Award-winning journalist and Griffith’s journalist-in-residence Nance Haxton has taken out the Bronze award at the New York Festival’s World’s Best Radio Programs for her radio documentary on Stradbroke Island.
Produced for ABC Radio National’s PM program “A New Chapter for Stradbroke Island” recounts the end of sand mining on North Stradbroke Island after the Queensland Government passed legislation to phase it out by 2019.
“I’m so honoured and thrilled to have won the award,’’ said an excited Nance.
“This means so much to me both as a journalist and teacher.” 
“The story is an important one as thousands of Australians have enjoyed Stradbroke as a tourism destination for so many years. The demise of sand mining will launch it into another era and one that’s welcomed by its traditional owners, the Quandamooka Aboriginal people.”
“I’m so grateful to the Quandamooka people for trusting me with their story. I find it so inspiring and ironic in some ways that they’ve got 20,000 years of oral storytelling traditions, the longest, continuing culture on earth and for so long that was patronised and not really valued.
“So I hope this story goes some way to show the value of the knowledge they have and we, as oral storytellers, can learn from that as well. The amazing power of the voice and its sound connecting as human beings.”
NYF’s International Radio Program Awards for the World’s Best Radio Programs honours radio programming and promotions in all lengths and formats from radio stations, networks and independent producers from around the globe.
Nance is a radio current affairs correspondent for AM, PM and The World Today. She won the 2016 Clarion Award for Best Sports Reporting for her investigative series of stories on ABC Radio Current affairs titled “Why are Boxers dying in Queensland”. She is also a dual Walkley Award winner (2012 and 2001).
