2011 - A News Year on Steroids

In a year that had its fair share of revolutions, resignations and natural disasters, ABC News Breakfast's Michael Rowland recalls the news highs and lows of 2011.

It’s not usually the first thought that goes through the mind when the alarm goes off, but getting up at 3am does have its distinct advantages.

The city is blissfully quiet, the traffic sparse and the distractions few. You are also the first to see and read the overnight news; the first to be captivated, bemused or shocked by the headlines that will dominate the day.

And in a year with no shortage of 3am emotions, the news that greeted me on the morning of August 19 this year chilled me to the bone.

A chopper carrying the ABC's Gary Ticehurst, Paul Lockyer and John Bean, had gone missing over Lake Eyre. The details were scant and a search was underway but I had been in the business long enough to suspect the worst. Confirmation of their deaths came just as ABC News Breakfast was going to air. Having to present the grim news and stay composed on air during the next few hours was challenging, to say the least.

Gary Ticehurst, Paul Lockyer and John Bean

The year has been a bit like that. We’ve had to wake people up with a constant flow of big stories. Just when you get through one busy morning or week, along comes another. 2011 has been a news year on steroids.

A lot of the time the images spoke more forcefully than any words could. I can’t forget the sense of disbelief I had when presenting those images of the Japanese countryside literally being swept away by ferocious floodwaters carried onshore by the huge tsunami.

And there was that shared sense of trepidation as the Fukushima nuclear plant slowly melted down.

It was the dubious highlight of a year of natural disasters. The Queensland floods and Cyclone Yasi tore a destructive path through great swathes of the Sunshine state in January. Just weeks later, almost 200 people died in the massive Christchurch earthquake.

Queensland Floods

There were tectonic geo-political shifts as well. Four months before the world marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a band of elite US Navy Seals finally caught up with Osama Bin Laden in his Pakistani hideaway.

President Obama announces the death of Osama Bin Laden

The Arab Spring continued to bloom. In February Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak fled the Presidential Palace as a brutal civil war erupted across the border in Libya. Colonel Gaddafi was determined to go down fighting and in October he got his grisly wish.

Col. Muammar Gaddafi

Victorians didn’t miss out on this cracker of a news year. The resignations of two bald guys made headlines. In June, embattled Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland handed back his epaulets just hours after the Ombudsman criticized him for the release of ‘misleading’ crime statistics. The power struggle within Victoria Police had already claimed Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones and, later in the year, very nearly the Police Minister himself.

"The resignations of two bald guys made headlines."

A shaved head was about the only thing Barry Hall shared with Simon Overland, but after a colourful football career the punchy full-forward decided to hang up his boots for good at the end of the season. His beloved Bulldogs failed to make it a fairytale finish for the big guy but, to the relief of many, there wasn’t a happy ending for Collingwood either. It seemed everybody had become a Geelong supporter by Grand Final day.

In November, Premier Ted Baillieu celebrated one year in the top job and perhaps looked slightly enviously at the Queen as the monarch paid a visit during her 59th year on the throne.

And we did but see that other visiting head of state passing by. US President Barack Obama graced Australian soil for just 26 hours, but it was long enough to leave a huge imprint on Australia’s strategic relationship with America.

In Canberra, the minority Gillard Government survived a bruising year. What it gained on the carbon tax it lost on issues like asylum seekers. Although ‘losing’ a Speaker at the end of the year made life slightly more comfortable for Australia’s first female PM.

The list of big stories goes on: the furore over the abuse of live cattle sent to Indonesia; the trial and conviction of Carl William’s killer Matthew Johnson; Cadel Evans winning the Tour de France; and the wrenching heartache of Daniel Morecombe’s parents Bruce and Denise when their boy’s remains were discovered in Sunshine Coast bushland.

And finally, as news presenter, I was reporting an awful lot on the media itself.

The phone hacking scandal spelt the end of The News of the World and came perilously close to ending the career and ambitions of James Murdoch. There were management changes aplenty. In March Greg Hywood was confirmed as Fairfax Media’s CEO while in November John Hartigan handed the News Limited reins to Kim Williams.

3AW’s Derryn Hinch was sentenced to five months home detention for contempt of court, the Herald Sun Chief Football writer Mike Sheahan stepped down after 18 years in the job and Channel Seven’s Brendan Donohoe completed the New York Marathon (just thought I’d throw that one in … I couldn’t believe it either!).

So Season’s Greetings and here’s to a slightly less hectic 2012.

And for the record, here's how Brendan describes his performance in New York - "I came first (among Australian state political reporters) and in the top 2,172 among my age group. I ran 3 hours 107 minutes (or 4 hours 47 mins) but it sounds better the other way and it is the third time I have broken four hours under my time keeping system!!! The African runners can only run for two and a bit hours but I can run more than double that time!" Brendan Donohoe

Brendan Donohoe