Caroline Overington

Overington was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1970.[2] One of three children in her family,[3] she grew up in Melton, Victoria, and was educated at Melton South Primary School and Melton High School.[4] She graduated from Deakin University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in journalism.[5]

Overington began her journalism cadetship with The Melton Mail Express, and other titles in The Age Suburban Newspaper group, covering courts, local council, and school fetes. Melbourne businessman and editor, Alan Kohler, recruited Overington to write for The Age in 1993, where she became a sports writer, covering two Olympic and Paralympic games. Several of her pieces were selected for the Best Australian Sports Writing and Photography anthologies, published by Random House in the 1990s. She was awarded the Annita Keating Trophy for Female Journalism in Sport. So that Overington could take up a position as foreign correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, she and her young family, including twins born in 2000,[6] moved to New York City in 2002. Her first book, Only in New York, published by Allen & Unwin in 2006, is a comedy based on her family's experiences in the United States.[7]

While based in the States, Overington's work included an investigation into an Australian literary scandal involving Norma Khouri's book Forbidden Love. Together with Malcolm Knox, Overington won a Walkley Award for investigative journalism in 2004 for her research into the mysterious life of Jordanian-American-Australian author Norma Khouri.[8] Both Overington and Knox appeared in Forbidden Lie$, the documentary by Anna Broinowski that won a Walkley Award and two Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards.[9]

Following her return to Australia in 2006, Overington took up a position as senior journalist with the News Limited newspaper The Australian.[10] She uncovered the AWB scandal, in which AWB Limited (formerly the Australian Wheat Board), owned by the Australian Government, paid $290 million in kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein, in contravention of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Humanitarian Program. Overington's book Kickback: Inside the Australian Wheat Board Scandal, released by Allen & Unwin in 2007, provided an account of the scandal.[11]

During the 2007 federal election campaign, Overington made headlines for her conduct in the Wentworth electorate although no adverse findings against Overington were made.[12] Overington was said to have been involved in an altercation with the Labor candidate George Newhouse, who claimed Overington had "whacked" him, while Overington said she had pushed him away with an open hand. The Australian published an apology to Newhouse from Overington over what as described as "an encounter" in December 2007.[13][14][15]

Overington's first novel, Ghost Child was released in 2009 to both literary and popular acclaim. The book was short-listed for the Davitt Prize for Best Adult Crime Novel.[16] Her second novel, I Came To Say Goodbye, was short-listed for Book of the Year and Fiction Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards in 2010.[16] The novel Matilda is Missing, released in 2011, told the tale of a divorce custody case, through the eyes of a court-appointed psychologist.[17]

In 2012, Overington was appointed associate editor of Australian magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly,[18] where she interviewed former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, screen actress Helen Mirren, comedian Ellen DeGeneres, industrialist Gina Rinehart and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Overington also profiled the Hollywood actress Rebel Wilson, who in 2017 sued Bauer Media over a series of ten articles which alleged that she had lied about her age, real name, and relationship to Walt Disney.[19] Overington appeared as a witness during the trial. In his ruling against Bauer Media, Judge Dixon said Overington was not responsible for the publication of the article which had been published by "Bauer Media executives who exercised actual control over publication of individual articles, and more senior executives with overall management of the Bauer Media.'[19] Judge Dixon further said Overington's motive was to protect her own reputation "as a serious award-winning investigative journalist" adding: "Ms Overington honestly held that intention but I am unable to accept that her purpose was that of Bauer Media."[19] Bauer Media appealed the judgment in June 2018 and won, with damages reduced to $600,000.[20] Wilson attempted to appeal to the High Court but her application was refused.[21]

In 2014, Overington's book Last Woman Hanged was released, documenting the results of Overington's five-year investigation into the conviction and execution of Louisa Collins in New South Wales in 1889. In the book Overington claims that Collins, who was tried four times for murder, suffered a miscarriage of justice and may well have been innocent.[22] Overington linked the trial to Australian colonial history and to the early suffragette movement in Australia.

In March 2016, Overington was appointed an associate editor of The Australian.[10] Her book The One Who Got Away, a psychological thriller set in California, was released in April 2016. Reviewer Riahn Smith, writing for News Corp Australia's The Weekly Times described the book as a neatly told page turner that inspires eager anticipation.[23]

Overington has homes in Bondi, Australia and Santa Monica, California.[24] Her partner is writer Gideon Haigh.[25]

• 2004 – Joint winner of the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism for the Norma Khouri Investigation[26]
• 2006 – Awarded the second annual Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism[27]
• 2007 – Winner of the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism for coverage of the AWB Kickback Scandal[26]
• 2008 – Winner of the Blake Dawson Waldron Prize for Business Literature[28][29]
• 2015 – Winner of the Davitt (Non-Fiction) Award for Crime Writing[30]

• Official website