During 46 years as a journalist, Philip Williams (b. 1957) covered the world’s biggest news events. He began his career reporting on the Whitlam dismissal and ended it with the downfall of Donald Trump. Williams grew up in the Canberra region and started working at the local ABC station in 1975. By 1992 he was getting beaten up in the midst of a riot in Seoul as ABC's Bureau Chief in Japan. Admired for his empathetic style, he has covered many events in the Asia Pacific region including the Kobe earthquake in Japan, French nuclear tests in the Pacific, APEC summits, the fall of President Suharto, the aftermath of the 1999 referendum on East Timorese independence and the 2000 political crisis in Fiji. From 2001 to 2005 he was the ABC's London Bureau Chief, reporting on the 9/11 terror attacks in New York and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2004 he covered the Beslan school siege in Russia, in which hundreds of people including 186 children were killed by Chechen rebels; and the Boxing Day tsunami. Williams was a founding producer on Australian Story, worked as a reporter for the 7.30 Report, and spent many years travelling rural Australia with Countrywide. He returned to London for his second stint as Bureau Chief in 2008. In mid-2011 he was on his way to the Tour de France when he was diverted to Norway, where a right-wing extremist had perpetrated a car bomb attack in Oslo and a massacre on Utøya island. In 2014 he reported on Ukrainian riots and the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine; he was on the scene following terrorist attacks in London, Spain, Paris and Russia. Appointed Chief Foreign Correspondent in 2016, he reported on the Fiji earthquake, London's Grenfell Tower fire, the Arab Spring and the subsequent Syrian crisis, and Brexit. Since 1993 Williams and his partner have owned Wallaroo Wines in Hall, building their property into one of the ACT region's larger suppliers of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling grapes. He retired in 2021 after more than 40 years at the ABC.
