Robert Penfold

Career

Penfold started his career as a cadet journalist on the Macarthur Advertiser, a local newspaper in his hometown of Campbelltown, NSW. He moved into broadcast journalism, working at the local radio and TV station in Tamworth, NSW. During the past 35 years Robert has worked for all three commercial Australian networks in Sydney and Melbourne.

While working for Ten News in Melbourne, he was one of the first reporters into Darwin after Cyclone Tracy destroyed the city on Christmas Day in 1974.

He covered the Granville rail disaster as a Nine Network reporter and toured Australia covering the first visit of the royal newlyweds, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. During his career at Nine Network, Robert has worked for Nine News, A Current Affair, Today (appearing on the first show in 1982) and Sunday.

From 1985 to 1987, he was based in Nine's North American Bureau reporting on Ronald Reagan's presidency, the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

Robert Penfold moved to the United Kingdom in 1987 to establish the Nine Network's first news bureau in London. During Robert's time in Europe, he covered the IRA's war against the British, the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the hunt for the Australia's most-wanted man at the time, mafia boss Robert Trimboli.

During his time as Bureau Chief in London, Penfold also reported on America's unsuccessful attempt to bring peace to Somalia and the triumphant march to freedom by Nelson Mandela. Memorable moments include live reports from Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto and the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.

Penfold reported from the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan Conflict in the early 90s. In 1991, he was one of the first reporters into Kuwait City in the First Gulf War. Earlier, he reported from Baghdad as the Australian Government attempted to negotiate the freedom of Australians trapped in the region.

Penfold spent two years in Australia as head of the A Current Affair office in Melbourne but returned to Los Angeles, CA in 1997 as North American Bureau Chief for the Nine Network. During his time as Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent, Penfold has reported on the Clinton, Bush and Obama White House, the 11 September terrorist attacks on America, the earthquake in Haiti, and the 33 miners trapped in Chile. Robert also spent time embedded with the Australian Army as he reported on the Iraq War and the Australian military's role in Iraq.

Awards

During his career Robert Penfold has won several awards for his reporting. He won the Thorn Award for his coverage of a deadly fire in Sydney, a Penguin Award from the Television Society of Australia for his coverage of a murderous attack on mourners during an IRA funeral in Belfast, a Logie for his story on Sydney winning the bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics and a Walkley commendation for his story of coming under fire in Iraq. In 2006, Robert was awarded Australia's most prestigious journalism prize, the Walkley Award for TV News Reporting for his coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.