Guardian Australia, launched in 2013, is a free premium digital news site in Australia, with a total reach of 2.926 million people each month. A trusted source of quality Australian news with a particular focus on politics, the environment and social welfare, the Guardian Australia offers national news coverage.
Areas of specialist reporting are underrepresented in Australia’s media landscape and investigative journalism desks are often under threat. In particular, Arts reporting and Indigenous Affairs are commonly overlooked and underrepresented.
In 2018, The Balnaves Foundation commenced support of Guardian Australia’s Indigenous Investigations desk through the Guardian Civic Journalism Trust. Since then, the Indigenous Investigations team has published several landmark reports including the Deaths Inside project, which tracks every known Indigenous death in custody in every jurisdiction from 2008 to 2021 and is updated yearly. In collaboration with the University of Newcastle Colonial Frontier Massacres Project team, the Investigation team developed The Killing Times project in 2019, an interactive map detailing evidence of frontier massacres across Australia from 1788-1928.
Most recently in 2025/26 the Indigenous Investigations team has released two projects; The Descendants, looking at the Australian’s who are facing the truth of their family’s involvement in frontier violence and Speaking to Country which spotlights First Nations communities in Australia fighting to keep their languages alive.
The Indigenous Investigations team has been awarded several Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism. In 2018, the Deaths Inside project won the Innovation Award with Lorena Allam (editor), Calla Wahlquist, Nick Evershed, Helen Davidson, Jack Banister and Miles Herbert receiving the honour. In 2020, the team won a Walkley for the Killing Times report and in 2025 Lorena Allam, Sarah Collard, Ella Archibald-Binge and Calla Wahlquist won another Walkley for their The Descendents project.
Hamish Balnaves, CEO The Balnaves Foundation said of the Indigenous Investigations team: “Media has the power to reinforce or perpetuate negative stereotypes. We hope this grant will contribute to more balanced reporting of Indigenous issues in Australia through in-depth and quality journalism and providing an avenue for authentic voices and experiences.”
From 2020 to 2024, The Foundation supported an in-depth reporting project, Australian Arts in Focus with Kelly Burke appointed to the role of arts reporter for the project. The series encompassed the publication of high quality, timely articles investigating the issues affecting the sector. This included deep-dives into how the visual arts, film, stage and gaming industries weathered COVID; investigations into the state and federal allocation of arts rescue packages and a global comparison showing how Australia’s federal arts stimulus stacked up to other countries.
In 2021, Kelly Burke won the June Andrews award for arts journalism at the Walkley’s for her work revealing alleged racism on the set of the long-running Australian soap Neighbours. Burke’s article included an exclusive interview with First Nations actor Shareena Clanton who went public with allegations of racism and misogyny on the show’s set and a follow-up story in which other actors came forward.
To find out more about the Guardian Civic Journalism Trust, access their website here.