Women in Media is delighted to announce Charmayne Allison as the winner of the Caroline Jones Women in Media Young Journalist’s Award for 2023.
Charmayne is an ABC reporter currently based in Alice Springs, having spent five years reporting in and around regional Victoria.
Her winning portfolio of work focused on Indigenous communities, providing in-depth and nuanced coverage and demonstrating an understanding of the complexities behind the headlines.
Charmayne impressed the judges with a selection of multi-platform stories which examined foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, meth addiction and a hopeful path away from domestic violence in Indigenous communities.
She is the seventh recipient of the award, since its inception in 2017.
Runner-up is Michaela Meade from the Geelong Advertiser for a selection of stories which showed a compassionate connection to community on the issues of homelessness, domestic abuse and suicide.
Judges also highly commended the work of Xanthe Gregory in her exhaustive coverage of the Eugowra flood disaster for the ABC, which was reporting of an exceptional standard.
Judges were Emma Macdonald, Canberra convenor of Women in Media and Danielle Cronin, Women in Media national board member.
They described Charmayne’s work as original, sensitive, and insightful.
Charmayne has also been recognised with two Quill Awards, including the one-off Social Inclusion Quill in 2020, and the Quill for Rural and Regional Journalism in 2019.
The Women in Media award is held in partnership with the National Press Club and has been generously supported by Bond University.
It is named in honour of Caroline Jones AO (1938-2022), a ground-breaking journalist who joined the ABC in 1963 and became the first female reporter for This Day Tonight. She reported for Four Corners between 1972-1981 before presenting Radio National’s Search for Meaning program. In 1996, she became the presenter of Australian Story.
Caroline is a former patron of Women in Media.
Charmayne has won a $3000 personal development grant and the opportunity to spend a week in Canberra being mentored by Women in Media members working in the Press Gallery and national capital media outlets.
PAST WINNERS
2017 Eliza Goetze | Bundaberg News Mail
2018 Emily Jane Smith | ABC
2019 Virginia Tapscott | Freelancer
2020 Elly Bradfield | ABC
2021 Brooke Littlewood | Farm Weekly
2022 Samantha Jonscher | ABC