Judge’s Comments: “Jo Chandler was chosen for her compelling body of work exploring climate change. Her self-funded research and reporting delivered engaging features with very human insights into the complex facets of this century’s biggest story.” The Freelance Journalist of the Year Award is awarded by the Walkley Foundation, which oversees Australia’s most prestigious journalism … Continue reading
About 10 years ago, when I started writing about PNG and women, I got an encouraging email out of the blue from one Elizabeth Reid. I confess, I had to google her – only one of the most mighty (and modest) feminist wayfinders of the ’70s and beyond. She was Gough’s “supergirl” but has been … Continue reading
Thrilled to be have chosen as a finalist in the Mid-Year Walkleys for Freelance Journalist of the Year 2017. Big thanks due to Nick Feik, Editor of The Monthly, and Wendy Carlisle, Executive Produce ABC Radio National Background Briefing for the opportunities to go deep on stories – a rare opportunity for freelancers. The finalist … Continue reading
My story for Cosmos magazine on the work of research scientists in Papua New Guinea into that diabolical human foe, the malaria parasite. Photos by Mayeta Clark. Link here. Continue reading
“Find a nice, self-sufficient hilltop and fortify it.” – John Wyndham, ‘The Kraken Wakes’. My article in the latest edition of The Monthly – delving into the fast-flowing science of glacial melt, ice dynamics, warming oceans, and sea level rise. This piece has not been unlocked from behind the paywall: Link here. Continue reading
A decade ago, former Prime Minister John Howard announced a strategy to save the Murray-Darling Basin, ravaged by drought and overuse, “once and for all”. Now some states and communities say the pain of restoring the river is too great. Scientists are warning Howard’s vision of saving the river hangs in the balance. My story … Continue reading
This week on ABC Radio National I have a story up on the documentary program Earshot that I’ve long wanted to tell. It’s about how Maria von Trapp – yes, as in How-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-Maria/The Sound of Music – washed up on a PNG island with several of her singing tribe; how her stepdaughter (she was called … Continue reading
What a buzz to find my work alongside pieces by the likes of Garner and Flanagan in this collection, published by BlackInc and out today. Editor Geordie Williamson says some lovely things about the very grim piece chosen for this anthology, “Grave Barrier Reef”, describing it as “balanced, finely-grained reportage … a monument of rational … Continue reading
While working on a story on the impact of CSIRO cuts for Good Weekend a couple of months ago, I came across some startling science describing the scale and speed of shifts occurring on the Australian landscape as climate change bites. That was the kernel of what has become my second-ever radio documentary for ABC … Continue reading
One of the perks of the job is to meet the likes of Peter Doherty, and I’ve had the great luck to interview and chat with him a dozen times or so over the past several years. Indeed he kindly wrote a lovely endorsement of my climate book, a few years back. A gorgeous, brilliant, … Continue reading
