Matthew Condon (born 1962) is a prize-winning Australian writer and journalist.

Biography

Educated at the University of Queensland and the Goethe Institute, Bremen, Germany, he is the author of ten novels and short story collections, including The Lulu Magnet, A Night at the Pink Poodle, The Motorcycle Cafe, and The Pillow Fight. The Trout Opera, an epic novel that took him more than ten years to write, examines the Australian character through its chief protagonist Wilfred Lampe, a rabbiter and farm hand who spends his entire life in the township of Dalgety, on the banks of the Snowy River. The Sydney Daily Telegraph described the novel as "an instant classic". In 2013, Condon published Three Crooked Kings, the first part of a biography of former Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis who was charged in 1989 and later jailed on multiple corruption charges. The book was based on Condon's extensive interviews with Lewis and others as well as archival material. The biography is continued in Jacks and Jokers (2014) and All Fall Down (2015). the author was writing for The Weekend Australian Magazine, the father of three children, based in Byron Bay. In late 2020 he released a podcast in conjunction with Whooshkaa Studios, "Ghost Gate Road", an investigation into the Queensland criminal Vince O'Dempsey and circumstances surrounding the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub firebombing in 1973 and the murder of Barbara McCulkin and her two children in 1974. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Australia Day Honours for "service to the community".

Novels

Children's fiction

Short story collections

Short fiction

Non-fiction

Edited

Awards and nominations