A recent graduate of RMIT’s journalism program with a diverse range of media experience, I am a driven, detail-oriented journalist with a flair for dynamic storytelling that isn’t afraid to think outside the box.
Take a peek at some samples of my work below:
The Big Pic: Click Bait
Commercial fisherman and photographer Corey Arnold documents the occupational hazards of crab fishing in Alaska’s Bering Sea, and explains why it’s totally worth it – so long as you don’t mind the smell. Pete Whelan is a freelance writer who won’t be eating seafood for a while.Originally published in The Big Issue #707, 15/3/2024 Next time you’re having a rough day at the office, remember that photographer and commercial fisherman Corey Arnold spends weeks at a time on a crabbing boat off the coast of Alaska in the icy Bering Sea. There, the aromas of rotting sea creatures and diesel…
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Melbourne Music Community Rages as Tote Owners Double Down (Audio/Article)
The notoriously sticky carpets of the Tote have played host to generations of Melbourne’s music fans over the decades, as well as plethora of Australian rock royalty from local legends like Paul Kelly, You Am I, and the Hoodoo Gurus to international stars including the White Stripes and Mudhoney.
The venue was recently listed for sale , now finding itself in the midst of escalating controversy following an unexpected change in sale conditions after a successful crowdfunding campaign that sought to secure its future as a live music venue.
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Appraising the Intangible: Victoria’s Cultural Heritage Problem (Feature Article)
Deep into the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, I roamed. I had been led on a fool’s errand, and now found myself blindly fumbling through peak-hour foot traffic, searching for a non-existent parcel collection point. I heard a familiar voice call out to me. Looking around, I couldn’t find its source among the blank, vaguely discontent faces of the rat race. “Pete!” the voice cried again. That’s when I realised it was coming from inside the construction site. I poked my face through a gap in the fence and found myself face-to-face with an old friend: Ian Ostericher. I first met…
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Implantable Technology on the Rise (TV Package)
Part of a movement known as biohacking, implantable technology shows no signs of slowing down as the relationship between humans and technology grows closer.
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How Australia’s Relationship with Alcohol is Changing (Data Story)
Australia’s consumption of alcohol per capita is nearing historic lows according to a study of Australia’s alcohol intake since 1961 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in September 2019.
The study, Apparent Consumption of Alcohol, uses data from the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Taxation Office and the National Health Survey, documenting a steep fall in Australians’ consumption of beer since 1961 and its impact on Australia’s declining total intake of alcohol.
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The Game of Love, and How COVID Changed the Rules (Colour Story)
COVID has changed dating forever. Happenstance flings in clubs and romantic nights out on the town have been rendered ancient history as the compounding loneliness of endless lockdowns has largely moved romance into the realm of online dating. A daunting proposition to begin with, the pitfalls of the online dating scene have only been magnified by social-distancing, curfews, the vaccination status of potential partners, and of course, the risk of catching a life-threatening virus. Many of Melbourne’s brave singles have nevertheless risen to the challenge of trying to negotiate love in this brave new world, their journeys leading them from…
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IATSE Deal on Working Conditions ‘Not Enough’, Union Members Say (Hard News Story)
Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have expressed dissatisfaction with a last-minute deal struck yesterday with major Hollywood studios to prevent an industry-wide strike over pay and working conditions. The deal, yet to be ratified by union members, addressed long-held concerns in the industry over dangerously long working hours and guaranteed a 10-hour rest period between daily shoots, as well as 3% annual wage hikes and improvements in pay. But many IATSE members planed to vote against ratifying the deal, saying it is still not enough. “I guess it’s a great start but the problem is this still…
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Aged Care in Crisis (Radio Package)
Australian aged care workers have not yet received the first installment of the $800 retention bonus promised by Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a speech at the National Press Club on February 1st. The payment received criticism due to its status as a taxable bonus: many say that it is not enough, has been issued in lieu of a pay rise for aged care workers and that the timing of the announcement is disingenuous, coming too late and shortly before a federal election. The federal government’s inaction on the findings of last year’s The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality…
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City of Yarra Announce Grant for Homelessness Exhibition (Hard News Story)
The City of Yarra announced a $15,000 grant for a photo exhibition on homelessness in a council meeting at Richmond Town Hall today. City of Yarra Councillor Stephen Jolly said the project, Experiences of Homelessness, was “useful auxiliary” to the council’s homelessness strategy. “Something like this can have a big impact in highlighting the crisis we have at the moment. “However, if one was to say that’s all we need to do, it would be a mistake,” he said. The City of Yarra’s 2019 Homelessness Strategy implemented coordinated and compassionate crisis response, early intervention for those at risk, and prevention…
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Ali MC and Experiences of Homelessness (Partner Colour Story)
Journalist and photographer Alister McKeich, known professionally as Ali MC, has been imprisoned by the Bangladesh military, beaten to within an inch of his life in Saigon, and held at gunpoint in Jamaica. But for Experiences of Homelessness, a multimedia exhibition focused on Melbourne’s homeless crisis, Ali has focused his lens a little closer to home. “It started when I met a lady by the name of Cheryl who was selling the big issue outside of Melbourne Central in April, 2000. “We just kind of got chatting, and as you may have noticed from my writing and what I do,…
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ABC Journalist Russell Jackson Awarded Gold Quill for AFL Exposé (Hard News Story)
ABC journalist Russell Jackson won the Gold Quill Award tonight for his article on racism in the AFL, The Persecution of Robert Muir is the Story Football Doesn’t Want to Hear. Director for the Centre for Advancing Journalism Andrew Dodd said Jackson’s win at the Melbourne Press Club’s yearly Quill Awards ceremony underscores changing perspectives in the Victorian media’s coverage of racism in sport. “It has sparked long overdue apologies and contributed significantly to a wider community conversation,” Dodd said in his presentation of the Gold Quill Award. The Persecution of Robert Muir “transformed Muir’s life”, he said. Published by…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: NEIL YOUNG – DEAD MAN (1996)
Neil Young’s improvised, unaccompanied soundtrack, channeled largely through his mythical Gibson Les Paul, “Old Black”, seems spiritually connected with the stark monochromatic landscape and visceral beauty of Dead Man, Jim Jarmusch’s cult psychedelic western. While writing Dead Man – a reimagining of the American Wild West interspersed with the metaphysical poetry of William Blake – Jarmusch reportedly spliced together cassettes of some of Neil Young’s instrumental passages to inspire him as he wrote, calling Young’s playing “masterfully, beautifully damaged rock-and-roll music—perfect imperfection.” With Young’s DNA already in the bedrock of Deadman, the film and his his style aligned perfectly, and…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL – COSMO’S FACTORY (1970)
Creedence Clearwater Revival are synonymous with summertime BBQ’s, Vietnam War movie soundtracks and last call at your local dive bar. They are so ubiquitous that perhaps to some degree they are taken for granted in the classic rock canon. Their sound is a marriage of the slap-back soaked honky tonk of Nashville’s Sun Records and the bluesy, guitar driven grind of Chicago’s Chess records. Their songs are stylised to sound as if they are drifting from the depths of a Louisiana swamp yet their sun-kissed California image and hook laden songs land a little closer to the Beach Boys. A…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: IRON MAIDEN – POWERSLAVE (1984)
Iron Maiden’s galloping, literary brand of heavy metal had been on a roll since the inclusion of pilot, olympic-level fencer, mystery novel writer and former Samson vocalist Bruce “the human air raid siren” Dickinson as their frontman. Moving away from the punk influenced sound they’d established with previous frontman Paul Di’Anno, Maiden moved from strength to strength with Dickinson at the helm, riding the wave of popularity that came with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal spearheaded by Judas Priest and Motörhead. The third album featuring Dickinson, Powerslave positioned Iron Maiden at the very crest of heavy metal and…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: YOU AM I – HI FI WAY (1995)
You Am I hit the the top of the Aussie charts with their sophomoric record Hi Fi Way, seeing the band embellish the punk and grunge driven formula established on their debut with elements of the frantic rhythm guitar of the Kinks and dynamic arrangements of the Who. With help from Sonic Youth axe-man Lee Ranaldo on production, the band opts for a stripped down, four-to-the-floor approach with much of the material, save for the occasional string overdub during tender moments from vocalist Tim Rogers. The whole album seems built around Rogers’ lyricism and rightfully so – his writing is…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: ROXY MUSIC – ROXY MUSIC (1972)
Roxy Music’s first record, shimmering with campy decadence and art-school ambition, is the sum of the chemistry between two of its principal creators – Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno. Ferry, Roxy Music’s chief songwriter and lead vocalist was a Humphrey Bogart obsessive who’s love of fine tailoring and supermodels had seen him dubbed “Byron Ferrari” by the rock press. Eno was to be an electronic music pioneer whose avant garde production style and synthetic electronic “treatments” for songs (which would notably become a centrepiece of David Bowie’s Heroes a few years later) would revolutionise pop music in the years to…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD – QUARTERS! (2015)
King Gizzard’s sixth album, Quarters!, is a sprawling suite of four songs that sees the shapeshifting septet turn their focus to jazz-inflected acid rock. Each of the four tracks on Quarters! clocks in at exactly 10:10 – while the significance of this is unclear, the influences of LA Woman era Doors and Houses of the Holy era Zeppelin certainly inform these sprawling, proggy excursions. Album opener the River drifts along in an upbeat haze and the other three tracks follow suit – all easy, spacious jams over pulsating jazz rhythms that ebb and flow quite naturally. Each song finds an…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: STARDUST – WILLIE NELSON (1978)
Willie Nelson’s rough and ready reputation as a country music outlaw was thrown into stark relief when the Red Headed Stranger reinvented himself as balladeer on 1978’s Stardust. A songwriter as gifted as Nelson doing a record of covers was considered unusual and perhaps Stardust was not intended to be the tour de force that it became but nevertheless this collection of standards produced by Stax Records legend Booker T Jones transformed Willie from country music icon to international pop-star overnight. Perfectly augmented by his band’s restrained presence, Nelson’s emotional reimaginings of classics like Georgia on my Mind and Unchained…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – BORN TO RUN (1974)
Born to Run is the record that made Springsteen into a bonafide star – like Kerouac and James Dean rolled into one, the Boss injects a cinematic sense of the romantic into this portrait of the working class Jersey Shore of 1974. Alive, in love and punch drunk on the possibilities of youth, freedom and rock n’ roll, the universal language of Born to Run makes you feel nostalgic for a world you have never known. Springsteen’s poetry and unflinching sincerity are so inscrutable that Born to Run doesn’t feel like a trope heavy concept album for a second -…
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RECORD OF THE WEEK: NEIL YOUNG – AFTER THE GOLD RUSH (1970)
After the Gold Rush sees Young develop further as a visionary songwriter after the rich successes of his previous LP Everybody Knows this is Nowhere. Although the simmering guitar jams of the previous LP return (Southern Man, When You Dance I Can Really Love), the heart of this record is in Young’s lyricism. Songs like the surreal title track and Don’t Let it Bring You Down highlight Young’s ability to blend darkness and light into the same lyric and see him shifting gears toward the more folk oriented Harvest. Only Love Can Break Your Heart is demonstrates Young’s gift for…
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Pete Whelan 