Gallery of Lifetime Achievers
2010
Geoff Wilkinson
Geoff Wilkinson of the Herald Sun won the Melbourne Press Club Lifetime Achievement Award for a 40-year career that has included outstanding crime reporting, analysis of Victoria’s justice system and for being a key player in establishing the Crimestoppers program in Victoria while he was Victoria Police’s first media director.
Watch Geoff Wilkinson's acceptance speech and the Lifetime Achievement Award Tribute.
2009
Bruce Petty
Bruce Petty's cartoons have been described as “doodle-bombs” .... as the victory dance of a fly escaped from the ink pot. As journalist Martin Flanagan once observed, Bruce Petty “re-invented the world as a vast scribbly machine with interlocking cogs and levers that connected people in wholly logical but unlikely ways.”
For the best part of half a century, not only has Bruce’s pen irreverently depicted society and politics, he’s also helped to define Australian political life.
Watch Bruce Petty's acceptance speech and the Press Club's tribute to his career
2008
Geoff Hook and William Ellis Green (WEG)
In 1946 William Ellis Green – affectionately known as WEG – drew his first cartoon for The Melbourne Herald. And in 2002 Geoff Hook screwed the lid back onto his ink bottle and retired from editorial cartooning.
In those years – between 1946 and 2002 – Victorians had been treated to 56 years of the best examples of our craft by two of our finest and best-loved cartoonists.
Read an appreciation of WEG and Hook by George Haddon, based on his speech at the 2008 Quills.
2007
Michelle Grattan and Laurie Oakes
Michelle Grattan has explained the intricacies and twists and turns in Australia’s political and economic fortunes for almost 40 years. Laurie Oakes announced the details of a federal Budget before the Federal Government did thanks to a leak and has broken the biggest political news stories for 40 years.
Read Bill Birnbauer's profiles of Michelle Grattan and Laurie Oakes.
2006
Bruce Postle and John Lamb
Two of the best photographers in Australia: Bruce Postle was an artist; John Lamb a gunslinger, fast, cunning and cool. They revolutionised the way newspapers use photos.
Read Michael Smith's profile of Bruce Postle and John Lamb.
2005
John Fitzgerald
John Fitzgerald, a former editor of The Herald, never lost his zeal for journalism or his enthusiasm for the craft. Until just months before he died in 2007, “Fitzie” would email newspaper executives chiding them for using clichéd words.
Read John Trevorrow's profile of John Fitzgerald.
2004
Les Carlyon
Words are the only thing readers judge journalists by says Les Carlyon, one of the finest wordsmiths around.
Read Andrew Rule's profile of Les Carlyon.
2003
Claude Forell
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Claude Forell distinguished himself in many fields of journalism, from reporting violent student riots in Paris, to persecuting politicians to reviewing restaurants.
Read Peter Cole-Adams' profile of Claude Forell.
2002
Harry Gordon
Crusading editor, war correspondent, author and Olympic Games writer and historian, Harry Gordon won acclaim wherever he turned his writing.
Read Ken Davis' profile of Harry Gordon.
2001
John Sorell
Aggressive, quick and with an instinctive understanding of what readers and viewers want, John Sorell changed the face of newspapers and television in Australia.
Read Ken Davis' profile of John Sorell.
2000
Peter Game
Peter Game is the journalist who cracked one of the biggest political scoops of all time - revelations that led to the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in tumultuous circumstances in 1975.
Read John Trevorrow's profile of Peter Game.
1999
Les Tanner
One of the greats of Australian cartooning and whimsical observation, Les Tanner influenced many of today’s newspaper artists.
Read Corrie Perkin's profile of Les Tanner.
1998
Peter McFarline
“Do you remember when bloody McFarline…’’ Sportsmen, reporters and the occasional barman love remembering Peter McFarline’s larger-than-life antics.
Read Neil Mitchell's profile of Peter McFarline.
1995
Keith Dunstan
An endearing and modest man, Keith Dunstan is Victoria’s best-known and longest-serving newspaper columnist.
