Filming Malcolm Naden’s Story

BRAD Cone, a documentary maker who grew up in Scone, was being briefed by police on the hunt for Malcolm Naden when they said they would be going to a place that no one in the room would have heard of; Stewart’s Brook.

Brad laughed and said his whole family had lived in Stewart’s Brook for generations and so the local boy returned with film crew in tow to chronicle the story of Malcolm Naden.

On the back of Mick Willing, the detective superintendent who was instrumental in the Malcolm Naden case, being awarded a Queen’s honour on the long weekend, Channel 7 are re-running the documentary directed by Brad tonight at 8:45pm.

We spoke to Brad about the making of the documentary:

“I was series producer of “The Force” a police show and on the back of that the boss of Channel 7 said they wanted to do a piece on Malcom Naden, so I spoke with Mick Willing and he took me through the whole case,” said Brad Cone.

“All of my relatives are there, the Collison’s, the Cone’s and the Tilse’s all had a story about Malcolm,” he said.

“And the McCosker’s, my cousins, they had a hut up in Stewart’s Brook for years and DNA from Malcolm was found all through this house and he’d unscrewed the tin, got in and lived there.

“What was funny was they had a small frying pan in there, they were very particular about this frying pan and Malcolm brought in a big frying pan which he must have been carrying in his bag, and he must have thought the smaller one would be easier to carry so he swapped them over and left the big one there.

“All of the stories out of Stewart’s Brook from people I knew were incredible and any chance for me to get up to that part of the world into God’s country is great, I could understand why Malcolm liked it,” he laughed.

“The actor who played Naden, Dominic Dates, wanted to stay in character, like some actors do, but we were up around the Stewart’s Brook area for two weeks and I’d drive him up around the area and we pulled up at the Moonan Pub and we’ve walked in to get a coffee and he scared the Be-Jesus out of about 10 people, but then I said to him, ‘you do realise there is quite a large sum of money on your head’.

“We had many of my cousins and friends as extras in the film and at night the crew got very comfortable with McCosker’s special bourbon, it was good to film at home,” said Brad Cone.

As much as Brad enjoyed filming the project being at home, he also felt pressure to make a documentary that was detailed and accurate in a very condensed time frame and wanted to tell the story of the victims properly.

“For me though with this story because the whole nation was so interested in it, we were under the microscope to get it right, so we were meticulous to make sure we got it right,” said Brad.

“The worst part of the story is that so many people thought of Malcolm Naden as a bush cult hero figure who evaded capture by the police, but the other side is for me, knowing what Naden actually did back in Dubbo to get that message right.

“At the end of the day there are six young kids who are growing up without their mothers because of what he did, so part of that film was showing people the full story.

“The actor did an incredible job and I showed the film to Naden’s aunties because a big part of this was making sure that the family and the kids that they got to see the film before anyone else did and Malcom’s aunty turned to me and said she was convinced we’d gone down to Goulburn and dragged him out of supermax to shoot the film because it was so like him.

“Once he was captured, while the police were building their trial to prosecute Naden I was then able to use that information to construct the film.

“We had access to all of the police interviews with Naden and things that have never and will never be released to watch him and get a feel for how he spoke and behaved.

“Lateesha Nolan’s mum and her family agreed to be in the film.

“For them, the torture they had been through, I mean they still don’t know the full story and he has made some half attempts to say what happened to her at the river in Dubbo, but there is still information that he is with-holding.

“So first they went from losing their mum and not knowing what happened to her and having seven years with him on the run and hearing all of these stories about how clever and cunning he was and to find out what happened to their mum, they have been through such torture,” he said.

“For them to tell their story was very emotional for them and it was hard for the police officers too who were close to them and they still keep in contact and they’ve created a memorial at the river where Leteesha was murdered,” Brad said.

Often after making a film, a director may look back and want to change the approach, shoot it differently or have different ideas, but Brad said this was the one film where he didn’t feel that way.

“If it was any other film I could say there are things I’d like to change, but with this one I can look back and say hand on heart our team did the best job we could and I think it changed the perceptions people had about Naden and that’s what we wanted, we wanted the truth to come out about him,” he said.

“Sure he evaded capture, he was the longest man-hunt in NSW police history and the most expensive, but at the end of the day he is a murder who committed horrific crimes and he will spend the rest of his life in gaol,” Brad Cone said.

Brad began his television career with videos at school, worked for NBN, Sky filming sport and then traveled the world filming for the defence force.

After the defence force Brad worked for Channel 9, Channel 7 and now runs his own production company with his wife Belle making documentaries.