Robert Penfold

Robert Penfold has been Australia's eyes and ears on world events for more than 20 years. Penfold lives in Los Angeles and uses it as a base to cover news throughout the United States, Canada and South America.

He started his career as a cadet journalist on the Macarthur Advertiser, a local newspaper in his hometown of Campbelltown, NSW. He moved into broadcast journalism, working at the local radio and TV station in Tamworth, NSW. During the past 30 years Penfold has worked for all three commercial networks in Sydney and Melbourne.

While working for Ten News in Melbourne, he was one of the first reporters into Darwin after Cyclone Tracy destroyed the city on Christmas Day in 1974.

He covered the Granville rail disaster as a Nine reporter and toured Australia covering the first visit of the royal newlyweds, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. During his career at Nine, Penfold has worked for Nine News, A Current Affair, Today (appearing on the first show in 1982) and Sunday.

From 1985 to 1987 he was based in Nine's North American bureau reporting on Ronald Reagan's presidency, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and America's discovery of the larrikin Aussie, Paul Hogan.

Robert Penfold moved to the United Kingdom in 1987 to establish Nine's first news bureau in London. It was an eventful time to be in Europe. The IRA was at war with the British, the royal family was dealing with the Charles and Diana crisis, Eastern Europe was throwing off the cloak of communism and Australia's most-wanted man at the time, mafia boss Robert Trimboli, was on the run in Spain.

At the same time the news focus swung onto Africa. Penfold reported America's unsuccessful attempt to bring peace to Somalia and the triumphant march to freedom by Nelson Mandela. Standing in front of Mandela's house in Soweto and reporting live back to Nine's news and Today was one his most memorable moments. Penfold was also there on November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell.

Penfold reported from the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan conflict in the early 90s. In 1991, he was one of the first reporters into Kuwait City in the First Gulf War. Earlier he reported from Baghdad as the Australian Government attempted to negotiate the freedom of Australians trapped in the region.

After two years in Australia as head of the A Current Affair office in Melbourne, Penfold returned to his first love as a foreign correspondent and moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1997.

During his time as Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent he has reported on the Clinton and Bush White House, the successes of Hollywood stars Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, and the September 11 terrorist attacks on America. Penfold also travelled to Baghdad where he reported on the U.S. invasion and the Australian military's role in Iraq.

During his career Robert Penfold has won several awards for his reporting. He won the Thorn Award for his coverage of a deadly fire in Sydney, a Penguin Award from the Television Society of Australia for his coverage of a murderous attack on mourners during an IRA funeral in Belfast, a Logie for his story on Sydney winning the bid for the Olympics and a Walkley commendation for his story of coming under fire in Iraq. In 2006, Penfold won Australia's most prestigious journalism prize, the Walkley Award for TV News Reporting for his coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

Robert Penfold, his wife Shar and three children return regularly and "still call Australia home".