Wilkinson, Marian 1954-

PERSONAL:

Born 1954.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Sydney Morning Herald, GPO Box 506, Sydney, New South Wales 2001, Australia.

CAREER:

Investigative journalist, reporter, author; currently correspondent in Washington, DC, for Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Former executive producer, Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC-TV). Former senior reporter, The Australian.

WRITINGS:

Fixer: The Untold Story of Graham Richardson, Heinemann Australia (Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 1996.

(With David Marr) Dark Victory, Allen & Unwin (Crow's Nest, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals in Australia and the United States.

SIDELIGHTS:

Marian Wilkinson has held a variety of important journalistic posts in Australia, including working as the Washington, DC, correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Her book Dark Victory, written with David Marr, details the means by which the Australian government denied asylum to refugees arriving by boat from Indonesia in the months preceding the 2001 presidential election. Marr and Wilkinson particularly focus on the actions of the captain of the Norwegian ship Tampa that saved more than 400 refugee passengers from an overcrowded, sinking boat, only to be turned away from Australian ports. In a piece on the work for Aussie Reviews, Sally Murphy noted: "Australian readers will squirm as they learn of the events of these weeks and the attitudes that allowed them to happen." A critic for Soul Pacific called the book "compulsory reading for all Australians."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

Arena Magazine, http://www.arena.org.au/archives/ Mag_Archive/issue_66/ (October 16, 2003), Harry Throssell, "The Tampa Post-Mortem."

Aussie Reviews,http://www.aussiereviews.com/ (October 16, 2003), Sally Murpy, review of Dark Victory.

Green Left,http://www.greenleft.org.au/ (October 16, 2003), Sarah Stephen, "The ‘Inside Story’ of Howard's War on Refugees."

Soul Pacific,http://www.aussiereviews.com/ (October 16, 2003), review of Dark Victory.