After growing up in Manilla, a small town in country New South Wales, I arrived at St John's College in 2001 and was among the first group of women to attend.

My studies were focussed on an Arts degree with communications. I spent six months on a study exchange to Stirling University in Scotland where I helped create a series on the new owners of castles who are trying to rid them of ghosts. I returned to Australia to discover I was not employable without extensive work experience so I completed an honours year and made a short film about political hip hop music in Australia. I also volunteered at FBI radio station to increase my skills and bolster my resume. Despite this study, I was still unable to crack the competitive journalism market in Sydney but managed to convince my work experience placement in Tamworth to take me on as a cadet. I worked as a police and court reporter for the excellent regional daily newspaper The Northern Daily Leader for more than a year before securing a broadcast Cadetship with ABC News in Darwin.

Four years in the Northern Territory followed, working as a radio and television reporter in Darwin and Alice Springs, reporting on the massive and diverse area of the country. I particularly focused on Indigenous Affairs and was privileged to report on some of the world’s most ancient cultural traditions. At the same time, I was also involved in exposing some shocking injustice and poverty in parts of the NT.

My experience in the Top End helped me secure a trial job in the press gallery at Parliament House. I’ve worked there for a decade now.

My original role was as an ABC radio news reporter but I later became a television reporter providing news reports and live crosses to the continuous news channel and the nightly bulletin. I worked as a National Regional Affairs Reporter for ABC telling stories from the bush and working for programs like 730 and the AM radio program. Last year I was appointed Chief Political Correspondent and Bureau Chief for SBS World News in the Press Gallery.

I’ve since travelled to Washington with the Prime Minister and anchored news coverage for critical political developments including the federal budget. I am also a board director at the National Press Club.

My husband Dan and I have two young kids and are like many families trying to juggle work and parenting.

St John's College cemented some of my closest friendships but I’ll be up front and say that the college was struggling with the transition to being co-educational and I hope lots of the difficulties the first women of Johns faced have been dealt with.