Estelle Blackburn OAM, is an acclaimed journalist with a career that has included working for WA Newspapers, the ABC and as a media advisor for Carmen Lawrence, Western Australia’s first female State Premier.

However, for this Walkley Award winner, perhaps her greatest achievement has been the impact made on the lives two men, wrongly imprisoned for crimes committed by Eric Edger Cooke, WA’s last man hanged in Fremantle Prison.

A chance meeting with the brother of John Button, one of these falsely convicted men, sent Estelle on the passionate pursuit for truth and the quest to right the wrongs of these injustices. And this included giving up her full time job and selling an investment house to fund this journey.

The story is featured in her award winning book “Broken Lives”. This example of fine journalism and the pursuit of citizen advocacy was instrumental the wrongful convictions of John Button and Darryl Beamish, being squashed.