Helene Chung Martin

Australian journalist, author & speaker

Pioneer journalist Helene Chung (He-LANE CHUNG as in HUNG) broke racist and sexist barriers in 1974 to become the first non-white reporter on Australian television and, as Beijing correspondent (1983-86), the first female posted abroad by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Hobart-born fourth-generation Chinese Australian is author of Shouting from China, Gentle John My Love My Loss, Lazy Man in China and Ching Chong China Girl: From fruitshop to foreign correspondent.

From 2020-22 an Inaugural Board Member of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, she is a former Adjunct Research Fellow of Monash Asia Institute, Council Member of the National Museum of Australia and Edward Wilson Memorial Fellow in Journalism at Deakin University.

An honours graduate and master of arts in history of the University of Tasmania, Helene has reported from Australia, Hong Kong, Britain, Egypt and China and freelanced for BBC, CBS, NPR, NZBC and Hong Kong radio.

Helene’s family history, with contributions from other family members, Gin Chung HENRY, Willi Chung Sing (Zhong Sing Long): Chinese Tasmanian Founders and Descendants 1885-2024 won the Tasmanian Family History Society’s Lilian Watson Family History Award of 2024.

In 2025 Helene received the Museum of Chinese Australian History’s inaugural award for achievement in the media by a Chinese Australian.

ching chong china girl

Ching Chong China Girl

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Hamish: Well I’m going to share a clip from ABC News. It’s up on iView and YouTube – about Helene Chung, who became Australia’s first woman of colour on Australian TV News, and was sent by the ABC to Beijing, or Peking, as it was then known. She says she was the last Australian correspondent reporting from Peking. Fascinating story. I know you ...

Geraldine: Yes, I worked with Helene. Helene was really something. And she was a gutsy person, very cool, reserved. And when I saw that I just went ... Look, I sort of knew it in theory. But I thought what have you been through to get where you are? Well, now I know.

Hamish: It’s just a really beautiful segment. It only takes 7 and 1/2 minutes. But I really encourage listeners to view.

Geraldine: Very powerful

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Bob Carr
Former Foreign Minister,
Professor the Honourable
“Helene Chung is a confident, precise and captivating public communicator. All the years in radio and television have invested her with real charm and persuasiveness... She confirmed this during a panel discussion I chaired on the experience of ABC correspondents in Beijing.”
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