her account of how she gathered information and her relationships with various people associated with the case. It made me realise that you can miss a lot of detail when you don’t stop to take it all in, although it is hard to do when you are working to a daily deadline rather than on a longer-term project or a book.

5. Considering the many artistic forms and genres out there, what appeals to you about writing true crime?

Having been a crime and court reporter for more than a decade, I have had a lot of experience covering crime and court. What I find most interesting about covering crime are the people I meet and write about: the victims of crime, defence lawyers, crown prosecutors, police, judges, ministers and criminals. What I find most intriguing about crime is trying to understand people’s motivations and looking at where someone came from and how and why they got to a point in their life where they decided to commit a crime. Writing a true crime book was appealing to me as I have written about crime for print, radio and television where there is limited space and time to delve into cases properly. As a reporter I often agonise about the detail I have to leave out of stories on a daily basis because of time and space so writing a book has allowed me – for the first time – to go into the level of detail I’ve always dreamed about. Funnily enough – I still believe I could have written more and had to leave a lot of detail out despite writing more than 110,000 words!

6. Please tell us about your latest book!

All farmer Mathew Dunbar ever wanted was to find love and have a family of his own. That’s why, just months after meeting Natasha Darcy, the much-loved grazier didn’t hesitate to sign over his multi-million-dollar estate to her. When Mathew died in an apparent suicide soon afterwards, in a stranger-than-fiction twist, Natasha’s estranged husband – who she was once charged with trying to kill – was the first paramedic on the scene.

Working as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, I travelled to the cool and misty town of Walcha in the Northern Tablelands of NSW in the months after Mathew’s death, drawn by the town’s collective worry that Natasha was going to get away with murder. After interviewing Mathew’s friends and family friends – and a first-hand encounter with Natasha herself, I wrote an article about his suspicious death and was standing outside the property when police eventually arrested Natasha. For the next few years I researched the case and covered Natasha’s NSW Supreme Court trial which revealed her dark past, the lengths she had gone to before carrying out the murder and her sickening web of lies and crimes.

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

I hope that people will come away with a better understanding of how journalists and police work and how the court process works. I also hope the book highlights how men can also be the victims of domestic violence, especially lonely men who are looking for love. The book delves into Natasha’s life and crimes and I hope people come away with a clear understanding of what actually happened and all the things that she did leading up to Mathew’s murder.

8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?

Investigative reporter Kate McClymont from the Sydney Morning Herald (who kindly agreed to launch the book) for her unwavering dedication, bravery and incredible knack of finding juicy yarns and telling them so well.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

My goal was to become a journalist and perhaps one day write a book. I am not entirely sure what my next goal is but have always wanted to work on a longer format television show or make a documentary.

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Keep going! I think it is also important to ask advice wherever and whenever you can get it and never give up.

Thank you for playing!

—The Widow of Walcha by Emma Partridge (Simon & Schuster Australia) is out now.

Widow of Walcha

by Emma Partridge

The Widow of Walcha is a shocking true story about death, love and lies in the small NSW town of Walcha.

All farmer Mathew Dunbar ever wanted was to find love and have a family of his own. That’s why, just months after meeting Natasha Darcy, the much-loved grazier didn’t hesitate to sign over his multi-million-dollar estate to her. When Mathew died in an apparent suicide soon afterwards, in a stranger-than-fiction twist, Natasha's estranged husband – who she was once charged with trying to kill – was the first paramedic on the scene after the murder...

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