Sarah Macdonald (born 1966) is an Australian journalist, author and ex-radio presenter, and has been associated with several

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

radio programs, including

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

ABC Radio Sydney ABC Radio Sydney (official call sign: 2BL, formerly 2SB) is an ABC radio station in Sydney, Australia. It is the flagship station in the ABC Local Radio network and broadcasts on 702 kHz on the AM dial. The station transmits with a power ( ...

and

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

. She is also known for her book ''Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure''.

Early life and education

Macdonald was born at

Crown Street Women's Hospital Crown Street Women's Hospital (now-closed) was once the largest maternity hospital in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was located at 351 Crown Street on the corner of Albion Streets, Surry Hills. The hospital was one of several stand- ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1966. She studied

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

at university, before engaging in extensive travel.

Career

After completing a cadetship at

ABC NewsRadio ABC NewsRadio, since 2017 broadcast under the ABC News brand and for a short time known as ABC News on Radio, is a 24-hour news radio service broadcast by the Australian public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC ...

, Macdonald worked as

's political correspondent in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, later hosting its morning show. She worked on television programs such as '' Recovery'' (on air 1996–2000), ''

Race Around the World ''Race Around the World'' is an Australian travel documentary and competition series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that was broadcast from 1997 to 1998. The series was brought to the ABC by filmmaker Michael Rubbo, and was ...

'' (1997–1998) and ''Two Shot''. In 2000, Macdonald left Triple J to live in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, India, with her husband (ABC

foreign correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

Jonathan Harley) and wrote her first book, ''Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure'' (published 2002), which proved to be a best-seller, selling 75,000 copies. From 2005 Macdonald took over from

Julie McCrossin Julie Elizabeth McCrossin (born 2 October 1954) is an Australian radio broadcaster, journalist, comedian, political commentator and activist for women's and gay rights. She is best known for her role as a team captain on the news-based comedy ...

as presenter of breakfast radio on

, for a few months in late 2005. She has also written for numerous publications, and created and presented the ''Weekend Nightlife Show''. From August 2016 to December 2018 Mcdonald co-presented a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, ''The Full Catastrophe'', with author Rebecca Huntley, in which numerous people tell their own stories, including Larissa Behrendt,

Frank Moorhouse Frank Thomas Moorhouse (21 December 1938 – 26 June 2022) was an Australian writer who won major national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, France and t ...

, Jane Caro, and Susan Carland. She co-presented an event called "The Full Catastrophe" at the

Wheeler Centre The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its pa ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

with Huntley in June 2018, with guests

Maxine McKew Maxine Margaret McKew (born 22 July 1953) is an Australian former Labor politician and journalist; she was the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in the First Rudd Ministry and the ...

, Sami Shah,

Libbi Gorr Lisbeth Joanne "Libbi" Gorr (born 24 March 1965) is an Australian broadcaster working in both TV and radio. Gorr is also an author, voice artist, writer and performer. She first came to prominence with the satirical television character that sh ...

, and Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen. Macdonald was presenting ''Evenings'' on

. In June 2023, she appeared as herself in five episodes of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

comedy Queen of Oz. Throughout the series, Macdonald is seen and heard on her radio program questioning the outrageous antics of spoiled spare to the British crown, Queen Georgiana, played by

Catherine Tate Catherine Tate (born Catherine Jane Ford, 5 December 1969) is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC Two, BBC sketch comedy series ''The Catherine Tate Show'' (2004–2007), as well as bein ...

. In November 2024, it was announced that Macdonald would not be returning to ABC Radio Sydney ''Mornings'' in 2025 as ABC management did not renew her contract. On ''Media Watch'' in the week ending 30 November 2024,

Paul Barry Paul James Barry (born 24 February 1952) is an English-born, Australia-based journalist, newsreader and television presenter, known to Australian and British audiences for his television reports and his semi-serious comments on current news, w ...

reported that the decision, made by Ben Latimer, head of audio programming, had been deplored by

Ray Hadley Raymond Morris Hadley (born 27 September 1954) is a retired Australian talkback radio broadcaster and a rugby league football commentator for Channel Nine. He presents 2GB Sydney's Monday to Friday morning show, and leads the Continuous C ...

, who called Macdonald a "quality broadcaster".

Personal life

Mcdonald is married to journalist Jonathan Harley, whom she met in the 1990s. He worked on ABC's '' The 7:30 Report'' in 2005, when she was working on breakfast radio, at which time they had two children under three years old.

Publications

* * * * with Cathy Wilcox

References

External links

''Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure''
- publisher's information. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Sarah Australian radio journalists Australian women journalists Australian radio presenters Australian women radio presenters Australian memoirists Living people Triple J announcers Australian women memoirists Australian women radio journalists 1966 births