Caroline Overington

Caroline Overington is an Australian journalist and author.

Born in May 1970^{[citation needed]}, Overington grew up in Melton, Victoria where she attended Melton South Primary School and Melton High School. Post secondary school she began her journalism cadetship with The Age Suburban Newspapers. She later took up a position as sports writer with The Age. She covered two Olympic and Paralympic games and many other sporting events. She contributed articles to 'Sports Writing and Photography' (Random House)for several years. She was awarded the Annita Keating Trophy for Female Journalism in Sport.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002 she moved to New York to become a foreign correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Her first book is based on her family experience in the USA. Together with Malcolm Knox, she won a Walkley Award for investigative journalism in 2004 for their Norma Khouri investigation. She contributed a chapter to the best-selling Come Away With Me (Random House) in 2005.

Following her return to Australia, Overington took up a position as senior journalist with News Ltd. working at 'The Australian'. Her second book Kickback (2007) is based on her coverage of the AWB scandal. It tells how hundreds of millions of dollars was sent from Australia's wheat exporter, AWB Ltd, to the regime of Saddam Hussein in the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq war. In November 2006 Overington won the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism and then the 2007 Walkley Award for investigative journalism for her coverage of the AWB scandal.'Kickback' was also nominated for the Blake Dawson Waldron Prize for Business Literature in 2008. The book may be transferred to television in the future^{[citation needed]}.

In the lead up to the 2007 Federal Election, Overington was accused of threatening George Newhouse, the ALP candidate for Wentworth, with adverse press coverage unless he acceded to her demands for an interview and photograph. On election day itself, Overington was involved in a physical altercation with Newhouse at a Wentworth polling station, for which she later apologised.

Overington is the Only in New York: How I took Manhattan (with the kids) (ISBN 978-1-74114-961-6), published by Allen & Unwin in 2006. She is also the author of 'Kickback: Inside the Australian Wheat Board Scandal' (ISBN 978-1-74175-194-9), published by Allen & Unwin in 2007. Her third book, a novel, "Ghost Child" was released in 2009 to both literary and popular acclaim.

Overington continues as a journalist and columnist for the The Australian, and maintains a web blog and a Twitter site at that publication. She contributes to both television and radio at various times.

Her new book "I Came to say Goodbye." is due for release by Random House in October 2010.

Overington lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.

External links

• Overington's blog - The Australian
• Official website