Richard Farmer's Daily Email Briefing

ACCESS BACK ISSUES
HERE

NEWS AND VIEWS
Australia

Other Countries

Tenille Bonoguore

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website for 2005

All Media: Coverage of Suburban or Regional Affairs

Winner Tenille Bonoguore , Sunshine Coast Daily, "Fatal Error: Our Deadly Highway"

Tenille Bonoguore has worked in regional Queensland media for seven years, starting as a cadet at the Stanthorpe Border Post and now running the Brisbane bureau of the Sunshine Coast Daily and APN Newspapers.

From her one-reporter bureau, Bonoguore pursued the Queensland state government, forcing the revelation that it had laid the wrong road surface on a 1.4km stretch of the Bruce Highway at Federal.

The surface created a water trap that saw three people killed and others seriously injured in a ten-fold increase in accidents over two years. She also uncovered the fact that concerns had circulated inside the Department of Main Roads for months without action. The perilous section of highway will be resurfaced as a result of her compelling coverage.

Judges' comments

Bonoguore put the issues together in a story that she drove over three days. Importantly, she extracted an admission from the government that it had made a mistake, which proved to be fatal. A story of strong public benefit.