Sarah Harris “It's Cathartic To Talk”

From a housing commission flat in western Sydney to the giddy heights of hosting her own morning TV show, Sarah Harris has never forgotten it’s the simple things that make her family happy. The Studio 10 host opens up to Tiffany Dunk about her roller-coaster ride.

- 

It all started with a stack of Christmas cards. Clad in the gold buttoned, shoulder-padded Rockmans suit she’d spent her hard-earned McDonald’s wages on, 16-year-old Sarah Harris was sitting on the floor of the Channel 7 mailroom in Brisbane, determinedly stuffing envelopes as if her life depended on it.

It was her first day of work experience and the task was expected to last the Caboolture State High student the entire week. But nobody had reckoned on young Sarah’s determination.

“I was so keen to make an impression that I had those Christmas cards stuffed in envelopes by midmorning,” the Studio 10 host laughs throatily today, as we sit amidst another chaotic Christmas scene (albeit one with far more expensive designer outfits). “And so they sent me into the newsroom and I just fell in love with the place. It was this crazy hive of phones ringing and printers buzzing and keys tapping and people yelling. I’d stay late, make myself available and try to be of help and by the end of the week they said, ‘We’ve actually got a job on weekends, it’s a news transfer coordinator and it pays $12 an hour if you want it’.”

She did. And a short year later, having shown not only her drive but her ability, she would make her on-air debut as a rookie reporter, setting into train a 20-plus year career in journalism that has seen her traverse several networks, travel the globe and win plenty of hearts along the way for her mix of smarts and sensitivity.