UPDATE: Tune into ABC RN Big Ideas on 23 November for a discussion on this! In 2007 and again in 2008/09 I was lucky enough to spend time in Antarctica researching stories on Australia’s scientific work there, reporting on changes to the polar ice and Southern Ocean, and what they can tell us about our … Continue reading
I returned to PNG in September – thanks to the Walkley Foundation/Sean Dorney Pacific Journalism Grant – to collect field reports and interviews for a forthcoming story for The Monthly on climate justice. But as always in PNG, I came across so many other urgent and important stories. This was one of them. I was … Continue reading
As a serial ‘parachute’ journalist, dropping in & out of places not my own, I’m all too aware of the shortcomings of this model of reporting. Thinking out loud about how to tell truer, deeper stories of climate impacts in the Pacific in this critical moment, I’m grateful for the insights of Katerina Teaiwa and … Continue reading
I was supposed to be researching matters of climate justice in the Pacific. Instead over the long Melbourne lockdown in the pandemic winter of 2020, I was in my home nursing a bad case of Black Summer grief. This essay captures my attempts to wrangle that into something useful, going back to scientific experts who … Continue reading
Inside Story has just published the essay I contributed to the recently published NewSouth book ‘Living with the Anthropocene: Love, Loss & Hope in the Face of Environmental Crisis’. The book is in the shops now, and it’s a really thoughtful, energising, informing collection including voices like Tony Birch, James Bradley, Sophie Cunningham, Delia Falconer, … Continue reading
Feeling honoured, excited (and more than a bit freaked out) at being awarded a public interest journalism grant through the Walkley Foundation and its donors today. Not least because the grant is named for one of my reporting heroes and mentors, the ABC’s legendary Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney. My ambition with this project is to … Continue reading
I’ve hooked up with Dr David Paton’s annual summer surveys of the sublime Coorong area of South Australia several times over the years, most memorably taking my kids along as volunteers when they were small. They plucked tiny birds out of mist nets and weighed them, sifted the water for tiny larvae, released pygmy possums … Continue reading
This latest edition of Griffith Review is dedicated to nature writing, exploring a range of environments, investigating “how these places are changing and what they might become; what is flourishing and what is at risk”. It was a chance for me to reflect on the critical but complex business of conservation in PNG, visiting landscape, … Continue reading
My trip to PNG’s Managalas Plateau conservation area also yielded this radio documentary, produced in collaboration with ABC RN broadcaster extraordinaire Natasha Mitchell. While chasing the elusive and endangered Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly, we explore the hardships facing so many forest-dwelling communities in PNG. Link here. (Image: (COPYRIGHT MUSEUMS VICTORIA; PHOTOGRAPHER BEN HEALLEY) Continue reading
Very excited to win the 2017 Quill for Best Feature for my story on Antarctic glaciers and climate change for The Monthly Magazine. Link to the award and the judges comments, and the story, here: http://melbournepressclub.com/article/2017-quills–feature-writing Continue reading
Notebook & Narrative by Jo Chandler 