Record award haul for The Age journalists as McKenzie creates Quill history

The Age’s editorial team has picked up a record 14 awards at this year’s Quills, including a Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year award for Nick McKenzie, making him the first person to receive the award three times in the award’s 49-year history.

McKenzie also won the 2025 Gold Quill alongside his colleague Ben Schneiders and Australian Financial Review journalist David Marin-Guzman for their Building Bad investigation into the infiltration of organised crime into Australia’s most powerful union, the CFMEU.

Building Bad front page Saturday Age, July 13, 2024.Credit: The Age

“This result also cements Nick McKenzie’s place as one of the greatest journalists of all time,” said The Age’s editor, Patrick Elligett.

The Age’s 14 awards at the 2025 Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards came from 41 nominations across 21 categories. It is by far the most awards for a single organisation; double that of the ABC, which was the next-best outlet.

Judges said the Building Bad series, which also won the News Report in Writing Quill and the Grant Hattam Quill for Investigative Journalism (alongside 60 Minutes), was “public interest journalism at its finest, having a profound impact on public policy, perception and the political scene.

A groundbreaking investigation by senior journalist Michael Bachelard picked up two awards.Credit: Eddie Jim

“It required thorough and uncompromising reporting, securing secret recordings, surveilling crime figures and convincing a union whistleblower to go on the record, despite great risk to that individual.

“It should be noted there was also considerable danger to the reporters involved in this major investigation, which led to the dismantling of Australia’s most powerful union and the early exit of its Secretary John Setka and NSW Assistant Secretary Michael Greenfield.”

Legendary Age crime journalist John Silvester won Scoop of the Year for “How police tracked the Easey Street suspect” after a break in the 47-year old cold case murder of two women in their Collingwood home in 1977.

Michael Bachelard’s groundbreaking investigation into the evidence surrounding Robert Farquharson’s murder conviction for the drowning deaths of his three children won two awards on the night, one alongside McKenzie, Ruby Schwartz and The Age visual stories team for Good Weekend feature “Road to Ruin”, and a second with Schwartz for the “Trial by Water” podcast on the case.

The Age’s visual stories team, alongside investigative reporters Charlotte Grieve and Simone Fox Koob and photographer Jason South, won the Indigenous Affairs Reporting Quill for “Carbon sharks”, an investigation into allegations of predatory behaviour by some carbon companies.

“No newsroom in the country has consistently generated such a high standard of impactful, public interest journalism as The Age has over many years now,” Elligett said.

“Our winners and finalists deserve every bit of recognition, as do the producers, editors and newsroom staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes and the subscribers who support their work.”

Marija Ercegovac won the Quill for Artwork for her illustration “Seeing Red”, on the parlous state of the Victorian economy.

The cartoon category was a guaranteed win for The Age, with Badiucao beating out his colleagues, Joe Benke, Matt Golding and Megan Herbert to win the gong for his cartoon “Albo’s Choice”.

“Albo’s choice”Credit: Badiucao

The Age’s Hannah Kennelly won the Quill for Coverage of Women in Sport for a co-production with The Mansfield Courier, “‘There’s nowhere for them to go’: When girls are booted out of football”. The story focused on young female AFL players who have to travel for hours to play the sport they love because of a dearth of facilities in regional areas.

Melissa Fyfe won the award for Sport Feature for her Good Weekend profile of jockey Jamie Kah, “Reining queen”.

Columnist Waleed Aly won the Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary, with judges praising his opinion pieces as “demonstrating deep thought and masterful writing”.

Christopher Hopkins won the News Photograph Quill for a picture taken at the protests surrounding Melbourne’s Land Forces Expo in September of last year.

Mounted police tried to stop protesters taking over a major arterial in Southbank.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The Age was also highly commended in numerous categories, including Breaking News or Live Coverage for the publication’s coverage of the arrest of a suspect in the Easey Street murders cold case; Best Coverage of an Idea, for Aisha Dow, the visual stories team and Julia Carr-Catzel’s investigation into scammers targeting vulnerable Australians; Business News/Feature for Sarah Danckert and Carla Jaeger’s story on organised crime figures’ involvement in an ASX-listed company; Cartoon (Megan Herbert’s work “How to cook Australia’s energy transition”); and Features Photograph (Justin McManus’ “Dyurrite Dreaming”). John Silvester was also highly commented in the commentary category, and Carla Jaeger was highly commended in the Young Journalist of the Year category, which she won last year.

Nick McKenzie is the first person to pick up three Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year awards.Credit: James Brickwood

In the Innovation in Journalism category, there were two highly commended entrants from The Age, the visual stories team and Shane Wright for an analysis of 123 years of budget speeches; and the visual stories team for the “Faster, higher, stronger series” pitting today’s Olympians against those in 1924, which was also highly commended in the Sports Feature category.

There were also two Age highly commended entrants in the category of Multicultural Affairs and Media: Abbir Dib, for “Every morning I check WhatsApp to make sure my Teta in Lebanon is still alive”, and Benjamin Preiss for “More than one community, this was an attack on Melbourne’s multicultural fabric”.