Peter Bannan is an award-winning journalist who hails from Melbourne, Victoria.
While his interests are crime and politics, he enjoys sharing stories of ordinary people performing extraordinary work in their fields and community.
A self-dubbed news junkie with ink through his veins, Peter got his first break in November 2014 at The Northern Times, a then rural bi-weekly newspaper in northern Victoria.
Two years later, in July 2016, Peter was promoted as senior journalist at its sister paper, The Guardian, in Swan Hill.
In June 2018, Peter assumed the position of editor at The Guardian. He returned to the position of journalist in February 2021.
Peter won best news story at the 2017 Victorian Country Press Association Awards. Judge Angela Carey said Peter’s coverage of the Kerang rail disaster 10-year anniversary brought to life for his readers the anguish still felt by those who were impacted that day.
“Peter sought out not just the obvious interview subjects – the families of those who died – but told the stories of community members not directly affected, but affected nonetheless. His interview with the wife of the local policeman who attended the scene was particularly poignant. Retelling tales of tragedy is no easy task for a journalist. How do we make them new and different? Peter has achieved this by thinking outside the square and delivering new voices and new angles for his readers,” Ms Carey said in her comments.
Meanwhile, Peter’s extensive coverage of a housing shortage crisis in Robinvale, north of Swan Hill, was high commended at the 2018 Victorian Country Press Association Awards.
Under Peter’s editorship, the newspaper also claimed best community campaign at the 2019 awards for its extensive campaign for a new hospital in Swan Hill. The newspaper also won best magazine for Your Swan Hill.
Peter graduated from La Trobe University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Media Studies, before he graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from RMIT University the following year.
Peter’s volunteer work has included writing for the Australian Scout Magazine and producing newsletters for a local scout group and tennis club.
He has interned at Nine News Melbourne, Leader Newspaper (reporting for the Melbourne, Preston and Northcote mastheads) and the Herald Sun.