Peter George

Peter George is one of Australia’s most experienced and respected international correspondents, with a career spanning four decades and more than one hundred countries. A master storyteller with a rare depth of lived experience, Peter has reported on wars, famines, revolutions, political upheavals and many of the defining events of modern history.

He was the ABC’s first Middle East correspondent, a foundation reporter on Foreign Correspondent, and a journalist with Four Corners. Among his many unique experiences, Peter was the first Western journalist to fly aboard Yasser Arafat’s private aircraft, witnessing first-hand how the PLO leader moved between secret locations across the Middle East.

Peter’s reporting has placed him at the centre of history. He stood on the steps of Parliament House during the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975; witnessed the invasion of Iraq; interviewed Nelson Mandela shortly after his release from prison; and travelled deep into Siberia to visit some of the most remote Gulags. Across every assignment, his focus has remained on the human stories at the heart of global events.

He has reported from the front lines of the Ethiopian famine, the Rwandan genocide, the Lebanese civil war and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His stories range from the haunting folklore surrounding Robert Mugabe’s dinner table to the hypnotic rituals of Sudan’s Whirling Dervishes; from the violent clashes of Britain’s striking miners in the 1980s to a famously combative interview in which Margaret Thatcher, in his words, “tore him apart”.

In Australia, Peter has travelled extensively through remote deserts and Aboriginal communities, covered major political events, interviewed Prime Ministers, and led the television series Rewind (History Detectives), uncovering forgotten and hidden stories from Australia’s past.

Beyond field reporting, Peter has held senior creative and presenting roles. He was a presenter on ABC Radio National Breakfast, Executive Producer of the ABC television history series Rewind, and producer and co-creator of Peking to Paris, a landmark documentary series recreating the legendary 1907 international road race using authentic century-old vehicles. He is also an author and an occasional contributor to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

As a speaker, Peter draws on experiences from five continents, recounting them with intimacy, insight and humour. His talks are entertaining and deeply human — by turns dramatic, sad, joyful and self-deprecating. Through stories of people he has met — from a Nigerian farmer in a grass hut, to a Manhattan stockbroker, to a Hobart cheesemaker — Peter illustrates a powerful truth: that across cultures and circumstances, our aspirations, fears and hopes are far more alike than they are different.