By Gordon Collie.
Australia has been rocked by the deaths of three highly respected members of our national broadcaster in an outback helicopter crash in August.
The tragic accident on the shores of Lake Eyre claimed the lives of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation crew – the pilot John Ticehurst, reporter Paul Lockyer and cameraman John Bean.
The loss has been especially poignant for the rural media community as John was married to award winning ABC Landline journalist Pip Courtney.
Pip won the 2011 Rabobank Australian Star Prize for Rural Broadcasting earlier this year and is representing Australia in the IFAJ competition. Her prize was a trip to the IFAJ World Congress in Ontario; John was planning to join her afterwards in New York for a brief holiday together.
Pip, who is a valued member of the Queensland Rural Press Club executive, also won Queensland’s rural media award in 2009 and attended the IFAJ congress in Texas. She published a daily blog on her Texan experience which was hugely popular.
John Bean was one of the ABC’s top cameramen who worked on range of programs across the television network over 20 years – including filming sequences for the Landline program with his wife.
Paul Lockyer was among the corporation’s most respected reporters who had worked in many parts of the world, but was at home in the Australian bush where his real empathy with country people shone through. Paul was the first journalist into the small Queensland town of Grantham after devastating floods swept through the community in January this year.
Gary Ticehurst had been the ABC’s lead helicopter pilot since the mid 1980s and was one of the most experienced media pilots in Australia, logging more than 16,000 hours of flying time.
During the tragic 1991 Sydney to Hobart yacht race which claimed six lives, Gary found himself in the centre of the drama, playing a significant role in the rescue of 14 crew members from a stricken vessel.
“We feel very deeply for Pip’s loss and for the extraordinary loss this represents for the rural media community, and we extend our sincere condolences to their families and colleagues,” says ACAJ president Liz Harfull.