Mark Cornelius Whittaker (born 29 July 1965) is an Australian journalist, non-fiction writer and writing coach. He lives in

Berry, New South Wales Berry is a small Australian village in the Shoalhaven region of the New South Wales South Coast, located south of the state capital, Sydney. It has many historical buildings which are listed on the New South Wales Heritage Register. Berry att ...

Early life

Whittaker was born in Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, the son of journalist Bill Whittaker, and attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1978–1983).

Career

In 1985 Whittaker commenced as a copy boy with

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...

and became a staff writer on ''

The Weekend Australian Magazine ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatewat ...

'' in 1993. Seven years later he left the ''Magazine'' to travel around Australia and write. In 2005, his book Sins of the Brother was made into a television mini-series, Catching Milat. He regularly writes for the

Good Weekend ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

magazine and

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

newspaper. In 2016, SBS Australia ran a 5-part podcast series called ''Out of Sight: The Untold Story of Adelaide’s Gay Hate Murders'' which was written and narrated by Whittaker. The series highlighted gay-hate crimes, including the murder of George Duncan,

The Family Murders The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five murders speculated to have been committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as "The Family". This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and se ...

, and the deaths of David "John" Saint (d. April 1991), Robert Woodland (d. 2004), and Andrew Negre (d. April 2011). The series also connected to SBS's ''Deep Water'' (TV series) and its related documentary about other unsolved gay hate crimes in Sydney. In 2019, he investigated the death of Jimmy O'Connell to write and narrate a podcast about the murder, Blood Territory, for

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

Awards

*2002 - With wife and co-author, Amy Willesee, won the Asia-Pacific Travel Writing Award for their book on the

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

royals murders. *2005 - Walkley Award for Magazine Feature Writing for ''The Weekend Australian'' article "Ordinary Heroes" about the people who attempted to rescue

Sophie Delezio Sophie Joy Martin Delezio (born 3 April 2001) is an Australian woman who was injured in two serious traffic crashes when she was young. She first gained media attention in 2003, when she was badly injured when a car crashed into her day care cent ...

and Molly Wood from a burning childcare centre *2006 - News Ltd's News Award for Features Journalist of the Year *2012 - Kennedy Award for Newspaper Feature Writing for a story about false allegations of sexual assault made against rugby league player Brett Stewart.

Books

* ''Granny Killer: The story of John Glover'', Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy (Sydney, Collins/Angus & Robertson 1992) * ''Sins of the Brother: The definitive story of

Ivan Milat Ivan Robert Marko Milat (27 December 1944 – 27 October 2019) was an Australian serial killer who was convicted in the backpacker murders in 1996. Commonly known as the Backpacker Murderer, Milat captured, assaulted, robbed and murdered two me ...

and the Backpacker Murders'', Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy (Sydney, Macmillan 1998) * ''The Road to Mount Buggery: A journey through the curiously named places of Australia'', Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee (Sydney, Pan Macmillan 2001) * ''Walking to Victory'', Adam Gilchrist with Mark Whittaker (Sydney, Macmillan 2003 * ''Love & Death in Kathmandu: A strange tale of royal murder'', Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee (Sydney, Macmillan 2003) * ''Ten Years'', Roseanne Catt with Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee (Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia 2005) * ''Bomber: From Vietnam to hell and back'', Mark Whittaker and Tony Bower-Miles (Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia 2009) * ''Brave: Ordinary Australians and their extraordinary acts of courage'', Mark Whittaker (Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia 2011) * ''Village Vets'', Anthony Bennett & James Carroll with Mark Whittaker (Sydney, ABC Books 2015) NLA Catalogue - ''Village Vets''
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whittaker, Mark 1965 births Living people People educated at Newington College Australian journalists Australian non-fiction crime writers