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Geoff Thompson

Biographical Notes from The Walkley Awards website for 2005

All Media: Best Use of the Medium Winner

Geoff Thompson , ABC, "Sri Lanka's Tsunami"

Geoff Thompson was the first Australian journalist to report on the destruction Sri Lanka suffered in the tsunami, producing stories for ABC Radio. Delivering eyewitness accounts of the chaos along the country's southern coast, where homes, jobs and lives had been washed away, Thompson also told of his own struggle with the devastating scenes.

Thompson has been the ABC's South Asia correspondent, based in New Delhi, since 2002. From 2000-2002 he was in Bangkok as the ABC's South-East Asia correspondent, prior to which he spent nine months in East Timor in 1999-2000, on assignment as the ABC's North Australia Correspondent, based in Darwin.

Since joining the ABC as a cadet in 1996, Geoff has covered the Fiji coup in 2000, the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, and the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He has won two previous Walkley Awards, in 1996 and 1998, for his radio and television journalism.

Judges' comments

Thompson's radio stories were beautifully written, with excellent production values. The variety of stories and interviewees, and his use of personal details and impressions made for riveting radio. It was a creative use of the medium on the biggest news story of the year.