About
Greg Callaghan - Journalist
My life since university days has been all about journalism, but let's start in the here and now. I'm currently a staff writer and associate editor at Good Weekend magazine, published weekly in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. I've been at Good Weekend for about six years. Before that I was at News Limited for 17 years, 12 of those in senior writing and editing roles, including deputy editor, on The Weekend Australian Magazine.
Recent Work
In 25 years or so of writing and editing long form journalism in Good Weekend and The Weekend Australian Magazine, I've covered a lot of ground. Here are some favourite pieces. Click on the cover or image to read the story
Celebrity personal trainer James Blatch on jail, steroids and his own private hell
How James Blatch came back from the brink
'If you were to design the cruellest of diseases, this would be it'
'What makes a father?': the sperm donor who asked the courts to answer this question
The man behind this case tells why he took his battle to the High Court
Killing Season
Crisis time for Africa's famed wildlife
Peteris Gintis battles motor neurone disease
Houda's Law
His client list includes those accused of terrorist-related offences. Meet high-profile criminal lawyer Adam Houda.
Why Did They Have to Shoot My Daughter?
Forty-one seconds. That’s how long it took for police to shoot Courtney Topic, after the 22-year-old was seen brandishing a knife outside a Sydney Hungry Jack’s. Three years on, her family retraces her story in a plea for better police training in mental illness.
2015
2007
2003
A collaboration with my partner Ian Cuthbertson published by Allen & Unwin in 2015, Doujon's Heart tells the story of two families linked forever by a cold blooded murder and a subsequent heart transplant. The case became headline news which meant there could be no anonymity for the recipient, well known Greek journalist Kosta Gribilas. Oliver and Rosemarie Zammit were put through hell when their son Doujon was murdered in Greece in 2008. As if the loss of their beautiful boy wasn't enough to bear, their relentless fight for justice in a foreign country over the following years is gut wrenching and inspiring. Doujon's Heart goes with Doujon and his cousin Cameron on their coming of age journey to Europe. It's there as the monstrous attack on Doujon in Greece results in brain death, and it goes with the Zammits through their court room dramas, their heartbreak and their triumphs. The book also follows the lives of Gribilas and wife Poppy. A lifelong friendship is forged between the couples but there is a twist in the tale that nobody expects...
In 2007 Bondi Badlands, the definitive treatment of a string of gay murders in Bondi in the late 1980s and early 1990's, was published, also by Allen & Unwin. According to the website Goodreads.com, the book is "A grittily compelling look at a series of brutal murders that took place in Sydney's eastern beachside suburbs in the 1980s - this is the extraordinary story of the crimes, the victims, the gangs and the policeman who refused to close the case. A thrilling and compelling story of a horrific series of crimes and one man's single-minded resolve to bring the killers to justice. With blood stains on the walkway and screams often heard late at night, the long concrete pathway skirting the cliff face between the beaches of Bondi and Tamarama in Sydney's Eastern suburbs was dubbed the Bondi Badlands - and it was here in the late 1980s that a handful of young men were dragged to their deaths after nightfall. The slow road to an overdue justice began when Detective Sergeant Stephen Page read a series of letters from a distraught mother of one of the victims. Painstakingly piecing together the dark mural of the murders, he revived the police investigation into the deaths, code-named Operation Taradale. Told with all the excitement and pace of a crime thriller, this story of the Bondi Badlands murders is unputdownable."
My first book, also written with Ian, capitalised on his 20 years of experience as a psychiatric nurse and my experience of body building and accreditation as a personal trainer. It's a sort of manual for being a bloke, with tips on everything from keeping fit to coping with schizophrenia and what to wear during an attack of genital herpes. Though the book, published by Choice Books in 2003, is long out of print, we still receive reasonable lending rights amounts each year and can only presume these are from people borrowing the book from libraries. If you'd like a copy to call your own the shop on Ian's website can accommodate you.
My Books
In a way books are the logical outcome for a journalist whose mode is essentially longform. Here are my first three.