The ABC has historically played a key role in shaping Australia’s international engagement, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. But today – despite the best efforts of ABC International staff – its impact is significantly diminished, partly due to government budget cuts but also, argues Geoff Heriot, because of a lack of strategic direction in the national interest from government and insufficient prioritisation of the International Service by successive ABC Boards.   FACING A WORLD IN DIS...

It’s with great sadness that ABC Alumni reports the death of Allen Clark at the age of 75. Allen originally worked in the Organisation and Methods department in the old Broadcast House in Elizabeth Street in Sydney. He then became an accomplished broadcaster, finishing his ABC career in Wollongong. Allen played an important part in the industrial struggles of the ABC Staff Union as Vice President of the NSW Branch. He also played a significant role in assisting numerous union members with their...

Throughout her long career, Caroline Jones AO has championed women’s rights in the media, and beyond. On screen she led the way in the 1960s as a reporter on This Day Tonight, then hit the headlines in 1972 when appointed as the first woman to host Four Corners. Other high-profile roles followed, including more than twenty years as the trusted anchor of Australian Story. But she’s also renowned for paving the way for other women in very practical ways, most notably through mentoring, scholarshi...

On 19th August 2021 Four Corners celebrates 60 years as Australia’s premier investigative current affairs program. ABC Alumni salutes all those, past and present, who have contributed to the program. In this special series, we publish memories from Alumni who have worked in various roles, beginning with renowned archivist Wendy Borchers.It would be hard to imagine the free-to-air TV landscape without this iconic program which has consistently brought the powerful to account and helped to ensure...

MEMORIES OF THE GOLDEN EIGHTIES By Peter Manning / 11 August 2021 It says something about the state of Four Corners in 1981 that when I was offered a job there late in the year I thought I was being punished by management for misdeeds on the daily current affairs program.  The old battleship was a standing joke. We at Nationwide thought reporters decided their next overseas trips by throwing darts at maps. Jonathan Holmes arrived to take up leadership and found the television style “at least 10...

In 1988 the Hawke Labor government was preparing to ratify the Mineral Convention for mining in Antarctica. Environment groups, especially Greenpeace, were adamantly opposed to any mining in this remote and fragile part of the world. Executive producer Peter Manning commissioned reporter Tony Jones and producer Martin Butler to investigate. It was a memorable story in more ways than one.A treacherous wave, an iceberg – and a skua! By Martin Butler / 11 August 2021 In January 1989, from souther...

From time to time, ABC journalists are targeted by hostile governments. Usually the staff, who adhere to strict editorial guidelines, are supported by management. But when 4Cs reporter Andrew Fowler’s “Party Tricks” episode aired in July 2001 he and his team did not expect the harassment they experienced from an irascible ABC managing director.By Andrew Fowler / 11 August 2021   The Four Corners 40th birthday party in 2001. Plenty of self-congratulations. Everyone seemed pleased with the year. ...

David Brill is one of Australia’s most respected news and documentary cinematographers, renowned for his humanitarian approach to covering some of the most dangerous war zones and disasters. Mike Willesee, who worked with David Brill on Four Corners covering the Vietnam War in the 1970s, called him “the best cameraman of his era”, with the great ability to capture what was happening in one long take that told you more than the immediate action. Here David Brill recalls some of the memorable tim...

Kerry O'Brien is one of Australia's most respected journalists, with six Walkley awards including the Gold Walkley and the Walkley for outstanding leadership in journalism. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked for newspapers, television and a wire service, and as a foreign correspondent. Thirty-three of those years were at the ABC where he cut his teeth on the trail-blazing current affairs programs This Day Tonight and Four Corners. He was the inaugural presenter of Lateline f...

Wendy Borchers AM worked at the ABC from 1967 until her retirement in 2010. She says one of her proudest moments in her long television career was at Four Corners. She is co-author (with Tim Bowden) of the book “Aunty’s Jubilee: Celebrating 50 Years of ABC”, published in 2006, and is now ABC Alumni’s Rural & Regional Co-ordinator.  THE HOLY GRAIL By Wendy Borchers / 9 August 2021 The road to the birth of Four Corners sixty years ago was a rocky one for the founders of the program, executi...