Literary legend named UniSQ Honorary Fellow

A morning spent with his 15-year-old daughter.

Two fried eggs and avocado on sourdough.

And being named a 2024 Honorary Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland.

Those are the first things that come to the mind of Australian journalist and best-selling author Trent Dalton when asked to name three good things.

Still buzzing from the glowing reviews of his latest book-turned-theatre-production Love Stories, Trent Dalton today attended the official ceremony at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) Toowoomba campus, where he was conferred as an Honorary Fellow.

Trent said the honour had prompted him to stop and reflect on his journey and career since he first stepped onto the Toowoomba campus in the 1990s.

“The past five years of my life in particular have been extraordinary, and I need to honour the 18-year-old who was going to UniSQ,” he said.

“He was so lost, but so hopeful and so optimistic. He’d come out the back end of some really brutal and kind of bizarre teenage years, but that guy would be so proud of 45-year-old me.”

Trent chose to attend UniSQ for a fresh start away from Bracken Ridge, the housing commission, and the tumultuous childhood he would later write about in his bestselling novel Boy Swallows Universe.

It was a monumental decision for an 18-year-old who had always felt an “invisible wall” surrounded kids like him.

“It was a real threshold moment because, in so many ways, it was like I was saying goodbye to one world and stepping into another,” he said.

Trent distinctly remembers the first day he stepped onto the Toowoomba campus – the brown brick buildings and the lush green grass so vastly different to the dry, dusty yards of Bracken Ridge.

Media Studies was his first foray into journalism – a practical, hands-on course taught by the late great Neil Mudge, who helped this aspiring storyteller find his voice.

“He just handed us these little recorders and said, ‘Go out and get a documentary’, and that was the beginning,” Trent said.

“That turned into Love Stories – a play that’s now selling out QPAC. That all began at UniSQ.”

“Neil Mudge taught me that you do not need permission to go out and talk to a stranger and get yourself a story. And that’s all I’ve been doing for the past 25 years.”

As Trent describes it, he’d spent his teen years just getting by and surviving, but his studies at UniSQ allowed him to truly start living.

'The invisible walls don’t exist’

But his studies weren’t all smooth sailing. Trent recalls the moment he realised he needed to pay for all his textbooks upfront.

With his dad raising four boys on his own on a single parent pension and Trent having spent his savings making the move to Toowoomba, his study journey was almost over before it had even begun.

But Trent’s eldest brother Joel, hardly flush with cash himself at the time, gave Trent the $500 he needed to buy his books and attend his classes with half a chance.

“It seems so small, but Joel knew the importance of that gesture – he opened that door for me,” he said.

It wasn’t the only time Trent was immensely grateful for the kindnesses of his friends and family.

Unable to afford his own place at the time, Trent remembers staying at his mate Ben’s flat on Hume Street. Trent slept on the kitchen floor and vividly recalls the nights spent with his feet nestled in the open cupboard under the sink.

“There was just this series of events, and this group of people who were pushing me to just go for it because they suspected it might not be a total waste of time. And that it wouldn’t be a waste of money,” Trent said.

“That was just the best investment I’ve ever received in myself.”

Trent said he was particularly proud to be recognised by a university that offered so many flexible learning options and different pathways for people who had not had the smoothest or most traditional learning pathways.

“All education institutions could learn a thing or two from UniSQ in terms of looking out for people from all walks of life,” he said.

“There are so many out there finishing Year 12 right now who are thinking, ‘These worlds aren’t for me; I’m not allowed to enter these worlds’.

“But the invisible wall doesn’t exist. We put that up ourselves, but it’s not real.

“That’s a big part of why I wanted to accept this Fellowship in the first place – for all those kids who might think they’re one thing now … but what if one day you’re this?

“What if one day you’re standing in a bloody graduation cap?”

‘Find your optimism’

A common thread uniting Trent Dalton’s literary characters (himself included) is an unyielding sense of hope and optimism for the future, despite – or perhaps in spite of – the treacherous or dangerous circumstances in which they find themselves.

Trent said it was this supposed “blind optimism” that had formed the bulk of any criticism he’d faced. But his optimism wasn’t all that blind.

“I often have to stop people and just see if I can elaborate on where that optimism actually comes from,” he said.

“The only option for some people is optimism because the alternative is just being lost forever. The alternative is just so dark you don’t even want to look at that.

“UniSQ, for me, was literally on a plateau; you go up those hills, go up that Toowoomba range, and you find your optimism.”

The main character of Trent Dalton’s latest novel, Lola in the Mirror, is a sketch artist, and a pivotal moment for her is learning that to sketch the light in her artworks, she must first sketch the darkness around it.

It’s a metaphor Trent has embraced for his life.

“That’s what UniSQ was for me; it was heading towards the light. It was like sun rays breaking through,” he said.

“Places like UniSQ have to exist because you need to have those places to shoot for.”

‘It gets good’

Trent’s career as a news journalist and author has been diverse and groundbreaking – from exposing the scourge of domestic and family violence in Australia, to finding the glimmers of hope and humanity amid the devastating Brisbane floods, spending two months listening to love stories from strangers in the middle of Brisbane City, and everything in between.

But there is one key answer Trent hopes his readers might take away from all his works.

“Love wins.”

“That’s such a sentimental, cheesy answer for anyone to have, but it's true.

“I’ve seen it countless times as a journo and I've seen it in my own life. Love always wins.”

It’s this love that washes over Trent as he recalls one exceptionally vivid memory from his UniSQ years. One simple “moment of normality” following a childhood and adolescence entwined with chaos and complexity.

“It was one of my happiest days. Mum and Dad were together after years of The Troubles – capital T, capital T,” he said.

“They hopped in a car together and drove me, with my bag of stuff, to Toowoomba. They dropped me out the front of the Toowoomba Library and I remember just waving them off, watching my mum and dad drive back to Brisbane.

“And that was just such a beautiful, tender moment. Boy Swallows Universe could have ended right there because it was so real and honest and such a full-circle moment for me.

“They knew what it took me to get to Toowoomba that day and they were just so proud of me.”

When asked if he could travel back in time to say anything to 18-year-old Trent outside the Toowoomba Library, about to embark on his study journey at UniSQ and start finding his voice, the answer was simple.

“I’d love to tell that kid three words: It gets good,” he said.

“Actually, I’d turn it into four: It gets real good.”

Trent Dalton was officially conferred as an Honorary Fellow at the UniSQ Toowoomba campus today (26 September)

The full list of UniSQ Honorary Award Recipients for 2024 are as follows:

• Professor Mary O’Kane AC – Doctor of the University
• Katherine Bennell-Pegg – Doctor of Engineering
• Professor John Billingsley – Emeritus Professor
• Professor Linda Galligan – Emeritus Professor
• Professor Patrick Danaher – Emeritus Professor
• Professor Rhod McNeill – Emeritus Professor
• Raynuha Sinnathamby – Fellow of the University
• Paul McVeigh – Fellow of the University
• Brett Otto – Fellow of the University
• Eve Fraser – Fellow of the University
• Russell Dykstra – Fellow of the University
• Trent Dalton – Fellow of the University