YOU only need to open one of Tony Cavanaugh\u2019s books to see the impression his hometown has left on him.<\/p>\n
Now a best-selling author and award-winning writer and producer of a string of Australian television shows and movies, Cavanaugh still draws on experiences and friendships forged here even though he left town more than 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
The 65-year-old is now based in Sydney but spent his early childhood in Ararat, attending primary school at Ararat West then returning home from boarding school in Geelong whenever he could.<\/p>\n
Even from a young age he knew he didn\u2019t want to follow his father Michael into the used car business, Cavanaugh Motors in Ararat. An idealist, Tony set his sights on a career in film and television, both of which were still in their infancy in Australia in the late 1960s and early seventies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a lot of pressure to go into the car business. All of Dad\u2019s friends and my grandfather\u2019s friends would sit around with their whiskies and big cigars saying, \u2018Now Tony, what\u2019s this about films? What are you doing? Cars, son, cars.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was not meant to sell cars, so Dad went to this wedding in Ballarat one day and Hector Crawford was there. Dad literally chased him down in the carpark yelling, \u2018Mr Crawford, Mr Crawford, my son wants to work in film and television,\u2019 and Hector, in rusty Marlon Brando, Godfather voice said, \u2018Get him to contact someone at Crawford Productions,\u2019 and I did, and I got a job working on Matlock Police over the holidays,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were pretty groovy and even though they didn\u2019t understand what the hell I was doing with this film and TV thing, they were supportive of it. A lot of fathers would\u2019ve insisted that their son do something normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cavanaugh started as a runner on Matlock Police<\/em> and spent a bit of time working on Homicide <\/em>before heading to university in South Australia.<\/p>\n Returning to Melbourne he scored his first \u201creal job\u201d on The Sullivans<\/em> as assistant to the runner.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily for me the runner was totally inept and kept running through the back of shots while they were filming. You can only do that so many times before you get sacked, and Jerry did that three times before he was shown the door.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I got elevated to runner and I just ran. I did everything \u2013 I drove people around, I carried things.<\/p>\n \u201cThen someone said to me early on, are you film or sound? And I thought what the hell are you on about?<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to work in something, like you\u2019re a runner at the moment, you\u2019ve got to aspire to something, you can aspire to be a camera guy or a sound guy.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSound is those guys who hold the boom. I\u2019d done every job on the film crew and the only one I\u2019d failed was holding the boom because they were so bloody heavy.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I said no, I\u2019m not going to do sound and I started hanging around camera guys and made my intentions clear to them. I want to be with you guys, you guys are cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Taken by the professionalism of famous actors who starred on The Sullivans<\/em>, Cavanaugh decided he wanted to be a director.<\/p>\n These were the days when Crawford Productions was huge with shows like The Sullivans<\/em>, Cop Shop<\/em>, and Skyways<\/em> in their stable. Cavanaugh was given room to move around the studio and when he said he wanted to be a script editor he got to sit behind a desk for the first time as a script editor for The Sullivans.<\/em><\/p>\n In the mid-1980s he was asked to create The Flying Doctors<\/em> into a series, devising each story, hiring writers and overseeing the editing of all scripts, while liaising with the directors and actors.<\/p>\n He left Crawford\u2019s after the first season of The Flying Doctors<\/em> and became a freelance writer, story editor and script editor for all the major Australian production companies on a diverse range of television series.<\/p>\n But possibly his biggest break in the industry came in 1989 when he co-wrote and produced the Australian film, Father<\/em> which starred Max von Sydow. The screenplay was shortlisted in the 1990 Victorian Premier\u2019s Literary Awards.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce I saw this amazing actor saying my words, I thought, I think I\u2019m a writer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cavanaugh formed Liberty Films in 1991. Its first production was Fire<\/em>, a 13-hour drama mini-series. As creator of the drama, Cavanaugh also wrote and edited the scripts and produced the series, which was nominated for Most Outstanding Mini-series and Most Popular Drama at the 1994 Logie Awards.<\/p>\n His next production was The Day of The Roses<\/em> which told the story of the 1977 Granville rail disaster that claimed the lives of more than 80 people. It won a Logie for Best Drama Production.<\/p>\n He describes The Day of The Roses<\/em> as a huge learning curve, but also a highlight of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a big learning curve for me because I thought all the people who had been a part of that (tragedy) would\u2019ve gotten over it because it happened 20 years earlier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A one-hour meeting with survivors, witnesses and families before production began, turned into nine hours with survivors weeping on Cavanaugh\u2019s shoulder telling their stories.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I could think was stupid me. You can\u2019t forget a tragedy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n But the mini-series caused a stir at Network 10 when major advertiser Toyota withdrew its advertising three nights before the mini-series premiered because executives felt it was too depressing and sad.<\/p>\n Television audiences thought otherwise, with 50 percent of the country tuning it to watch the first part.<\/p>\n \u201cThe day after it went to air, there were three of us who went to work at 7.30 and the phones were ringing,\u201d Cavanaugh recalls.<\/p>\n \u201cThe three of us were taking phone calls all day from people who\u2019d seen it and were touched by it, but the call I took which was representative of all the others was from a woman who said, \u2018I want to thank you for all you did because my father was there and in 20 years he has never spoken of it and if we ever brought it up he\u2019d get really angry at us and shout at us. I watched it with him last night and now I understand him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Cavanaugh then wrote Through My Eyes<\/em>, the story of the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain. The script was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier\u2019s Literary Awards and was nominated as Most Outstanding Mini-series at the 2005 Logies.<\/p>\n In 2008 Cavanaugh produced and script edited the film, In Her Skin (I Am You)<\/em> which starred Sam Neill, Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto and Rebecca Gibney.<\/p>\n It was at this time that his company found itself in financial trouble and led to a \u201crange of catastrophes\u201d. His company went bankrupt, his marriage broke down and he ended up with an alcohol dependency.<\/p>\n \u201cI ended up with a wreckage of a life in a hotel room on the Gold Coast scratching for money,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough all that I thought there are two ways forward: one is to sink into the hole, that\u2019s easy, and the other one was sucker it through and focus on what you enjoy, which is writing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I wrote a book, because if you write a book, you wouldn\u2019t have any of those nightmarish idiots yelling at you.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d get up in the morning and there\u2019d be 40 emails from people in Hollywood and Sydney hassling me and I thought life is too short, all I want to do is tell a story. It can\u2019t be that difficult, surely.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what the hell I was doing but I really enjoyed the process. I did know a couple of publishers from connections with actors and I knew the people at Hachette, so I emailed them and told them I was writing a book.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were very encouraging, so I sent them the first few chapters and they said this is great, keep sending it. With that as a beacon of hope and a destination to aspire to I just kept writing. I wrote Promise<\/em> really quickly, in three months.\u201d<\/p>\n Promise<\/em> is the first of a series of four novels featuring the character of ex-homicide detective Darian Richards who chases a sadistic killer over the four books.<\/p>\n Cavanaugh drew on experiences of ex-FBI profiler named Claude Minisini and former head of Melbourne Homicide Squad, Lucia Rovis to authenticate the psychology of the killer and anything crime related.<\/p>\n Cavanaugh relished the freedom of writing for himself, as opposed to be scrutinised by film and television editors and investors.<\/p>\n \u201cNovel writing, firstly you have creative control. You don\u2019t work with idiots, most of whom are driven by their own agendas and offer comments that you think, oh my god. It\u2019s the bane in every screen writer\u2019s life unless you carry a lot of clout. It\u2019s really difficult because you\u2019re writing to a committee of people. Everybody who puts a dollar into the making of a TV show or a movie legitimately has a say.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my mates was writing a script a couple of years ago and he received a bunch of script notes from America which asked on page three it says the hero walks into the kitchen and takes a beer out of the fridge. What sort of fridge is this? What\u2019s the capacity of the fridge? On page six he goes in and turns on the television, is this a flat screen?<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the notes related to descriptions of the white goods and finally when he asked one of the Australian producers who this guy was, he was told one of the money men is a billionaire in Kansas and he made his money in white goods and his son wants to get into movies so he gave the script to his son, so you have to listen to his notes because he\u2019s putting in a lot of money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Writing fiction has also given Cavanaugh the chance to use personal experiences in his stories and he has drawn on his experiences of growing up in Ararat.<\/p>\n The Darian Richards series make frequent references to Ararat, particularly Mount Disappointment and Mount Misery. Both mountains were named after explorers looking for an inland sea.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always loved those mountain as you drive towards Ararat. Every time Dad would drive me up from Melbourne or Geelong, I\u2019d stare at them and think what were they thinking?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not very far from Melbourne. If you\u2019re searching for the great inland sea, you\u2019ve got a long way to go guys. Disappointment? Misery? Really?\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n Cavanaugh describes himself as a magpie, cherry picking information and experiences \u2013 stuff he has always wanted to bring into a book.<\/p>\n When he wrote his most recent novel, Blood River<\/em> he based the character on a gangster he\u2019d met in Thailand. It was around the same time that Ararat resident Bill Waterston had made contact with him, and Cavanaugh decided to name his main character after his old Ararat mate.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a whole bunch of Ararat names in the books. I guess because I was spiritually in tune with Ararat, I don\u2019t know. Bill is one of my favourite characters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cavanaugh has recently completed a new novel \u2013 his first without a publisher already lined up. That\u2019s a process he\u2019ll explore in coming months.<\/p>\n But he warns this new piece is completely different from his other books.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s set in 1927 in Honolulu and all the characters are Chinese or Hawaiian. I\u2019m going to start a different stream of books around a bunch of Chinese detectives and three Chinese woman who work in a nightclub.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a very motely band of detectives who are going to open up a private eye company and they\u2019re going to be hopping around the islands in the 1920s.\u201d<\/p>\n He has worked with an author in Honolulu to provide the authenticity of place and era.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YOU only need to open one of Tony Cavanaugh\u2019s books to see the impression his hometown has left on him.
\nNow a best-selling author and award-winning writer and producer of a string of Australian television shows and movies, Cavanaugh still draws on experiences and friendships forged here even though he left town more than 50 years ago.
\nThe 65-year-old is now based in Sydney but spent his early childhood in Ararat, attending primary school at Ararat West then returning home from boarding school in Geelong whenever he could.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Tony-Cavanaugh1.jpg?fit=1536%2C1544&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-cb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}