What happened to Julie Hatton: Podcast to explore her shooting death at Eidsvold

The daughter of a Wide Bay woman police say shot herself between the eyes with a rifle 10 weeks after giving birth has split from her father and stepmother over the dark allegations she has made and her dogged pursuit of the case which is now the subject of a coroner’s investigation.

Paul Hatton and his wife Julie Hatton with Natalie as a baby.

A podcast about the death of Julie Gay Hatton, a 22-year-old mother who police ruled had shot herself between the eyes with a rifle on her family’s cattle station near Eidsvold in 1978, is expected to launch in early December 2024.

True crime podcaster and retired detective Graeme Crowley has teamed up with Julie’s daughter, Natalie Hatton, who was just 10 weeks old when her mother died and is suspicious about her mother’s death.

Her quest for more information over the years has led to her being charged with serious offences including stalking and breach of bail for what she has claimed on social media, but this year she launched court action of her own.

Natalie Hatton is searching for more information behind her mother Julie Hatton’s death in 1978.

She has launched a civil claim over her share of the multimillion-dollar Hatton family cattle empire, alleging she wasn’t paid for her labour for years and that she was physically assaulted by her father and stepmother, Paul and Ingrid Hatton. She also alleges her late grandfather, Edwin Hatton, could be her biological father.

The family strenuously denies the allegations.

The wedding notice from the day Julie Clifford married Paul Hatton.

The Hattons are believed to own at least 15 cattle properties in the North Burnett comprising more than 40,000ha, including Darreen Station near Eidsvold, Appletree, Bottletree, The Ponds, Dawesdene, Old Rawbelle and Rawbelle.

Natalie was 10 years old when she found out the woman she thought was her mother was really her stepmother, and that her biological mother had died from a self-inflicted bullet between the eyes.

Though she was shocked to learn that truth from her father, she continued to live and work on the family properties for years, and never really questioned the ‘suicide’ ruling until her maternal grandmother brought it up when she was 17.

Now, decades later and estranged from her father and his family, explosive claims and counter claims have been made of assault, harassment and financial abuse, court documents reveal.

Paul Hatton and his wife Julie Hatton with Natalie as a baby.

Her family members have filed in court a joint defence outlining financial and emotional support Ms Hatton received over the years.

According to The Australian, the defence documents stated alleged assaults never happened or were minor, and Ms Hatton’s relationship with her family broke down when she “attacked, harassed and defamed” her father and stepmother through social and mainstream media.

A coronial investigation into Julie’s death was launched in 2023 and has not yet been completed.

Julie Clifford was born and raised on the Gold Coast, but lived in Maryborough for a time and attended school there until Year 10. She was the only daughter of bookmaker Kevin Clifford and his wife Lillias.

Natalie Hatton's mum Julie Hatton.

The Australian reported that in 1976, aged 19, Julie married Paul Hatton, 24, at St Peter’s Anglican Church at Southport.

Mr Hatton was the younger son of Ted and Peggy Hatton from the North Burnett, and the newlyweds set up home there.

Old coronial files obtained by Natalie stated that her mother died in the gardens of the station on October 1, 1978.

A post-mortem examination report from the day after the death recorded that she suffered a “gunshot wound to the head”, with entry in the “middle of forehead”.

Two weeks later, police advised the coroner there were no suspicious circumstances, the documents state.

The justice department’s under secretary certified on October 31 that an inquest wasn’t necessary. It was all over in a month.

Ms Hatton’s father remarried in 1981 and with new wife Ingrid had two sons, Adam and Brett.

The family went on to build its cattle empire of about 25,000 head of cattle.

Ms Hatton said she grew up helping her father with the family cattle business.

Natalie Hatton with her father Paul Hatton.

She later had her own questions about her mother’s death, and wrote to Queensland’s then-attorney­ general Shannon Fentiman seeking an inquest.

“I’ve found out more about my mother the last two years from outsiders than I’ve ever known about my mother,” she said.

“All I sort of grew up (with) was that it’s very selfish for a person to commit suicide. So I actually did not like my mother there for a long, long time. I thought … how could a mum really leave a little baby behind? Why not pick me up and take me somewhere else, take me back to the Gold Coast?”

The podcast will be called The Guarantor - What Really Happened to My Mum? and an early teaser can be listened to HERE.

Ms Hatton’s civil trial will be heard in the Brisbane Supreme Court from May 25, 2025.

Her charges of stalking are still ongoing.

Natalie Hatton is convinced that despite the police ruling it a suicide, her mother Julie Hatton did not shoot herself between the eyes with a rifle on the family’s North Burnett property in 1978. Photo Paul Beutel.

Originally published as What happened to Julie Hatton: Podcast to explore her shooting death at Eidsvold