There's Always A Silver Lining

Before she joined ABC TV’s News Breakfast, Lisa Millar conquered her darkest fears, covered 10 terror attacks, loved deeply and lost those dearest to her. In an intensely candid interview she shares her tears, laughter and joy.

- Juliet Rieden

Picture the scene. We’re in the tiny country town of Kilkivan in Queensland’s Gympie region and at the end of a dusty driveway “that seemed to stretch forever”, a precocious seven-year-old clicks ‘record’ on her dad’s dictaphone as she rushes around the house interviewing members of the family.

Our intrepid cub reporter would hum the ABC news musical fanfare and proclaim in an as deeper voice as her developing vocal cords could muster: “Here we are, it’s the seven o’clock news and Mr Whipam, what have you got to say?” as she held the recording device under the nose of her younger sister, Trudi.

“I couldn’t even pronounce Whitlam, that’s how young I am,” explains Lisa. “Then Trudi would start talking in this very deep voice. We only knew that men had those kinds of positions, which strikes me as sad, that these two little girls are putting on deep voices because they think if you’re going to be a politician or a journalist then you’re going to be a bloke. Trudi would start talking and then pretty quickly I’d say, ‘thank you very much, that’s all we’ve got time for’. So … I’ve been cutting people off since I was seven!”

That this country kid would end up crossing the globe as a foreign correspondent, covering terrorist attacks, and yes, interviewing prime ministers, politicians, and all manner of famous folk, may have felt far-fetched back then, but with hindsight it seems predestined.