For more than 30 years, Melissa Doyle has crafted a successful career telling other people’s stories. But for perhaps the first time ever, the journalist is turning the spotlight on her own narrative by appearing on genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?
“I was a bit nervous,” Melissa admits to TV WEEK of being a part of the much-loved SBS show that follows well-known Australians as they find out about their family history and lineage.
“I’ve always been way more comfortable telling other people’s stories – that’s who I am, I’m a journalist,” she says, adding that her “inner control freak” struggled, particularly as she had no idea where she was going each day.
“It was kind of wild and scary. But in the end, I was like, ‘OK, I’ll jump in the car and just go with it. It was really quite liberating.”
In Melissa’s episode, which screens on Tuesday, June 11, she discovers her paternal four-times great-grandfather, engineer John Busby, played an important role in designing a tunnel (Busby’s Bore) for Sydney’s water supply in the 1830s, before moving to the NSW Hunter Valley. His son James is regarded as the “father” of the Australian wine industry, as he introduced the first vines from Spain and France.
She then travels to New Zealand, where she finds out about her maternal grandmother, Mavis, who owned a sweets shop that also offered bootleg liquor!
Melissa chuckles at the boozy theme that appears to run on both sides of the family.
“I do quite like my wine, so that makes sense,” she says with a laugh. “But there’s something about Mavis’ story I love. She has a bunch of kids, her husband’s not there and she needs to make money. There’s a great market of men working the railway lines, who were ready for a tipple of something at the end of the day, a bit of moonshine to warm them up. She met the demand. And we all love a bit of naughtiness, don’t we?”
That tenacity has clearly been passed down to Melissa.
The 54-year-old has enjoyed a decorated career in the media, from her start as a news cadet at Canberra’s WIN Television, to later being a popular staple of breakfast television alongside co-host David Koch on Channel Seven’s Sunrise.
It was a job that certainly required strength, Melissa now realises.
“Over the years, there were times it did get quite overwhelming,” the journalist, who covered everything from the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania in 2006 to the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney in 2014, explains.
“I’ve come home from many stories that have almost broken me. [They] really had a massive impact on how I feel about the world. So, doing those stories, I’ve probably had my fill. They can take their toll.
“But [doing Who Do You Think You Are?] is a reminder that some of the things I’ve faced are nothing compared to the adversity my relatives faced. It’s a nice reminder, if ever I’m wavering in strength, to go, ‘Come on, you’ve got this in your blood – get on with it.’”
Melissa adds she feels “very lucky” to have come “from such long lines of gutsy women”, particularly as she moves into the next phase of her life, which includes writing books, creating podcasts, helming various radio and TV shows, charity work and, of course, spending time with her husband John Dunlop and their children, Nicholas, 22, and Natalia, 20.
And all while answering to just one boss: herself.
“I’ve really enjoyed being able to do things in my [own] time,” she says. “Just to explore different areas. I’m doing a lot of public speaking and keynotes on different issues. I’ve got more time for my charity work – I’m off to Africa soon with World Vision, which I’m so excited about.
“I’m able to talk to the boss, being me, and say, ‘OK, we’ll make sure we’ve got this time free so we can go.’ I feel grateful for where I am now.”
And while she may have a little more time up her sleeve now, Mel tells her fans, who may want to know more about her in the wake of WDYTYA?, to not hold their breath waiting for a memoir of her own.
“I’d rather tell other people’s stories,” she says. “Never say never, but I think, as a journalist, it’s my role to never make it about me. And I’m not in a hurry to make it about me. I’ll save my story for boozy dinner parties.”
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