Jeff McMullen
Few living writers anywhere in the world have travelled as extensively or gone to as many extremes for a story as Jeff McMullen.
A former ABC foreign correspondent and the longest serving reports on Australia's ‘Sixty Minutes” Jeff has been at the forefront of television journalism for ore than 30 years. From war zones to natural disasters to scientific wonders, medical miracles, sporting triumphs to murder most foul, Jeff has delivered some of the most outstanding television the world has seen.
former ABC foreign correspondent and the longest serving reporter on Australia’s ‘Sixty Minutes’, Jeff has been at the forefront of television journalism for more than 30 years. His media career has seen him traverse the globe in the pursuit of great stories. From war zones to the wilderness of Antarctica and the Amazon, from natural disasters to scientific wonders and medical miracles, sporting triumphs to murder most foul, Jeff McMullen has delivered some of the most outstanding television the world has seen. Peer review and prizes, however, have never been the motivation for McMullen’s brand of journalism. He has been driven to the most dangerous and exhausting extremes for highly original stories.
His journey to the ends of the earth has given him rare insight into our world and introduced him to the ideas of many of the most amazing and adventurous people, from the explorers who climb inside active volcanoes to the scientists studying the Big Bang, from 11-year-old Sandinista revolutionaries to the 5300-year-old Iceman, from Sting to the Dalai Lama. After getting to know some of the world’s most powerful leaders, men of war and living saints, heroes and villains of the late 20th century, Jeff now reflects on what he has gleaned from an astonishing life journey.
While Jeff McMullen has been a household name in Australia, his stories also have appeared on CBS ‘Sixty Minutes’ and the PBS network in America, as well as the BBC, CBC, South African networks and even Russian television. Among the famous he has interviewed are Prime Ministers Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and Howard; Ex US President Jimmy Carter; Canada’s Pierre Trudeau; the feminist Germaine Greer, singers and musicians including John Lennon, Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Michael Hutchence, Elton John, George Michael and BB King; conductor Simone Young; dancer Graeme Murphy; film director Phil Noyce; actors Kevin Costner, Ruth Cracknell, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson; comedians Ben Elton and Paul Hogan; and athletes and sports stars Cathy Freeman, Dawn Fraser, Steve Waugh, Shane Warne and Brian Lara.
As well as reporting on radio and television, Jeff has written a number of articles for newspapers and magazines. His memoir, A Life of Extremes, is his first book.