Kim Honan

Kim is ABC's rural reporter based in Lismore covering the Northern Rivers region in New South Wales.

She reckons she could well have the best job at the ABC, and no-one has yet come forward to dispute her claim, and with more than seven years under her belt as a rural reporter, her passion and commitment to it is evident.

Kim's broadcast area covers from Bulahdelah, in the south of the region, to the Queensland border in the north, and on any given day you'll find her there exploring and unearthing stories from one of the many river valleys.

Covering the region's rural and resource issues takes Kim from the coast to the hinterland and beyond; the diversity of industry has her delivering reports on livestock, horticulture, sugar, fishing, aquaculture and mining.

Kim's reporting has earned her numerous awards over the years in the Northern NSW Journalism Awards, NSW Farm Writers Star Prize, and the ABC Local Radio Awards, with her broadcast, online and photography skills recognised.

In 2008 Kim was named ABC's Rural Reporter of the Year, and also received the award for Best Online Feature for her <i>Eating close to home: the locavore challenge</i>, a feature documenting her month of eating only local food.

Two years earlier Kim was awarded Radio Journalist of the Year and Radio Current Affairs Reporting, Feature or Special at the Northern NSW Journalism Awards for her series <i>Welcome Valley</i> documenting the history of refugees in the Hunter from 1949 - 2005.

It was in the Hunter Valley where Kim's career with the ABC started in 2002, first working on the 1233 ABC Newcastle's inaugural music awards, then a highly sought after internship field reporting at the station, which eventually led to a position as the producer of the 1233 weekend programs.

In 2005 Kim moved to Port Macquarie to produce the regional Afternoons program, before taking up the role of rural reporter the following year.

She holds a Bachelor of Communication with First Class Honours from the University of Newcastle, and was awarded the University's Peter Pickhover Memorial Prize for Radio Production.

It was during her university degree that Kim also had a taste of both community and commercial radio, working several years for both, and rates setting up the temporary broadcast station TINAFM and organising a radio conference, Radioactive, for Newcastle's annual new media arts festival <i>This Is Not Art</i>, as a major achievement early on in her career in the industry.

Kim's other career highlights include attending the Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago, reporting from the Calgary Stampede in Canada and the NZ National Agricultural Field Days, and covering the Borlaug 100 Summit and visiting the International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) in Mexico.

In her spare time Kim is likely to be found sipping some wine and sucking back an oyster or two, local of course!