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From top journalist to a life of crime: Chris Hammer's next chapter
Chris Hammer spent three decades as a leading political and foreign correspondent before bursting onto the global crime fiction scene with an instant bestseller in 2019. It all began at Mitchell College.
“I very much value that experience at Bathurst; they were three of the best years of my life,” Chris says.
“I didn’t have a burning desire to be a journalist – I was drawn to the video production and photography aspects –but it was a real journalist’s course, and I loved it. I got a job as a journalist right after graduation, and that eventually led to writing non-fiction and then fiction. In a way, I wouldn’t be a full-time crime writer now if I hadn’t gone to Bathurst 40 years ago.”
Chris graduated in 1985 amidst a golden age of journalism. Newspapers and commercial television channels were awash with money, and technology was transitioning from film to video. Opportunities were abundant in the expanding media landscape, and he landed his first job in the newsroom of Capital Seven in Canberra alongside several other Mitchell alumni.
“The reputation was that if you came out of Bathurst, you could be trusted to know the essential mechanics of sourcing and writing a news story.”
Chris reported on ACT local politics before landing a role as Federal Political Correspondent – and a shared office at Parliament House – in the heady days of the Hawke-Keating government. It was the start of three decades in the Press Gallery, where he had a front-row seat to nation-defining moments.
“I was there when the Mabo decision was handed down and Keating’s challenge to Hawke’s leadership. I witnessed the rise and fall of the Australian Democrats and the Liberal Party in-fighting between John Howard and Andrew Peacock. It was an incredibly exciting and stimulating time.”
Chris carved out an impressive career spanning major networks and mastheads, including as a Senior Political Journalist for The Age. He spent many years as a foreign correspondent for SBS TV’s Dateline, reporting from more than 30 countries across six continents. A wave of redundancies at The Age in 2008 presented him with the longcraved opportunity to write a book, and he penned two narrative nonfiction works – The River (2010) and The Coast (2012).
Though critically acclaimed – The River was named ACT Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Walkley Book Award – neither garnered commercial success. He returned to Fairfax, this time as a video producer, but missed long-form writing. His sights set on writing a novel, he settled on the crime fiction genre, influenced largely by his former Bathurst lecturer and prodigious crime writer, Peter Temple.
“He made a huge impression on me, on everyone who did his courses,” he recalls.
“I didn’t think I was a good enough writer to write literary fiction, but if I could write a crime book with a good plot as its skeleton, that could support the rest. But Peter had demonstrated that you can do a lot more with a crime book beyond simply having a good plot; you can address issues of morality and ethics and produce some very fine writing.”
His debut novel Scrublands (2018), the first in his series following troubled journalist Martin Scarsden, catapulted to the top of the bestseller list in Australia and internationally. Chris was taken completely by surprise.
“I had fairly low expectations. In retrospect, that was quite liberating; I wasn’t trying to impress a publisher, sell lots of books or win a prize. I just wanted to write a good book.”
The series, to which he has since added Silver (2019) and Trust (2020), went on to win multiple major awards, and Scrublands took out the coveted Crime Writers’ Association Dagger New Blood Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2019. He has also authored a second series featuring homicide detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan as protagonists: Treasure and Dirt (2021), The Tilt (2022), Seven (2023), and The Valley, released in October 2024.
Known for their immersive Australian settings and layered plotlines, Chris’s novels tackle a diversity of contemporary issues, from water trading to corruption, gambling, climate change and Aboriginal dispossession. His books have sold over a million copies and have been translated into numerous languages. Scrublands has also been adapted by Stan into a hit television series.
“The opening scene where the priest shoots the parishioners is absolutely how I’d imagined it. It was so well done. The first episode totally sucked me in; I wanted to know what would happen next,” he says.
The second series, based on Silver, is in post-production, and the producers have optioned the Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan series for future adaptation. Now immersed in a national book tour promoting The Valley, Chris – who has written a book a year since Scrublands – is exploring ideas for his next novel.
“I’m considering writing another Martin Scarsdon book, but don’t hold me to that… check back in October 2025!”
You can read more about Chris's latest book, The Valley on page 42.
In a way, I wouldn’t be a full-time crime writer now if I hadn’t gone to Bathurst 40 years ago.
Chris Hammer Bachelor of Arts Communication (Journalism), 1985.
