The Age cleans up with the biggest haul at the Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards

The Age again was the most successful media outlet at the Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards for Excellence in Victorian Journalism, winning more than a third of this year’s awards – almost double any other outlet – after picking up a record number of nominations.

This masthead’s journalists, photographers, artists and designers won 11 awards and were highly commended 16 times across 31 categories at a ceremony on Friday night. The Age had received 44 finalist nominations.

Journalists Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie after the defamation verdict.Credit: James Brickwood

Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters won the Grant Hattam Quill for Investigative Journalism for six years of reporting that revealed Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, was a war criminal.  

Last year, their journalism was vindicated after a Federal Court judge found, on the balance of probabilities, the Victoria Cross recipient murdered four unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan – a historic victory for media outlets in a multimillion-dollar landmark defamation trial.

“This is investigative journalism at its finest,” the Quill Awards judges wrote.

Sports reporter Carla Jaeger was named Young Journalist of the Year. The judges said her “dogged reporting about the crisis crippling Netball Australia saw her uncover failures within the organisation which ultimately led to the resignation of the sport’s chief executive.”

Editor Patrick Elligett said The Age’s haul was “a welcome endorsement of our strategy of pursuing high-quality, compelling public interest journalism above all else”.

“These 11 Quills are an endorsement of our values as an organisation, a testament to the hard work of our winners and the production and editing teams who support their work,” he said.

“To our readers and subscribers, thank you for supporting the work of the state’s finest newsroom and making the stories behind these awards possible.”

The 2023 Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year was awarded to Neil Chenoweth and Edmund Tadros from The Australian Financial Review for their coverage of the PwC tax leaks scandal, breaking the story that a partner had leaked confidential Treasury documents to drum up business for the firm.

The Age editor Patrick Elligett.Credit: Justin McManus

The Age’s McKenzie and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Kate McClymont were shortlisted for the national prize. McClymont was nominated for her series on broadcaster Alan Jones, while McKenzie was a finalist for his body of work.

The Australian’s John Ferguson won the Gold Quill for breaking the story of the Leongatha lunch that killed three people. Ferguson also won the Scoop of the Year prize for his efforts.

The Age’s outstanding photographers, artists and cartoonists also dominated. Matthew Absalom-Wong won the artwork Quill for his “Hong Bao diplomacy” illustration, which the judges said was “a sumptuous, saturated colour reference to vintage Chinese communist poster art”. Richard Giliberto was highly commended.

Matt Golding won the cartoon category for “The Nation Said No”, which was published in the aftermath of the Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum. Jim Pavlidis was highly commended.

Matt GoldingCredit: Matt Golding

Eddie Jim won the Quill for features photograph for his shot titled “Fighting, Not Sinking” that the judges said “illustrates the real anxieties and dangers those who live in low-lying coastal areas of the Pacific confront as a result of global warming.”

Justin McManus and Jim were both among the highly commended.

For news photography, Chris Hopkins won for capturing the Nazi salute on the steps of Victoria’s parliament.

Marta Pascual Juanola, a crime reporter, was highly commended for her photograph of Erin Patterson, who was charged over the mushroom-poisoning deaths.

Eddie Jim’s award-winning photograph of Lotomau Fiafia and his grandson John, who are residents of Fiji’s Kioa Island, in August 2023.Credit: Eddie Jim

Michael Bachelard’s Good Weekend piece, “Talking trans”, won the Quill for best feature. The judges described it as “a superbly written and well-researched piece about a highly charged, complex and highly contemporary subject, handled with sensitivity and skill”.

Melissa Fyfe and Jacqueline Maley were highly commended for their Good Weekend piece, “Rethinking rape”.

Charlotte Grieve won the disability reporting award for telling the story of a patient’s experience being shackled at a public hospital while undergoing a mental health crisis. Natassia Chrysanthos, from The Age’s federal bureau, was also highly commended in the disability reporting category for her NDIS coverage.

Grieve was also highly commended in the investigative journalism category for a report about special rules that allow podiatric surgeons to conduct invasive operations without a medical degree.

Age investigative reporter Charlotte Grieve.Credit: Simon Schluter

Marnie Vinall and Greg Baum won the Quill for the best coverage of women in sport for their in-depth reporting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The Quill for Excellence in Science, Medical and Health Reporting was awarded to Sherryn Groch for an explainer about deep-sea mining. Jackson Graham was highly commended for explainers on autopsies, strokes and sleep apnoea.

Ben Schneiders won the Quill for sports news, revealing what the award judges described as “the A-League’s secretive, convoluted ownership structure and tax status”.

Linda Pearce, of CODE Sports, won the national Harry Gordon Sports Journalist of The Year Award for her series about the collapsed Collingwood Netball Club.

The Age’s Michael Gleeson and Jake Niall were both finalists alongside The Sydney Morning Herald’s Tom Decent.

In the best coverage of an issue category, The Age Crime Team and Please Explain podcast was highly commended for reporting on Melbourne’s new underworld war.

Penny Stephens is nominated in the sport photograph category for this portrait of Afghan soccer players Fatima and Adiba Ganji.Credit: Penny Stephens

The Visual Stories Team was commended in the innovation category for their breakdown of how to lay a perfect offside trap – and how to break it.

Other highly commended Age journalists included: McKenzie for “Offshore bribery” (business news/feature), Clay Lucas and Sophie Aubrey for “Flood fury: The Maribyrnong River disaster” (news reporting in writing), Konrad Marshall for “Who cares?” (sports feature), Gleeson for “Peter Bol – the damage done” (sports feature).

Penny Stephens was highly commended for sports photography.

Patrick Elligett sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.