Teacher’s Pet podcast journalist Hedley Thomas – from Gold Coast Bulletin to Chris Dawson case

Back in the mid-1980s, Hedley Thomas was a young cadet reporter at the Gold Coast Bulletin, who was green and raw but enthusiastic – and prepared to chase down any solid yarn.

Back in the mid-1980s, there was a young cadet reporter working at the Gold Coast Bulletin who was green and raw but enthusiastic and prepared to chase anything if it was a good yarn.

After being a copyboy, the bosses soon gave the former Keebra Park High student a cadetship, throwing him in at the deep end, posting him to police rounds, the engine room of any newspaper.

Journalist Hedley Thomas with Lynette Dawson’s family leave the Supreme Court, Sydney, after a guilty verdict was passed down in the Chris Dawson murder trial this week. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

His name was Hedley Thomas and he soon became known as “young scannerman’’, because everywhere he went – everywhere – he had a police scanner and radio earpiece to pick up where the police were, and what big jobs they were doing.

He didn’t miss a thing. If there was a murder, Thomas was there. If there was a robbery, Thomas was there. He quickly gained a reputation as a gun and was snapped up by the Courier Mail. Again, he turned the police rounds beat into his own.

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Thomas was then posted to London, News Corp’s youngest ever European correspondent and his first job was on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down.

Back then, Roy “Rocky’’ Miller, who went on to be managing director of the Gold Coast Bulletin, was editor of the Daily Mirror, and he loved front page promotions.

An ideas man, he got on the phone to Thomas and asked him to get a slab of the Berlin Wall, send it back to Australia and he’d do a giveaway promotion.

“Win a piece of the Berlin Wall’’, was the front page promo. Thomas didn’t know whether Miller was fair dinkum or not, but after a few phone calls, he realised Miller was serious.

Unbeknown up until today, Thomas – in the quiet darkness of a cold German November night – brazenly stole a piece of the Berlin Wall.

It was flown back to Miller’s office – the excess baggage fee was a bomb – and he ran the wildly successful promo.

Hedley Thomas at a murder scene while police rounds reporter t the Gold Coast Bulletin, circa 1987.

Back in those heady days on the Gold Coast in the 1980s, in his spare time, Thomas could be found at the old Southport greyhound track near Queen Street, where the Tigers footy club is now, or he’d be playing tennis with his journalistic colleague, a fellow named Paul Whittaker.

Whittaker, a former TSS student who is now the CEO of Sky News, went on to marry Thomas’ sister Kate, and their passion for the dogs and tennis never waned, nor their ability to weed out spivs and colourful racing identities.

Nor has their passion for outstanding journalism ever gone, and it was under Whittaker’s stewardship as editor-in-chief of The Australian in 2017 that the hugely successful podcast, The Teacher’s Pet, was commissioned.

The rest, of course, is history. Thomas shone a light on a flawed original police investigation after Lyn Dawson vanished in January, 1982.

His extraordinary investigative skills exposed Chris Dawson, Lyn’s husband, as a philandering killer and he was found guilty earlier in the week. At 74, the former football star will now die in jail.

Hedley Thomas during his time as a journalist at the Courier Mail. Picture: Adam Ward

For Thomas, whose home was shot up in 2002 after he got too close to a story that would expose a property fraudster, those early years at the Gold Coast Bulletin moulded him into one of Australia’s best modern day reporters.

He has never shied from the big story, regardless of the personal risks. It’s also interesting to note the commercial support of Katie Page, of Harvey Norman, who backed the podcast, describing the Dawson result as a massive victory for women and the scourge of domestic violence.

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The evolution of journalism and the emergence of the long-form podcast has also become an integral part of the way to explain a big story. Journalism is about storytelling, whether it’s in the printed paper, online or through the podcast.

When Thomas started his journalism career, typewriters had just been replaced by old Coyote computers.

It was the era on the Gold Coast where the first Coolangatta Gold event was held, the art gallery opened and Carrara Stadium was opened.

Bond University was launched, as was Australia Fair. Movie World opened, as the city’s population surged past 300,000 (it’s now near 700,000).

Denis Pie was Mayor, succeeded by Lex Bell. Tiki Village in Surfers Paradise was the number one spot for end of year footy tours. Sizzler at Mermaid was popular. Meter Maids were known around the world.

It was not just a surfer’s paradise, but a reporter’s heaven. There were stories everywhere. Dodgy developers, seedy underworld figures, rampant crime (nothing’s changed).

The one thing we can take from Thomas’ wonderful expose is that quality journalism is a cornerstone of The Fourth Estate.

He exposed a corpulent police culture in NSW in the early 1980s that through laziness, or incompetence, did not provide justice for Lyn Dawson and her family members. The courage to take on the police and the judicial system should not be underestimated.

The Gold Coast is often referred to as a “sun place for shady people’’. It was the perfect apprenticeship for Thomas, now eyeing off a third Gold Walkley Award, the highest honour in Australian journalism.

Originally published as Teacher’s Pet podcast journalist Hedley Thomas – from Gold Coast Bulletin to Chris Dawson case