A Middle Ground News and politics Awards

Blackbirding

This radio documentary investigates a part of Australia’s history that many Australians do not know about – and what many are now dubbing the country’s secret slave trade. This story is about the ancestors of many modern day Australians. They were brought here against their will and forced to toil in the hot sun of a wide brown land far from home. They were more than 60,000 South Sea Islanders who in the latter half of the 19th century worked for a pittance on Queensland sugarcane and cotton farms.

Winner of the New York Festivals Radio Awards silver and bronze trophies.

Awards

A New Chapter for Stradbroke Island

For generations Stradbroke Island’s unspoilt sand dunes have made it a well-loved tourist destination. Those rolling dunes have also been the source of extensive sandmining operations under a range of mining companies since the 1940s. But that era is about to come to an end, causing a massive change to the local economy.

Awards

Boxing

This radio documentary investigates how two young men died after boxing matches in the space of five years in Queensland, raising questions about the safety of the sport. Queensland is the only state in Australia without formal regulations and legislation controlling combat sports such as boxing.

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Indigenous Diggers

This radio documentary investigates how Aboriginal people were legally excluded from serving in Australia’s armed forces, but that didn’t stop hundreds of them from lying about their heritage, so they could fight for their nation in many wars. They were equals on the battlefield, but when they returned, they were not given the recognition or entitlements that they deserved.

Awards News and politics Awards

Justice System Fails Disabled Victims of Sexual Abuse

This investigative radio documentary that Nance Haxton produced, reported and mixed on her own, won the Walkley Award for Best Radio News and Current Affairs Reporting in 2012. It was also awarded a highly commended in the Association of International Broadcasters Awards in London and the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2012 Best Radio award for this investigation.

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