‘Bundle of Joyce’, The Don Burke investigation and Teacher’s Pet scoop The Walkley Awards
A joint media investigation by Fairfax Media and ABC into former television star, Don Burke, The Daily Telegraph’s scoop on Barnaby Joyce, and The Australian’s well-known Teacher’s Pet podcast by Hedley Thomas, have all been recognised at the 63rd annual Walkley Awards.
The Australian’s national correspondent, Hedley Thomas, won the award for best piece of investigative journalism for his podcast series, Teacher’s Pet, and took home the second Gold Walkley of his career. Thomas is the second journalist in the awards’ history to have received the Gold Walkley twice, having received his first in 2007.
The Australian’s Hedley Thomas receiving his second Gold Walkley last night in Brisbane
The Teacher’s Pet podcast, which has achieved more than 27m downloads globally, looks into the disappearance of a young mother living on the northern beaches, Lyn Dawson. The judges described it as a “masterclass” in investigative journalism.
“This has been an accidental success story. But I think largely because the story is so important. It’s one that I was first riveted by 17 years ago and I always wanted to re-visit,” Thomas said.
Thomas went on to thank Dawson’s family, friends and Cromer High students, as well as his co-partner in the project Slade Gibson, colleagues and wife for the work. He went on to thank the CEO of Harvey Norman, Katie Page, for being the first advertiser to come on board the project.
“I want to thank Katie Page, because this journalism costs money, lots of advertisers were reluctant initially to come on board. Podcast journalism is pretty new and this is a very dark story. It’s a story involving murder, sexual abuse of school girls, misogyny and domestic violence and Katie Page, who is the CEO of Harvey Norman, she came on board and supported it right at the start. I hope that is a lead for lots of other advertisers who will support this journalism from now on,” he said.
“I have come so far this year with this story thanks to Slade and everyone helping me, but I think none of it would be possible without the collegiate support of so many journalists in this room, people who audio and stories that I have relied on to create these podcasts and they’re still supporting me, and I’m immensely grateful. It’s been an accidental success in many ways, but the storytelling – even for an old dog like me who looks much better on a podcast than television – it can work, and this is what I want to do from now on.”
The event, which took place in Brisbane, also saw Fairfax Media and ABC both win awards for their investigation into sexual harassment allegations made against Don Burke, earlier this year. The journalists specifically recognised were Kate McClymont, Tracey Spicer, Lorna Knowles and Alison Branley, for both the print and television coverage.
The Daily Telegraph’s Bundle of Joyce exposé received two accolades, one for the headline, caption or hook and another for scoop of the year.
Sharri Markson, Christopher Dore and Kylar Loussikian were all recognized for the scoop, which Markson particularly has been forced to defend for the large part of the year.
ABC correspondent, Sean Dorney, took home the award for outstanding contribution to journalism while the ABC’s Four Corners took home four separate awards.
In total, News Corp took home the largest number of awards – 10– just beating the ABC’s nine awards. Fairfax Media took home four awards, while SBS and The Guardian Australia won two each. Seven West Media’s The West Australian, Schwartz Media’s The Monthly and Al Jazeera were also recognised.
The winners:
PRINT/TEXT NEWS REPORT
Award Partner Media Super
Kate McClymont, Lorna Knowles, Tracey Spicer and Alison Branley, The Sydney Morning
Herald, “Don Burke Investigation”
PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Naked Communications
Louise Milligan, Sashka Koloff, Mary Fallon and Lucy Carter, Four Corners, ABC TV, “I Am That Girl”
INNOVATION
Award Partner News Corp Australia
Guardian Australia Team, Guardian Australia, “Deaths Inside: Indigenous deaths in custody”
HEADLINE, CAPTION OR HOOK
Award Partner Qantas
Anthony De Ceglie and Brad Clifton, The Daily Telegraph, “BUNDLE OF JOYCE” “DELAY OLE!
DELAY OLE!” and “PEKING SCHMUCK”
FEATURE WRITING LONG (OVER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner UQ
James Button, The Monthly, “Angels or Arrogant Gods: Dutton, Immigration and the Triumph of
Border Protection”
FEATURE WRITING SHORT (UNDER 4000 WORDS)
Award Partner Fairfax
Leisa Scott, Qweekend, The Courier-Mail, “Holly’s Choice”
COVERAGE OF INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Award Partner PwC
Allan Clarke and Yale Macgillivray with Team Unravel True Crime, ABC Podcasts & ABC TV,
“Unravel: Blood on the Tracks” and “Australian Story: Blood on the Tracks”
COVERAGE OF COMMUNITY OR REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Award Partner BHP
Belinda-Jane Davis, The Maitland Mercury, “The Big Dry”
CARTOON AND ARTWORK
Jon Kudelka, The Australian, “From The Heart”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
Leo Schlink, Herald Sun, “The Big Fix”
SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
Scott Barbour, Getty Images, “Sport 2017—2018”
RADIO/AUDIO NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Award Partner ABC
Jane Bardon, AM, ABC Radio National Breakfast, ABC News Online, “Indigenous families appeal to NT Government to keep young people out of detention”, “NT child protection workers allege unmanageable workloads putting vulnerable at risk” and “Tennant Creek night patrols begin to have effect”
RADIO/AUDIO FEATURE
Award Partner Griffith University
Kylie Stevenson, Caroline Graham and Eric George, The Australian, “Lost in Larrimah”
PRODUCTION
Award Partner Google
Four Corners Production Team, Four Corners, ABC TV, “I Am That Girl”
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nine
Sharri Markson, Christopher Dore and Kylar Loussikian, The Daily Telegraph, “Bundle of Joyce”
COVERAGE OF A MAJOR NEWS EVENT OR ISSUE
Award Partner Lion
Drew Ambrose, Karishma Vyas and Liz Gooch, 101 East, Al Jazeera, “Rohingya Refugee Crisis”
NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Award Partner Nikon
Jenny Evans, Getty Images and The Daily Telegraph, “Life Saver”
BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Award Partner ING
Jonathan Shapiro, The Australian Financial Review, “Breaking Big Un”
FEATURE/PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Award Partner Nikon
Chris Hopkins, SBS Online Documentaries, “My Name is Yunus”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: CAMERAWORK
Award Partner Australian Super
Aaron Hollett, Four Corners, ABC, “City of Ghosts”
TELEVISION/VIDEO: NEWS REPORTING
Award Partner Seven
Alexandra Blucher and Mark Willacy, ABC 7pm News, ABC TV, “Corruption concerns at one of Australia’s biggest councils”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS SHORT (LESS THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner SBS
Lorna Knowles, Kate McClymont, Tracey Spicer, Alison Branley and ABC and Fairfax Team,
7.30, ABC TV, “Women claim Don Burke sexually harassed them” and “More people come forward with accounts of dealing with Don Burke”
TELEVISION/VIDEO CURRENT AFFAIRS LONG (MORE THAN 20 MINUTES)
Award Partner Network Ten
Four Corners Team, Four Corners, ABC TV, “Out of the Dark”
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Award Partner Bayer
Hedley Thomas and Slade Gibson, The Australian, “The Teacher’s Pet”
COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS, OPINION AND CRITIQUE
Mark Riley, The West Australian, “Atrocities committed in God’s name mean church will never sway me”, “Live exports to Middle East based on a lie”, “‘Disappointing’ Malcolm Turnbull comes under fire from his own faction”
WALKLEY DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Myanmar’s Killing Fields, Evan Williams, Eve Lucas and Georgina Davies, Dateline, SBS
WALKLEY BOOK AWARD
Helen Pitt, The House, Allen & Unwin
NIKON-WALKLEY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Award Partner Nikon
Dean Lewins, NBCnews.com, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Australian and Time
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO JOURNALISM
Award Partner Sky News
Sean Dorney
GOLD WALKLEY
Apple News
Hedley Thomas
