Pioneering spirit the star of top print award

The 2019 ACAJ Star Prize for Excellence in Rural Print Journalism has been won by a reporter on one of the smallest newspapers in the country.

Peter De Kruijff got the gong for a front-page story in the Kimberley Echo on the passing of one of the Ord Valley’s agricultural pioneers, Raymond Bernard Dessert III, better known as ‘Spike’. View article here: Vale Spirit of the Kimberley

The judges said it was written succinctly yet with character and painted a vivid picture of a man who was clearly an inspiration in the Kimberley – a multi-faced story which touched on important agricultural history, pioneering value-adding and the challenges faced by all agricultural entrepreneurs.

Peter has won a trip to this year’s International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ (IFAJ) Congress in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where his story will go up against the best in the world in the annual IFAJ awards.

For more information, contact Pete Lewis on 0408 722 113