Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist

the long version

Wilfred Burchett (1911-1983) was one of Australia's most important and controversial journalists and war correspondents. He grew up in Gippsland and cut cane along the east coast of Australia. Burchett lived through some of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century and experienced the horrors of Nazi Germany at first hand, before becoming a war correspondent. Wilfred was the first westerner to witness and report to the world on the appalling aftermath of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and has covered news in many trouble spots in the world. At one stage he was exiled from Australia because he was unable to get a replacement for his lost passport.