Nance Haxton has proven her excellent reporting track record in Australia and internationally over more than two decades.
She’s a two-time winner of Australian journalism’s most prestigious honour, a Walkley Award, a dual winner of the Clarion Award for excellence in Queensland journalism, as well as earning a silver and two bronze trophies from the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs awards.
In June 2018 Nance was awarded a silver and a bronze trophy in the New York Festivals Awards for her ABC Radio documentary on blackbirding. She is now completing her PhD on blackbirding, through Griffith University. She has also been awarded two commendations in the Association of International Broadcasters Awards based in London, as well as a a Human Rights Radio Award, and a United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award.
She has a passion for justice, and sees her main motivation for working in journalism as giving those who do not normally have access to the media a voice.
This experience saw her recognised as Griffith University’s “Journalist in Residence” in 2016, with her contract extended to a two year residency. During this time Nance was awarded the bronze trophy in the 2017 New York Festivals Radio Awards for her radio documentary “A New Chapter for Stradbroke Island”.
As The Wandering Journo, Nance is now in the next stage of her storytelling career reporting stories of significance that are being missed. She aims to expose truthful and insightful stories to a national and global audience.
Nance produced stories for a range of national flagship programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for radio, television and online, from locations in the remote outback to major cities around the world for almost 20 years in a range of journalistic roles.
Her 2012 Walkley Award for Best Radio News and Current Affairs Reporting recognised her investigative series of stories titled “Justice System Fails Disabled Victims of Sexual Abuse“. The judges said: “Nance Haxton showed how journalists can be a catalyst for change. She took a difficult subject, researched it for months and wove her interviews into stories that clearly and emotively explained how disabled children were being discriminated against.” These stories were also a finalist in the Walkley’s Best Radio Feature category, and won the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2012 Best Radio Award.
Starting off with a cadetship at Quest Newspapers in Brisbane, Nance went on to become the sole reporter at the ABC’s Port Augusta outpost covering more than half the state of South Australia for ABC Radio and Television news.
During her stint in the outback Nance was recognised with the Walkley Award for Best Radio News story in 2001 for her coverage of riots at the Woomera Detention Centre, and was also a Walkley finalist for Best Coverage of Regional Affairs for the same series.
Nance graduated from the Queensland University of Technology in 2001 with a Masters in Journalism after completing her research thesis on “The Death of Investigative Journalism.”
After a year in the Sydney ABC Radio Newsroom, Nance became the South Australian correspondent for ABC Radio Current Affairs, reporting to AM, PM and The World Today.
Her work for the ABC in Queensland has been recognised with two Clarion awards – the 2016 Best Sports Report for her investigative series “Why Are Boxers Dying in Queensland?” and the Multicultural Queensland Award in 2014 for her PM radio documentary on Logan titled “Hope for the Future”.
Nance Haxton is also a qualified speech and drama teacher, university lecturer, adept speaker, MC, host and moderator.
She sees her greatest journalistic skill as empathy – which she learned from her intellectually disabled older brother Ashley. She would like to thank him for inspiring her daily to do all that you can with the skills that you have.