ABC Landline journalist wins national

broadcasting award

Experienced Queensland ABC television journalist Pip Courtney is heading to Canada to represent Australia after winning the 2011 Rabobank Australian Star Prize for Rural Broadcasting.

Courtney’s success was announced today (Tuesday, May 31) at a gathering in Brisbane of the Rural Press Club of Queensland. She took out the overall prize in the prestigious competition with ‘Pipe Dreams’, a story about the coal seam gas industry and its impact on farmers broadcast nationally on Landline in May, 2010.

The piece also won the television category of the Star Prize, which is organised annually by the Australian Council of Agricultural Journalists (ACAJ) to honour excellence in reporting on issues relating to agriculture.

NSW New England North West ABC rural reporter Julia Holman, based in Canberra, won the radio category with a story about the locust plague in south-eastern Australia.

Western Australian ABC rural reporter, Flint Duxfield, based at Esperance in the State’s south-west, won the online category with a web feature exploring how Australian farmers are using social media platforms to market produce, source information and communicate with customers.

Landline journalist Sean Murphy was highly commended in the television category for a story about the collapse of the lucrative WA rock lobster fishery.

Tropical North Queensland ABC rural reporter Nicky Redl, from Mackay, also received a highly commended in the radio category for a report on agricultural research in East Timor.

ACAJ president Liz Harfull said the judging panel was extremely impressed with the winners in this year’s competition which had attracted significantly more entries than the inaugural award last year, particularly in the online categories.

“This form of broadcasting is obviously coming of age for journalists working in the rural sector in Australia. More journalists are now using a variety of mediums to convey a story, often working outside their traditional comfort zones to combine audio, video, text and photos, and links to other web-based material.

“For this reason, the judges this year decided to combine the categories for online pieces using audio and video, so they could consider the entire package in a way that made more sense given the direction web-based reporting is taking us.”

Judges found this year’s overall Star Prize winner was an extremely thorough piece of television, which was incredibly comprehensive and well researched. “It is a brilliant piece that holds you to the end. The research was comprehensive and in depth. The result is a balanced examination that lays the groundwork for other journalists and decision makers to better understand the issues involved,” the judges said.

Courtney researched, produced and wrote the story, which explored increasing resistance to the coal seam gas industry because of emerging environmental concerns, pressures on local infrastructure, and increasing opposition from landholders.

The Queensland State reporter for Landline, Courtney joined the ABC 25 years ago in Tasmania, working in both radio and television news. She first joined Landline in 1993, and has won multiple awards for her work, including being named a finalist in last year’s inaugural Star Prize.

Flint Duxfield’s winning web feature, ‘Farmers don’t really use Twitter... do they?’ was published on the ABC Rural website in September 2010. The story challenged perceptions that farmers were slow to adopt social media platforms through a clever combination of both audio and video files, text and photos, and links to other online sites and Twitter accounts. “It was innovative and creative, and well researched and put together, managing to be both informative and entertaining,” the judges said.

Judges also praised Holman’s winning radio piece, broadcast on the ABC Country Hour in October, 2010, for its creativity and technical qualities. The story was timely and well told, and her use of sound effects such as the drumming of locusts on the move had taken listeners right to the scene.

The piece was recorded in the Victorian Mallee where Holman worked briefly last year. It focused on the ‘front-line’ efforts of Chris Douglas, the first farmer in Victoria to report beds of locusts on his property, in what had the potential to become the worst locust plaque in the region for 70 years.

In presenting the overall award, Rabobank State manager, Queensland/NT, Justin Harrison said the Star Prize was testament to the quality of rural broadcasting in Australia, and its contribution to rural industries and communities.

“As a major financier to the nation’s food and agribusiness sector we understand the important role rural journalists play in keeping local communities informed about agricultural issues,” Mr Harrison said.

“This year’s finalists reflect some of those issues which have challenged our farm sector during the past 12 months. They not only informed us, but entertained us too by applying both creativity and technical skill.”

The judging panel for the Star Prize comprised last year’s winner, acting ABC national rural reporter Sarina Locke, veteran rural radio and television broadcaster Neil Inall, and former executive producer of the ABC WA rural department, Alan Richardson.

All three national winners will now represent Australia in an international competition celebrating excellence in reporting on issues relating to agriculture. As overall winner, Courtney will fly to Ontario in September to attend to the award ceremony.

Rabobank is providing airfares and registration up to a value of $5000 for the winner to attend the event which will be a major feature of a five-day congress bringing together rural reporters and communicators from around the world.

Australia took out the overall international prize last year, and won both the television and radio categories.

Winning entries in the Rabobank Australian Star Prize for Rural Broadcasting can be viewed at www.acaj.org.au

Ends

Editor’s please note: For more information on the awards contact ACAJ president and award coordinator Liz Harfull on 0409 674 941, or ACAJ immediate past president Gordon Collie on 0409 473 343.

View the overall winner and winner of the television category - www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2010/s2888078.htm

View the winner of the online category - http://blogs.abc.net.au/rural/2010/09/farmers-dont-really-use-twitter-do-they-.html

Listen to the winner of the radio category http://www.acaj.org.au/nsw-radio-holman.mp3

View the highly commended story in the television category - http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2010/s2894273.htm

Listen to the highly commended story in the radio category – http://www.acaj.org.au/qld-radio-redl.mp3