Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon
Herald Sun
It was dangerous. It was deadly. It could have at any moment ended her (Nicola Gobbo’s) life. – Anthony Dowsley
We are unaware of any other story in the world that comes close to replicating the lengths and the extraordinary abuses of the justice system than took place in the Nicola Gobbo-Victoria Police story. – Patrick Carlyon
Anthony Dowsley is the hunter-gatherer of hidden information. Patrick Carlyon is the elegant writer and analytical genius. They combined to break one of the biggest scoops in Australian journalism – the Lawyer X story. Starting with one piece of a huge jigsaw, it took them years to break stories that led to a royal commission, exposed abuses of the justice system and put the convictions of many of Australia’s toughest underworld figures in jeopardy.
Career Timeline - Anthony Dowsley
1992: Dowsley completes a Bachelor of Arts degree at Swinburne University.
1995: He begins working as a reporter in a casual position at Leader suburban newspapers. (He contributed stories for Leader newspapers while still at school).
1998: Gets a cadetship at Leader. Meets Patrick Carlyon – both are berated by an editor for their performance and refuse to commit time to learning shorthand.
2003: Dowsley quits journalism to teach English in Japan.
2004: Returns to Australia and works for AAP before moving to the Herald Sun. He covers the crime beat with chief police reporter Mark Buttler.
2006-2012: Covers and breaks many stories including a hit-run in Mildura that killed six teenagers, the gangland war, outlaw motorcycle gangs, the shooting of three people in Melbourne’s CBD, the Black Saturday bushfires, the murder of Carl Williams in Barwon prison and several high-profile homicides.
2013: Begins investigating the murder convictions of life prisoner Jason Roberts with colleague Mark Buttler. Roberts had been found guilty in 2002 over the shooting of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller in 1998.
2014: Investigates and breaks the Lawyer X story about lawyer Nicola Gobbo who became a police informant on her clients. Gobbo is not named at this time. Victoria Police try to suppress the story in a late-night Supreme Court injunction. The article is published with some details omitted. It sparks an IBAC investigation and Supreme Court proceedings that last many years. Dowsley has support from the Herald Sun to write around dozens of suppression orders to keep the story alive under the threat of serious charges being laid.
2017-2018: Teams up with Patrick Carlyon on the Lawyer X story, which has become a judicial crisis. What follows is a stop-start project of interviews, writing and court battles. Also reports serious concerns about corruption in the Jason Roberts case. Dowsley unearths a critical police statement buried for 19 years that shows police had falsified evidence to indicate multiple offenders had shot at police. The revelation later sparks an IBAC probe ending in public hearings. Adverse findings are made against police.
2019: Legally freed to report the fuller story and name Nicola Gobbo as Lawyer X, leading to a royal commission.
2019: Receives three Quill awards, including the Gold Quill, and three Walkley awards, including a Gold Walkley, with Carlyon for the Lawyer X investigation. Also awarded the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year and a Press Freedom Award.
2020: Co-authors, with Carlyon, the book Lawyer X.
2021-2023: Jason Roberts is retried and acquitted. The Devil's Apprentice, a podcast about the Silk-Miller murders and the retrial, is broadcast. Dowsley becomes a producer at Nine’s 60 Minutes.
Awards
2012: Quill Award, best coverage of an issue or event (with Wayne Flower).
2019: Gold Walkley (with Carlyon); Walkley, coverage of a major news event or issue (with Carlyon); Walkley, investigative journalism (with Carlyon); Press Freedom Medal; Legal Reporting Award, Gold Quill (with Carlyon); Grant Hattam Quill for investigative reporting (with Carlyon); Quill, coverage of an issue or event (with Carlyon and Chris Tinkler); Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year.
2020: Quill (with Herald Sun reporters), breaking news coverage.
2022: Quill, best coverage of an issue.
2023: Moves to 60 Minutes as a producer.
Books
Lawyer X (with Patrick Carlyon)
Career Timeline - Patrick Carlyon
1993: Completes a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne.
1994-98: Works at Leader suburban newspapers, drawing the wrath of one or two editors who describe him as “raw but talented”. One editor makes clear that she thinks neither Carlyon, nor then reporter colleague Anthony Dowsley, will amount to much in journalism.
1999: He lands a junior role at the relaunched Bulletin magazine. A formative period when he covers major events, such as two Olympic Games, victims of the Bali Bombing and a Gallipoli landing anniversary.
2002: Writes The Gallipoli Story, a book for older children, which receives an honour from the Children’s Book Council of Australia.
2007: Takes a contract to write for Fairfax magazines in Sydney.
2008: Returns to Melbourne to work at the Herald Sun, with scope to write at length, often to daily deadlines.
2009: Writes a Black Saturday bushfire piece on the town of Marysville which wins a feature writing Walkley in 2009.
2010: Wins a feature writing Quill for a piece on Arthur Freeman, who threw his daughter off the West Gate Bridge, in a story that still haunts Carlyon.
2013: Wins a feature writing Walkley about an army medic’s traumatic experiences in Afghanistan.
2017: Works with Dowsley to help make sense of a story Dowsley first broke in 2014, the Lawyer X scandal. What follows is a stop-start project of interviews, writing and court battles.
2019: Freed to tell the fuller story and name Nicola Gobbo as Lawyer X, leading to a royal commission. Receives three Quill awards, including the Gold Quill, and three Walkleys, including a Gold Walkley, for his work with Dowsley on Lawyer X.
2020: Co-authors, with Dowsley, the book Lawyer X.
Awards
2009: Walkley, newspaper feature writing.
2010: Quill, best feature in print (with Paul Anderson).
2012: Quill, best sports feature in any medium.
2013: Walkley, feature writing (short).
2019: Gold Walkley (with Dowsley); Walkley Award, investigative journalism (with Dowsley); Walkley Award, coverage of a major issue or event (with Dowsley). Gold Quill (with Dowsley); Grant Hattam Quill for investigative reporting (with Dowsley); Quill, for coverage of an issue or event (with Dowsley and Chris Tinkler).
Books