Meet the people behind our passion: Natasha

Each member of our team is passionate about the role we play in making a positive impact in the community. Learn more about the people behind the passion and what makes them proud to be part of the work we do.

What is your role at the Information Access Group?

I’m a Senior Editor. I’m one of the small pool of freelance editors that the Information Access Group calls on. We’re a close-knit group – very dedicated to the Information Access Group and all that it stands for.

I like to say that my role is to make words better. There’s a lot more to it, obviously, but that’s the crux of it! Clarity, communication and consistency are my by-words. My company name is The Creative Precisionist, and editing is indeed made up of a curious mixture of creativity and precision. Some might call us pedantic, but that’s not quite fair!

It’s important to keep the original ‘voice’ of a text, while communicating as clearly as possible – that’s what we’re always juggling.

Tell us about a project you’ve worked on that you are proud of

The Report of the Inquiry into Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Beaumaris Primary School (and other schools) was hard to read and hard to edit, very hard. One of the good things about being in a small team of editors is that we’re there for each other, and that’s particularly important when we’re working on distressing content. We’d be messaging each other to check we were OK and reminding each other to take breaks and go for walks when it became too much. Hard as it was, I really feel we did some good with that report.

Also, the Preliminary Interim Report of the Interim National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention – again, it was very hard to read. Again, I’m very proud of our work.

That’s what I find most rewarding about the work I do at the Information Access Group – when I see one of these reports come out – and sometimes when reading about it in the news or watching the Premier of Victoria talking about it – I feel privileged to know I was a small part of it.

You were previously a practising solicitor – what path led you to transition from the legal field into communications and editing?

Ah, the law! It’s curious, isn’t it, that we make such huge decisions about our futures while we’re still teenagers? I was an academically bright 16-year-old, with a love of words and no scientific leanings, so a law degree seemed like an excellent plan. And then once I had a law degree, it seemed like a good idea to qualify as a solicitor.

But I think that part of me always knew that practising law wasn’t a good fit. To a certain extent, I think that lawyers are born, not made. If I’d stuck with it, I believe I would have been an OK solicitor, but who wants to be just ‘OK’ at their career? I worked for a year at one of Melbourne’s largest law firms and spent an awful lot of time writing articles for their in-house magazine…that should have told me something!

The law and I parted ways, amicably on both sides. I sent out a lot of CVs to publishing houses, and one of them took a chance on me and gave me a tiny book to edit – Contract Law in a Nutshell. I bought a copy of the Australian Government Publishing Service Style Manual, and a nifty little work called How to Edit (which still sits on my bookshelf), and basically taught myself to edit.

You specialise in legal and academic content. Was this specialisation deliberate and based on your background, or did you fall into this area of editing by chance?

There aren’t that many editors with a legal background, so law books became my niche. I branched out into communications more broadly – including working in-house in marketing and communications at two private schools and a major charity – but law books (for tertiary students and practitioners) still make up a large proportion of my work. From there, working on other tertiary books and then secondary education books, was kind of a natural progression.

You’ve worked for several book publishers in the past – what’s the most important thing you learned from working in that industry?

Many things, but one that comes to mind is: know your author! Different authors need different things from their editors, and it’s so important to communicate.

You have extensive experience supervising the production of publications. What is the most interesting or difficult book that you’ve worked on?

Anything that involves multiple authors. The yearbooks for the private schools, and the annual reports for the charity were all very challenging, especially in terms of obtaining approvals at each stage of the process, from edited text through to photo choice, design and layout.

As well as being a freelance editor, you’re also a writer, theatre director, actor and bassoonist! When did your love of theatre emerge?

Pretty much when I emerged from the womb, I think! I’ve always loved theatre. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love theatre. I started acting as a child, and – with very few gaps – I’ve been acting ever since.

I found my home in Melbourne’s wonderful independent theatre scene – in particular, my beloved La Mama Theatre, where I’ve performed several times. I also volunteer there. My finest moment as an actor came when the incredible Liz Jones – then Artistic Director of La Mama – gave a standing ovation to a show I was in. Unfortunately, she was in the front row, and the performing space was very small…and I almost head-butted her when I took a bow! But still – that moment was my Oscar!

I’ve directed quite a few productions, which is wonderful creatively, but rather all-consuming. I did burn out a bit, and when theatres re-opened post-COVID, I put the directing aside and went back to acting. I’ve directed just one piece since then – I couldn’t resist it, as it was 6 short plays written by my favourite local playwright, Cerise De Gelder, and it was called Death, Deceit…and Ducks. How could I say no?

What has been the most interesting or challenging role that you’ve played?

In early 2025, I played the role of Honey in an utterly surreal piece called The Butcher, The Baker…. I got to murder one of my lovers and take over his identity; and then, while masquerading as a man, murder my other lover – whom I thought was a man but who turned out to be a woman in disguise – and string her up from meat-hook! Did you follow all that? That was quite a role!

How important is it to balance the creative side of yourself with the corporate side?

So important. I don’t function well without the creative side of my life. It makes me better at…just about everything I do.