The 2006 Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The Age last night scooped the pool at the premier Victorian journalism awards, The Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards.
Tony Koch of The Australian was awarded the 2006 Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year for his coverage of the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee while in custody on Palm Island.
Judges described the Age’s Mark Forbes’ ‘Execution Shock for Bali 9’ as an exemplary example of investigative journalism. In accepting his award Forbes paid tribute to his friends and colleagues who died or were injured in the recent Indonesian plane crash.
Michael Gordon, now editor of the Saturday Age, won best feature for his story on the treatment of refugees by the Australian Government and the release of the last two refugees from Nauru.
The Grant Hattam Award for best investigative reporting went to The Sunday Age’s Russell Skelton for ‘The Murder Capital of Australia’, detailing marginalised communities in Alice Springs. Age reporter Rebecca Urban won best news story in any medium for her investigation into the sacking of a senior Coles executive.
Royce Millar and Liz Minchin won best regional report for revealing links between councillors and business leaders in Geelong.
The best online report went to Gary Tippet and The Age online team for its coverage of the Beaconsfield mine tragedy. Andrew Rule’s Good Weekend piece on former cyclist Gary Neiwand won best sports story for any medium.
Best illustration was won by The Age’s Judy Green and Martin Flanagan was awarded best columnist. The Gold Quill was won by Channel Seven’s Brendan Donohoe.
Media Release March 23, 2006
CHILD ABUSE STORY WINS GOLD QUILL
Brendan Donohoe of Channel Seven has won the Melbourne Press Club’s 2006 Tattersall’s Gold Quill Award for his exclusive disclosure of abuse of wards of the State under the care of the Salvation Army.
The Gold Quill was awarded at the 12th annual Quills dinner attended by more than 500 people at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne tonight. The Quills are the premier Victorian journalism awards. The Tattersall’s Gold Quill is selected from 24 category winners.
The judges said that in a quality field of Quill winners, Brendan Donohoe stood out because of his story’s impact on the Victorian community and the exposure of a shocking chapter in Victoria’s history, a scandal kept hidden for decades. The report also won the Best TV news story category and a total of $5500 prize money.
The Melbourne Press Club made a Lifetime Achievement Award to former Age photographers John Lamb and Bruce Postle, described by the club committee as two of the greatest cameramen in the history of Australian Press photography.
Dina Rosendorff, of the Herald Sun, won the Young Journalist of the Year Award.
The Grant Hattam Quill Award for Investigative Journalism was won by Russell Skelton, of The Age.
The RACV Transport Quill was won by Brigid Donovan, Mara Blazic, Ron Ekkel and Elena Christie, of ABC TV’s Australian Story.
Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards for
Excellence in Victorian Journalism – 2006
Source: Fairfax Media
Release Date: 24 Mar 2007 00:00
