Australian Penthouse

Australian Penthouse interviews author and journalist Jack Marx about his book Australian Tragic… a look at some dark stories in Australian history

By Kate Hutchinson

Australian Tragic
Jack Marx
Hachette

Australian Tragic is comprised of 30 short stories. Why did you choose to write the book in this way?
My attention span is really small. I usually start reading a novel and then get sick of it after 50 pages. So this book really helps people like me. To put it bluntly, Australian Tragic is an excellent ‘dunny book’ – you could read one of the stories in one sitting.

How did you select the stories?
They are just events I came across over the years while I’ve been writing. The first story in the book, Moloch, simply came about because I’ve always been fascinated with the June 1979 Luna Park fire, and I could never find a story on it that satisfied my curiosity, and the horror of people dying in a ghost train. So I did my own research and stumbled onto information about Jenny Poidevin, and how she lost her two sons and husband in the fire, and the guilt that that’s left her with. I feel this tragedy set the tone for the rest of the book because I realised what’s really interesting is that there are tragedies within tragedies.

You chose to write dark tales from Australia’s past. Why not happy ones?
Unhappy events are always the most memorable in your life. You can remember putting your hand on the iron at the age of four, but you won’t remember having a particularly blissful day at six. They are always the harshest, most enduring memories. It’s the same in the case of stories – everyone likes a tragedy.

How did you research the stories?
I started diving into past newspapers and archives at random. I found that you could pick any day out of any decade, and you’d find something in the paper that raises the eyebrow. This was a real time-waster for me because I’d start reading about a crime or a tragedy, and I knew it wouldn’t go well in my book, but I delved deeper and deeper into it because I just couldn’t stop. About 30 per cent of the research time actually went towards the book, and 70 per cent of it was just me reading stuff.

Did you pursue any other avenues of research?
I had the balls to just have a go and throw a dart and see if I hit anything, which helped. There’s a story in Australian Tragic about Mrs Mousley, who was eaten by all her animals in Melbourne, and all I knew was that her husband Frank had buggered off to Sydney. So I just got out the phone book and found there were 17 Mousleys in NSW, and so I started ringing them. On the third call, I found Frank’s son.

You criticise the Australian media in the book, particularly over the coverage of Steve Irwin’s death…
The media in not only Australia but the world really pisses me off. Most journalists I know think they are so fucking brilliant, and they aren’t bright guys most of the time. But that’s secondary – the thrust of the media is always that someone’s already done something wrong; there’s a good guy, there’s a bad guy, the morality’s really slick – it’s just not reality. Something bad has happened to this ‘angel’, this wicked bastard is getting away with something. There is light and dark in everything – it’s not so cut-throat.

What’s coming up for you in the near future?
I’ve got a few things in the works at the moment, but usually two of the three things I’m working on get boring, or I don’t keep developing them. I have an ‘unhealthy’ interest (so says my agent) in paedophiles. The Dennis Ferguson story fascinates me greatly – there is such a pitchfork and lantern thing about it. It seems like the last taboo, meaning there are murders on TV all the time and books about serial killers, but paedophiles are utterly reviled. However, I’m fighting with my agent about it. We’ve both realised it’s not going to be a big seller in Australia, but it’s nonetheless important.

Australian Tragic, by Jack Marx (RRP $35) is published by Hachette Australia and is available in book stores nationally

Interview by Kate Hutchinson

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