Curious / Endless curiosity

ENDLESS curiosity

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Pip Courtney

Tasmanian-born journalist and television presenter, Pip Courtney is one of country Australia’s most recognised and popular figures. She has recently been inducted into the Rural Journalism Hall of Fame which celebrates the life, work and passion of Queensland-based rural journalists who have made a significant contribution to the profession over more than 20 years.

We spoke with the Launceston Grammar alumna (1982) about her biggest influence, her advice to current students, and how curiosity has played a role in her career to date.

Q. What motivates you to provide a voice to the stories of those living in rural and remote Australia?

The reporting of rural issues in the mainstream media often focuses on the negatives like land degradation, overgrazing, overclearing, the impacts of drought, water wars and farmers down on their luck. They are significant and relevant issues and are worth covering but the top farm innovators, land carers, food producers, brand developers too often don’t get a voice. I want to highlight how clever and resilient farmers and people living in rural and remote Australia are.

Q. Curiosity has been described as the ‘engine of achievement’. As a reporter on ABC's Landline for the past 26 years and host since 2012, has curiosity played a role in your career?

Curious sums me up perfectly and drives me every day to find out why? Why do people do what they do? How do they do it? What do they do? I am endlessly curious. I want to know what makes people tick. They fascinate me, and especially those who are achievers, focused on excellence, who get knocked down and get back up. How is it that if you take two small towns the same size, one can be thriving, and one be in decline? The answer? The people in that thriving town.

Q. Who has been your biggest influence?

I have had two; my father Michael Courtney was a brilliant journalist who taught me journalists must serve their communities by informing, entertaining and revealing; that there are stories everywhere and how powerful words are, and my late husband John Bean who I worked with a lot. A brilliant cameraman he taught me how to use pictures to tell stories. Dad was about words, John was about pictures.

Q. How would you encourage current students to be curious in their endeavours?

Some of the best farmers I have met have asked ‘why do we do things this way?' When told ‘because that’s the way we’ve always done it’, they haven’t settled for that as a satisfactory answer, and their subsequent endeavours and inquiries have led to totally new systems and approaches and often more money.

Asking ‘why’ isn’t cheeky or rude – we asked it endlessly when we were little. Don’t stop asking when you are older, it’s a good habit to have and it can take you to the most awesome places and introduce you to amazing people.