No Tags for this person

Add a tag


Separate multiple tags with a semicolon test cricket; Perth (WA)

Bacon, Wendy (1946-)

Also known as
Bacon, Wendy
Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-477624

Biographies

Australian Women's Register

Associate Professor Wendy Bacon is a widely-acclaimed investigative journalist. Her articles in the National Times on the attempted bribe and murder of Detective Michael Drury in the 1980s formed the basis of the ABC television series, Blue Murder. Bacon received a Walkley Award in 1984 for her exposure of official corruption in New South Wales. She has worked for Channel 9 (Sunday Program and Sixty Minutes), John Fairfax and Sons (National Times and Sun Herald), and SBS (Dateline). She is currently Director of the Journalism Program at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Wendy Bacon grew up in Reservoir, Victoria, where her father set up a medical practice. Hers was, she says, a very suburban upbringing. The Bacon family had no television, but the children were given many books. Wendy was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College. Though her grandmother was a Presbyterian, her parents were agnostics, and even while she worked as a Sunday School teacher she was taught to question the existence of God and was not religious herself. Wendy’s political education began early. Her grandmother was one of the founders of the League of Nations in Australia and believed, somewhat controversially at the time, that China should be included in the United Nations. Wendy’s school speech to this effect created an uproar among parents and teachers.

In the mid-1960s, Wendy Bacon enrolled at the University of Melbourne and lived at St Hilda’s College. Here she was part of the anti-Vietnam War campaign – her mother also campaigned, as part of Save Our Sons – and became strongly aligned with progressive, anti-authoritarian (including anti-Communist government) movements. By the late 1960s, Bacon had moved to the University of Sydney, where she joined the Sydney 'Push'. She was still drawn to radical social movements, and enjoyed the open enquiry and discussion in the group. At Sydney, Bacon edited the student newspaper, Tharunka. With fellow students, she was involved in distributing the Little Red Schoolbook to teenagers, offering advice on all number of matters including how to deal with teachers and how to find out about sex. The Little Red Schoolbook generated enormous controversy, and Bacon was interviewed by Mike Willessee on A Current Affair. The whole episode was marked on her record. On the grounds that she had created a furore in Australia, Bacon was not permitted to enter the United States until the mid-1980s when she was working as a journalist for Fairfax.

Over the course of her student and professional career, Bacon has been arrested approximately eighteen times. Her willingness to critique oppression and expose corruption, and her preference for investigative journalism, has come at a price. At just 23 years old, during an anti-censorship protest, Bacon was found guilty of exhibiting an obscene publication and jailed at Mullawah Women’s Prison for eight days. She was later imprisoned at Darlinghurst for a similar amount of time. Following her release, Bacon wrote an article for George Munster at Nation, based upon her experiences. She co-founded the support group, Women Behind Bars, in Sydney.

In prison Bacon encountered police corruption first-hand, from bribery to the raping of women prisoners. She encountered it again, specifically the link between organised crime and corrupt police, during protests against developments in Victoria Street, Sydney. One of the protest leaders simply disappeared, while Bacon herself was sent a bullet in an orchid on Valentine’s Day. In later years, police corruption became the core focus of her investigative journalism.

In the mid-1980s, Bacon wrote a series of articles for the National Times, bringing to light allegations that Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson had attempted to bribe Detective Michael Drury, following an attempt on Drury’s life. Her stories were used in the ABC television series, Blue Murder. Bacon was also involved in publicity around the case of Lionel Murphy, the former Labor Attorney-General who was appointed to the High Court and brought to trial for perverting the cause of justice. Murphy had connections to organised crime. It was Bacon who obtained information from Murphy’s friend, Jim McClelland, but her policies on confidentiality meant suppressing the information, and McClelland perjured himself. Bacon broke the story with David Marr. She also investigated the case of New South Wales Premier, Neville Wran, who faced the Street Royal Commission in 1983 over claims by the ABC’s Four Corners that he tried to influence the magistracy over the 1977 commital of Kevin Humphries, charged with misappropriation of funds. Bacon received a Walkley award in 1984 for her exposure of official corruption in New South Wales.

As well as investigative journalism, Bacon maintained her interest in politics and activism, and produced a number of feature articles for the Australian Society journal. In March 1988, she published ‘Voices of Dissent Around Sydney Harbour’, expressing frustration at the lack of criticism around Australia’s bicentennial celebrations and reacting with distaste to the kitsch of it all – the dressing up, the re-enactments, the plethora of Australian flags: ‘When on the 27 January’, wrote Bacon, ‘I suggested to the editor of one newspaper that something more critical of the official line as well as a more qualitative account of the Aboriginal protests might be written, she dismissed the notion as raking over what was already history’. Later that year, Bacon wrote on private hospitals, asking ‘where does the buck stop?’, and discussing the corruption and tax evasion behind ownership of private hospitals.

Today, Wendy Bacon teaches investigative journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has a special interest in the reporting of humanitarian and environmental issues. Bacon teaches freedom of information law for John Fairfax and Sons. She is a board member of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, and a contributing editor with the Pacific Journalism Review.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Resources for Wendy Bacon

Selected resources (6)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Private Hospitals: Where Does the Buck Stop?
    Bacon, Wendy
    [1988]
  2. Voices of Dissent Around Sydney Harbour
    Bacon, Wendy
    [1988]
  3. A Case in Ethical Failure: Twenty Years of Media Coverage of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
    Bacon, Wendy
    [2005]
    Published: New Zealand
  4. Journalism as Research
    Bacon, Wendy
    [2006]
    Published: Adelaide
  5. The Women's Pages: Australian Women and Journalism since 1850
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2008]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
  6. Wendy Bacon Collection
    [1970 - 1989]
    Oral history interview with Wendy Bacon. The interview covers topics such as Professor Bacon's family background, her student days, her term as co-editor of the student paper at the University of New South Wales, Tharunka, that paper's anti-censorship campaign and resultant court cases, and her career in journalism. The Archives also holds biographical information and press cuttings on Wendy Bacon, as well as her student file.
    University of New South Wales Archives
    OH 52

No Comments for this person

Add a comment



Maps

No results

Minimise

Pictures and photos

No results

Minimise
  1. Website: Radical tradition : an Australasian history page
    www.takver.com
    Matching pages:
    View 8 matching archived pages
  2. Website: Psephos : Adam Carr's Election Archive
    psephos.adam-carr.net
    Matching pages:
    View 3 matching archived pages
  3. Website: Art Gallery NSW
    www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
    Matching pages:
    View 10 matching archived pages
  1. [Biographical cuttings on Wendy Bacon, journalist, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]
    [Published : 1900-1990]
  2. Historical Faculty Files
    University of Utah. Vice President for Academic Affairs Office
    [Unpublished : 1920]
    Available online (access conditions apply)
  3. Papers
    Klugman, R. E. (Richard Emanuel), 1924-
    [Unpublished : 1938-1989]
  1. Family Notices
    PREVIEW ONLY. This article is not yet available as it is undergoing quality control procedures.
    The Sydney Morning Herald..., Saturday 14 September 1946 p 32
    ... Morgan) -August 28 1946 .t Denistone House Ryde to Nell ond Tom -a daughter (Glenys Margoret) BritG (nee Luke) -September 11 at King George (inter ) to Treda ano Ron-a daugh- ter (Sue Wendy) Both well ... BRVDBUR1 -September 9 1946 at Tweed District Hospital Murwillumbah to Mr and Mrs Walter Bradbury of ... 14919 words
  2. Family Notices
    PREVIEW ONLY. This article is not yet available as it is undergoing quality control procedures.
    The Sydney Morning Herald..., Saturday 24 August 1946 p 32
    ... and Mack-a son (Malcolm Walton) Both well COURT (nee Wren) -August 23 1946 at Rothesay private ... Hospital, to Mr and Mrs R Donaldson -a son (Richard Roderick) ELEY -August 20 1946, at Lanchester private ... Christie) -August 6 1946 to Mr and Mrs Allan ralconer of Kogarah a son (Keith Allan) FARADAY-August ... 14928 words
  3. Family Notices
    PREVIEW ONLY. This article is not yet available as it is undergoing quality control procedures.
    The Sydney Morning Herald..., Saturday 14 December 1946 p 36
    ... BU'-a daughter (Lesley Kay) Both w eil BACON (nee Biddle) -At St Margaret s sydney to Mr and Mrs NV Bacon-a daugh ter (Lcralne Emilie) BIKER -November 28 at Helenic to Ruth »nd Frank-a daughter (Robyn Patricia) BAXTER -November l8 1946 at Summer corr, nursing home Southborough Kent Eng land to Marjorie ... 14523 words