Tara Brown

Tara Brown
Born14 March 1968 (1968-03-14) (age 56)
Sydney, Australia
EducationDavidson High School
Charles Sturt University
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • news presenter
  • TV presenter
Years active1992–present
EmployerNine Network
Notable credit(s)60 Minutes
A Current Affair
Nightline
SpouseJohn McAvoy (2000–2017)
Children2

Tara Brown (born 14 March 1968) is an Australian television presenter and reporter.

Early life and career

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After graduating Davidson High School in 1986, Brown attended Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, New South Wales, graduating in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts (Communication) Degree.[1][2]

After graduation, she joined Channel Seven's Sydney newsroom as an assistant to the chief-of-staff.[1][2] In 1991, Brown moved to WIN Television in Wollongong, and undertook a cadetship in journalism.[1][2]

Nine Network

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In 1992, she joined the Nine Network and began working on compiling features including "Australian Agenda" reports for the Nine Network's late news programme Nightline.[1][2] In 1993, she left Nightline and began reporting on A Current Affair.[2] Her most memorable stories for A Current Affair include a series of reports on a group of Australian soldiers returning to Vietnam on the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon; uncovering a tyre dumping racket which posed a major environmental threat; and a feature story on refugees in Bei Hai in southern China.[1]

In 2001, she became a reporter on the Nine Network's 60 Minutes.[3] The first person Brown ever interviewed on 60 Minutes was Mel Gibson.[3]

Brown was previously a fill-in presenter for Nine Sunday AM News.[4][5]

In April 2016, Brown and eight other people (including three other staff members of the Nine Network, David Ballment, Stephen Rice, and Ben Williamson)[6] were arrested on allegations of child abduction in Lebanon. Lebanese judicial sources told The Guardian that the group were to be charged with "armed abduction, purveying threats and physical harm" - crimes which carry sentences of twenty years' imprisonment with hard labour.[7] She was released from custody only after the Nine Network paid a substantial money settlement to the father of the children, the subject of the attempted abduction.[8]

Personal life

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Brown was married to TV producer John McAvoy from 2000 until their divorce in 2017. She has two sons, born in 2008 and 2010.[9][10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Tara Brown, 60 Minutes reporter". Nine News. 31 May 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Freeman, Jane (11 December 1995). "TV's next generation". The Sydney Morning Herald. pp. 53–54. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b Otto, Anna (30 July 2011). "Saturday Sibset: Tara Brown and sons". Waltzing More Than Matilda. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  4. ^ "Tara Brown". Sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  5. ^ "Tara Brown". Health.ninemsn.com.au. 13 July 2005. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  6. ^ Miranda, Charles (13 April 2016). "Kidnapping charges filed against 60 Minutes crew over botched child recovery mission in Lebanon". Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  7. ^ Shaheen, Kareem; Safi, Michael; Elgot, Jessica (12 April 2016). "Suspects in alleged Beirut kidnapping face jail and hard labour". Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  8. ^ "Kidnapping charges against Tara Brown and 60 Minutes crew dropped". Australian Women's Weekly. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  9. ^ "60 Minutes' reporter Tara Brown has first child, a boy". The Daily Telegraph. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  10. ^ "Tara Brown: Baby bliss at 43". 29 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2016.