Print: Magazine Feature Writing Winner

Chloe Hooper, The Monthly, “The Tall Man”

Cameron Doomadgee, a 33-year-old Aboriginal man from Palm Island in Far North Queensland, was arrested in November 2004 for swearing at police. He died less than an hour later in the island’s watch house with injuries comparable to a road trauma victim. Local police claimed Doomadgee had tripped on a step. A week later, the community burnt down the police station.

Chloe Hooper followed the coronial inquest into Doomadgee’s death in order to bring attention to the history of the island
and the people who live there. “The Tall Man” also explored the relationship between police and Palm Island’s Indigenous community and the state of race relations and reconciliation in Australia.

Hooper is a Melbourne writer whose first novel, A Child’s Book of True Crime (Simon & Schuster), was a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize.

Bringing her skills as a novelist to bear on the difficult and complex issue, Hooper combined reportage with a novelist’s sense of character. Reconstructing the circumstances and events surrounding Doomadgee’s death, her story synthesised historical research and court and government documents, while her innovative narrative structure moved the story with the pace of a thriller.

Judges’ comments
Hooper’s investigation into the coronial inquest on Palm Island was a standout. Respecting the world she visited, she created a sense of immense empathy and allowed readers to immerse themselves in the lives and minds of Palm Island’s people. The description, the sense of threat, and the atmospheric details were exceptional.