A Study Guide by Marguerite O'hara

© ATOM 2014 A STUDY GUIDE BY MARGUERITE O’HARA http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-533-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au CONTENTS 2 CURRICULUM GUIDELINES 3 THE CRIME GENRE 5 MAP OF THE AREA 6 CAST AND CREW 7 PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITY 7 SYNOPSIS 7 STUDENT ACTIVITIES: WATCHING, REFLECTING AND RESPONDING 11 RESOURCES AND REFERENCES CURRICULUM GUIDELINES Catching Milat is a dramatic reconstruction of how members of the NSW Police Department tracked down and secured the conviction of a notorious killer Ivan Milat. His murderous spree took place over a number of years in the early 1990s. While the film does show something of how Milat is thought to have operated and managed to escape detection for some years, the program is more concerned with the police enquiry (catching Milat); how the investigating team were able to link his movements and behaviour to the murders through a meticulous process of gathering INTRODUCTION evidence and following up earlier leads. Catching Milat is a two-part drama based on the events surrounding the investigation that led to the arrest and conviction of serial killer Ivan Milat. Most characters play the roles of actual people, but certain events and characters have been created or changed for dramatic effect. Incorporating stylised flashbacks and archival footage, Catching Milat is a television mini-series that returns viewers to a time when backpacking was a rite-of-pas- sage for young people eager to explore the world. Ivan Milat was arrested in 1994. Catching Milat is the story of the men who brought him to justice. Catching Milat is based on the book Sins of the Brother by Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy. The program was filmed entirely around Sydney, at loca- tions including Parramatta, Wattle Grove, St Ives, Terrey Hills and inner-suburban Balmain and Glebe. 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION Twenty years have passed since Ivan Milat was jailed in 1994 for the murders of seven backpackers in NSW in the early nineties. The story told in this program dramatises how the investigation unfolded over 6 months from October 1993 when Task Force Air was established to find the killer of these young backpackers. 2 The program would be of interest to senior and tertiary students of Legal Studies, Criminology and Media Studies. For students of Legal Studies and Criminology it provides a fascinating case study of the nature of the work of a police enquiry, revealing the time-consuming work required to establish a compelling and legally secure case against a suspect, revealing how sound research, forensic evidence, meticulous checking of older reports and checking leads from the public, cohesive team work and gut human in- stincts were all part of a successful murder enquiry. The program illustrates the kind of tensions that can develop during a police enquiry amongst the investigating officers on the taskforce who were under pressure to find the killer. Catching Milat also establishes a compelling picture of the relationship inside the Milat family, and in particular of Ivan Milat. While the program does not attempt to determine THE CRIME GENRE the reasons for Milat’s actions, it offers a chilling picture of a man whose motivations remain unclear, a disturbed thrill killer with very odd attitudes to women in particular. Milat, WHY ARE WE DRAWN TO who is serving seven consecutive life sentences for the 1 CRIME DRAMAS? murders, still denies having killed these young people. The question about whether Ivan Milat worked alone has never been ascertained one way or another, though he alone Why do many of us enjoy watching crime shows on televi- was charged and convicted of the murders. sion, whether based on true crimes or about fictionalised people and events? ‘The Backpacker Murders’ have become etched into Australian folklore where the bush and the highway be- From Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Breaking Bad many of us come the hunting ground for individuals to prey on inno- are drawn to dramas about a range of villains and their ex- cent young people. Elements of the 2005 Australian horror treme behaviour, individuals who enact their darkest desires, film ‘Wolf Creek’ play on the fears felt by young backpack- who go where most of us would never go. You only need to ers and their families hitching rides on country roads. Mick observe the crowds who sometimes gather to watch and Taylor, the menacing killer in this film is thought to have even film accidents and crime scenes to see evidence of been partly based on Ivan Milat. With the murders taking morbid curiosity about violence, perpetrators and victims. place in wooded forest country, the victims, all young backpackers picked up while hitching a lift on the Hume Most crime stories naturally have all the elements that make Highway, being driven into the forest where they are bru- for a compelling narrative: life, death, freedom, and justice. tally murdered — this is the stuff of nightmares. The open road leads into the bush that becomes the lonely and Do crime dramas stimulate and then release our deepest hidden final resting place of these young victims, a place fears and fantasies? where screams cannot be heard. The program explores how difficult it was to track down this when many of the Crime dramas may show us something about how the bodies remained undiscovered for some years and there criminal justice system works — and when, how and why it were few witnesses to Milat’s activities. doesn’t. They can show us what the process of investigating and identifying suspects really involves within the rules There are three main areas of interest in this program: operating under the law. They can also show us the time intensive cross-checking and following-up of tip-offs and 1 The process established by Task Force Air to identify leads. And they can provide a glimpse of the role of tech- and charge Ivan Milat with these crimes nology and know-how, revealing the increasingly important 2 How Ivan Milat and his family are represented in the role forensic and especially DNA evidence play in achieving program a conviction, even in so-called ‘cold cases’. However, many 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION 3 The tensions that developed between the members of crime shows understandably telescope much of this often the Task Force tedious work for dramatic purposes. In addition there are questions raised about the number What do you think are the main reasons why crime dramas, of guns the Milats owned and used for ‘hunting’. (In 1996 whether novels, plays, film or television remain amongst the stricter gun laws were introduced into Australia following most popular forms of entertainment, not just in Australia, the Port Arthur massacre) but all over the world? 3 criminals and their often highly glamorised lifestyles and not so much with the processes involved in arresting the criminals. How realistic their depictions of these individuals’ lives are is debatable. Catching Milat is different: essentially concerned with how the police collected information and enough evidence to result in a successful prosecution of their suspect. Other television crime series such as Broadchurch also focus on the search for a killer within a community, with false leads and media intervention along the way before the killer is finally caught. Others have a stronger interest in the personal lives of the police investigators and lawyers who secure convictions, such as Law and Order and Scott and Bailey. However, it is not uncommon today for crime dramas to include aspects of all these elements, sometimes with a lone detective or a pair of police officers solving the case. Catching Milat is not a ‘Whodunit’ or even a ‘Howdunit’. It is a true crime story that dramatises the events, recreat- ing the search for the killer. It is not a documentary film, although it does include television footage from the time. Many viewers will recognise the name Ivan Milat and the place in the Southern Highlands of NSW where the murders were committed and the bodies discovered — the Belanglo State Forest. The crimes became known as the ‘Backpacker Murders’, putting fear into hitchhikers and their families, particularly overseas backpackers. Many of us may recognise Milat from media images (his hatted, gun-toting ‘selfie’ must be one of the best-known and chilling images of any individual), know what he did, when, where and to some DRAMATISING TRUE extent how; what we don’t really know about is the investiga- 2 CRIME STORIES tive process that eventually identified him as the killer and ensured that the prosecution could gain a conviction. The stories told in many crime novels, plays, films and We will probably never know why Ivan Milat went on this television dramas are often drawn from real events and real killing spree. He has never admitted his guilt and is serving people. A writer may have read a brief report in a newspaper multiple concurrent life sentences in Goulburn jail, his file and used this information as the basis for a story. In some marked ‘never to be released’. cases, the crime may have been high-profile and attracted a lot of media attention, speculation and interest. Cases such as the ‘backpacker murders’ of the early 1990s in NSW generated a great deal of media attention as bodies were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest. In 1994, when Ivan Milat was arrested, charged and found guilty of these appall- ing and seemingly random acts of terrible violence, there was a sense of relief, particularly amongst the parents of young holiday makers and visitors to Australia.

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