Judges - Melbourne Press Club

2006 Quill Awards Categories & Judges

Chief Judge Professor John H. Phillips Monash University Gold Quill David Broadbent (Chair), Peter Blunden, Michael Gawenda, Bev O’Connor Grant Hattam Quill Award for Investigative Journalism in any Medium John Lawrence (Chair), Sylvia Bradshaw, Phillip Chubb Lifetime Achievement Award The committee of the Melbourne Press Club Young Journalist of the Year Award Marco Bass (Chair), Nick Richardson, John Tidey RACV Transport Quill Ian Henderson (Chair), John Allin, Nick Richardson Best Columnist Jim Clarke (Chair), Gayle Austen, Peter Cole-Adams Best News Photograph David Clemson (Chair), Neil Spark, William West Best Sports Photograph David Clemson (Chair), Neil Spark, William West Best Features Photograph David Clemson (Chair), Neil Spark, William West Best Three Headlines in any Medium Rob Curtain (Chair), Martin Curtis, Chris Hornsey Best Page Layout Mike Smith (Chair), Lorrae Willcox, Ted Cavey Best Cartoon Doug Weller (Chair), Josh Durham, Patrick Boyce Best Sports Story in any Medium Garrie Hutchinson (Chair), Bruce Phillips, Kate Arnott Best Business Story in any Medium Gayle Austen (Chair), Jim Clarke, Bruce Baskett Best TV Camerawork in News & Current Affairs Steve Thompson (Chair), Terry Carlyon, Clive Duncan Best Suburban Report in Print Bob Kearsley (Chair), Bruce Phillips, Corrie Perkin Best Regional or Rural Affairs Report in any Medium Peter Klages (Chair), Julia Balderstone, Ted Cavey Best Illustration in any Medium Gene Bawden (Chair), Ian Scott, Chong Weng Ho Best Graphics in any Medium Gene Bawden (Chair), Ian Scott, Chong Weng Ho Best Deadline Report in any Medium John Lawrence (Chair), Doug Weller, Jim Conway Best On-line Report John Allin (Chair), Maree Curtis, Ian Henderson Best TV News Report John Trevorrow (Chair), Tim Mitchell, Lina Caneva Best Radio News Report Bob Kearsley (Chair), Mike Richards, Nasya Bahfen Best TV Current Affairs/Feature Lina Caneva (Chair), Rob Curtain, Paul Bethell Best Radio Current Affairs Report Michael Venus (Chair), Phillip Chubb, Agnes Cusack Best News Report in Print Mike Richards (Chair), Tim Winkler, Josie Vine Best Feature in Print Claude Forell (Chair), Chris Hornsey, Chris McLeod

Judges: Credentials

Professor John H. Phillips Professor Phillips is the immediate past Chief Justice of Victoria. He remains a reserve judge of the Supreme Court and is now a visiting professor with Victoria University

John Allin runs his own media and communication firm, John Allin & Associates. He was a journalist and editorial executive at The Age for 25 years, editorial training manager of The Age, editor of the Warrnambool Standard (Fairfax’s Victorian regional daily), Victoria Police media unit manager and head of media and public affairs at Deakin University. He is a Fellow of Leadership Victoria and a Board Member of Kilvington Girls’ Grammar.

Gayle Austen began her career in journalism with regional newspapers and radio in Victoria and the UK. She was a senior reporter with The Sun, The Age and The Economist for 15 years, specialising in urban affairs and business strategy. After establishing her own public relations consultancy in China, Gayle became Public Affairs Manager for Foster’s Group. In recent years, she has been Corporate Affairs Manager for Channel Seven, Principal of Gayle Austen Corporate Communications and Strategy Director for Royce Business and Communications Strategists. She is currently Head of Marketing and Communications for ANZ Institutional.

Julia Balderstone has a special interest in rural and regional affairs having devoted the past 17 years to initiating, reporting and editing rural stories as a journalist and communications consultant. Julia spent 11 years as a specialist agricultural journalist, working for Rural Press‚ Stock and Land and The Ballarat Courier before joining Australia‚s largest rural newspaper, The Weekly Times. While at The Weekly Times, Julia was the paper‚s Canberra-based National Affairs Writer, then Chief-of-Staff and later Deputy Editor. In 1999, Julia left journalism to become a Melbourne-based director of the international consultancy, Hill and Knowlton. During her three years at Hill and Knowlton, Julia founded a national Rural and Regional Affairs practice and managed major communication strategies for State and Federal Government as well as large corporations. Currently, Julia is a Senior Consultant at Currie Communications, where she provides strategic advice on national campaigns for large organisations such as Australia Post and Meat and Livestock Australia. Julia completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in public relations, politics and communication at Deakin University.

Marco Bass has been a journalist for 19 years starting in suburban newspapers. His career with the ABC began in Regional Radio before moving to Melbourne producing a range of programs for local radio. He worked as a producer for the Seven Networks ‘Today Tonight’ for two years before returning to the ABC’s 7.30 Report. Marco became Melbourne Bureau Chief of that program in 1998 and State Editor of News and Current Affairs in 2000. Marco has direct editorial responsibility for all metropolitan and regional radio news bulletins and the 7pm television news. He is Executive Producer of the ‘Stateline’ program and has management responsibility for the national coverage programs wholly or partially based in Melbourne such as AM’,’ PM’ and ‘The World Today’, ‘The 7.30 Report’, ‘Insiders’, ‘Inside Business’, ‘Australian Story’, ‘Landline’, and ‘Lateline’. In October 2003, ABC News and Current Affairs moved the Asia Pacific News Service to Melbourne. The bulletin schedule was greatly expanded due to major savings achieved with the introduction of new technology and work practices pioneered in Melbourne. ASPAC TV News now broadcasts 6 thirty-minute bulletins each day to the region via satellite. In all more than 90 journalists work on these programs in Melbourne and Victoria.

Gene Bawden after spending six years at The Age and two years at the Herald Sun as both illustrator and graphic designer, Gene Bawden is currently a full time lecturer in Visual Communication and Illustration at Monash University. He still contributes illustrations regularly to the Herald Sun Home Magazine.

Patrick Boyce Courier-Mail cadet 1965; The Age 1970 -1985: general reporter; Papua New Guinea Correspondent The Age SMH, 1972-75;(to PNG's independence) Chief of Staff, The Age; Assistant Editor( News); London Bureau Manager/Correspondent, The Age; Day Editor, The Age - resigned 1985. National Media Director Pope John Paul II's Australian visit 1986; 1987 planned prototype of new Melbourne Herald/Sun Sunday newspaper for News Ltd.; 1987 hired by Warwick Fairfax Jnr regime as editor of The Age and subsequently (on the collapse of that regime) essentially left journalism for saner rural and investment pursuits.

Sylvia Bradshaw 1980 - 1993 The Age Melbourne, last six years as marketing manager. 1993 - 1997 South China Morning Post, marketing director. 1997 - 1998 News Ltd Suburbans, national network manager. 1998 - 1999 News Ltd, ad director Sunday Magazine. 1999 to current News Ltd, general manager Leader newspaper group.

David Broadbent

Lina Caneva is an award winning Documentary Producer, Journalist, Media Adviser with 27 years experience in print and broadcast media. Began her career on an Age suburban newspaper progressing to a broadcast cadetship with the ABC. After 8 years defected to the commercial world and the Seven Network. Today she runs her own media business and production company.

Ted Cavey is a former news editor of The Age, editor of the Ballarat Courier and managing editor of the Warrnambool Standard.

Philip Chubb is widely regarded as one of Australia’s foremost media experts. He is the managing Director of Global Vision Productions and before helping start the company 12 years ago he had 20 years experience in newspapers, magazines and television.

Jim Clarke started his cadetship with the Herald and Weekly Times' Sporting Globe and over the next three decades was a journalist with the Sun News-Pictorial, The Herald, The Age, the South Pacific Post and The Star in Hong Kong. Clarke is a former editor of the Warrnambool Standard and a former chief executive and publisher of BRW. He won a Walkley Award and a Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year high commendation and is a former president of the Melbourne Press Club and chairman of the Magazine Publishers of Australia.

David Clemson is a former deputy editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. After several years in senior management for Fairfax, he managed two internet ventures and is now a partner in specialist publishing company Coretext Pty Ltd.

Peter Cole-Adams

Jim Conway has been a journalist in Melbourne for just over 30 years, nearly all of which has been spent in television news production. He commenced a cadetship with the Werribee Banner in 1969 before transferring to the ABC in 1970 where he spent 10 years. He then joined the Seven Network as a senior news producer until 1985 before moving to the ten network as a senior producer and later executive producer of news He was with Network Ten for 15 years before returning to the Seven Network as a producer on Today Tonight for 18 months. Jim then rejoined the ABC where he is currently senior producer of the 7pm television news.

Rob Curtain

Bruce Davidson Melbourne journalist Bruce Davidson is managing director of Pagemasters, which provides editorial services to newspapers throughout Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia. Bruce is a former news editor and features editor of The Sun.

Colin Duck

Clive Duncan

Josh Durham

Ian Henderson has been news editor/presenter of ABC TV News in Melbourne since 1992. Before that he served as ABC TV Europe correspondent for four years and is a former state politics and industrial reporter. Ian did his cadetship at Leader Associated Newspapers before joining the ABC in 1980.

Chris Hornsey

Garrie Hutchinson edits the Best Australian Sportswriting annual anthology for Black Inc. Garrie recently edited and introduced a collection of war correspondence, Eyewitness: Australians Write from the Front Line (Black Inc 2005). In 2006, Garrie Hutchinson published This Sporting Year (Hardie Grant) and Pilgrimage: A Traveller's Guide to Australia's Battlefields (Black Inc).

Hugh Jones Hugh Jones is Editorial Business Manager at the Herald & Weekly Times and has worked in print journalism for nearly 25 years. He was managing editor of special publishing projects for the Herald Sun for five years, during which time he edited several magazine series, one-off inserts and books. He is a former editor of The Weekly Times, and edited the paper's 125th anniversary book "The Bible of the Bush" in 1994. Hugh was sports editor of the Oxford Star in the late 1980s, and has also worked as a sub-editor for The Sunday Times and Today in London, for The Herald in Melbourne and The Examiner in Launceston.

Bob Kearsley is the Executive Producer News at GTV9. He has worked in the media for more than 40 years, mostly in television. He spent 17 years with the BBC in London and Asia before returning to Australia in the mid-eighties, and appointments with the ABC and the Seven Network. He's been with GTV9 since 1990.

Peter Klages is project managing a major advertising and editorial systems installation and business improvement program at APN Regional Newspapers in NSW and Queensland. He has been in the newspaper industry for 31 years, holding senior management and editorial positions at both Fairfax and News Ltd. He is a former general manager of The Illawarra Mercury, also a former Director of Operations for The Age in Melbourne and a former editor of the Sunraysia Daily, Mildura, Victoria.

John Lahey

John Lawrence now lecturing in journalism at Deakin University and the Melbourne Institute of Business and Technology (MIBT), has practised or taught journalism in 10 countries. He is a life member of and the international training adviser to the London-based Commonwealth Journalists’ Association and a former director of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism. He is a former training editor for the Nation group of newspapers in Nairobi, Kenya, and played a major role in the launch of China Daily, the first English language daily newspaper in the People’s Republic of China. In Australia he has twice held executive training positions with The Age and also worked on The Herald (Melbourne), the Brisbane Telegraph, The Swan Hill Guardian and Sunraysia Daily, Mildura. He has lectured in all Australian states for the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association (PANPA).

Kevin McQuillan produces TV news for the the ABC's Ausnet international service and teaches TV Journalism at RMIT University's Journalism course. A former News Editor at SBS-TV and Imparja-TV in Alice Springs, Kevin has been a radio and TV journalist, producer and correspondent for 28 years. He was Executive Producer of First Edition and Seven Days. He's worked in China, the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia. He's also on the executive of the Press Club.

Denis Muller is a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne, and conducts a policy research consultancy. He had a 27-year career as a newspaper journalist, mostly on The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. At the Herald he was chief sub-editor, news editor, night editor and assistant editor (investigations). At The Age he was associate editor and education editor. He left the profession in 1993 but subsequently has carried out a substantial body of research in the field of media ethics. His doctoral thesis was on this topic.

Beverley O'Connor

Kerry O'Shea is the Communications Manager for the Legal Services Board and Legal Services Commissioner. She has over 25 years experience in Government relations, communications and the media. She began her career on the Sun News Pictorial, and also worked for the Financial Review. She has a BA (Journalism) from RMIT and a PR Certificate from New York University.

Terry Phelan has 40 years experience as a photographer and pictorial editor for the Sun News Pictorial/Herald Sun. He was a photographer/pictorial editor for Sports Weekly, National Sports Magazine. Terry has won a Golden Eye World Press Photo Award, a Walkley Award and is three times winner of Sports Photo of the Year. Recently, Terry was Pictorial Editor of the official Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic books. He is currently freelancing.

Bruce Phillips has a degree in journalism from John Curtin University in Perth. He began his career with WA Newspapers and moved to Melbourne in 1980 where he joined the ABC. Bruce worked in television and radio and was frequently heard on the AM, World Today and PM programs. His last three years were spent as a foreign correspondent in the ABC's London bureau. He is currently director public information with the Federal Court of Australia where he assists journalists in coverage of court cases and issues. He also produces educational and training videos and publications.

Mike Richards is a former associate editor, and former deputy CEO, of The Age.

Ian Scott is currently Design Director at Watts Design, a Melbourne-based studio focussing on brand design and implementation, corporate promotion, book design and packaging. He has been on the Victorian council for the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) for the last three years. Ian has also been Creative Director for several graphic design companies and joint owner of a small publishing business, specialising in food and wine books.

Mike Smith is Chief Exeutive Officer of Inside Public Relations, an independent consultancy he formed in 2002. Before that, Mike was Australian chairman of Weber Shandwick Worldwide. then the worlds's largest public relations consultancy. He was a journalist for 25 years, including three as Editor of TheAge. He is a former member of the Australian Press Council and a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in 1987. Mike is chairman of the Ardoch Youth Foundation, deputy chairman of the Abbotsford Convent Foundation, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, a member of the advisory board of the Faculty of Arts at Deakin University and a member of the Rotary Club of Melbourne.

Neil Spark is the managing editor of Melbourne Weekly Magazine, Melbourne Weekly Bayside and the Emerald Hill Weekly. A journalist for 25 years, he’s edited magazines for the Text Media Company and worked for Australian Associated Press in Sydney and Melbourne, the Hobart Mercury and Maryborough (Qld) Chronicle. As well, he’s worked in government media relations.

Steve Thompson has worked continuously in the film and television industry since 1971 as a cinematographer. In the earlier part of his career, he worked in television news on a diverse range of assignments in most regions of Australia and in many overseas locations. Since moving into the freelance market in 1985, his work has principally centred on producing, directing and shooting client-direct commercials and corporate productions. He also works purely as a director of photography on various commercial, documentary and corporate projects.

John Tidey

John Trevorrow is deputy editor of the Herald Sun. He has 29 years experience in journalism, as a reporter, sub-editor, section editor and magazine editor.