Luke Hancock
Aug 27, 2017 · 5 min read

FROM THE TABLOIDS TO BROADSHEETS

There are very few people in the world that can inspire, even less that can take on a burden, with a heart of unwavering righteousness and the resilience to stand for what is just. That is who Jill Stark is.

In current pop culture, the name Stark is famous for strength and honour however if Game of Thrones was a reality Jill would be a Targaryen their house words “Fire and Blood” would be more appropriate. Those two words are a summation of Jill herself. They are representative of her strength, her will and her passion for what she does. As hyperbolic as it sounds her unwavering sense of justice, her tenacity and willingness to fight for what she believes in, are also encased in those two simple words.

Coming from a highly conservative part of Scotland infused with a powerful sense of justice, and the desire to seek out the stories that are being discarded and ignored. Her intolerance for the injustices placed on the LGBT community and her ferocity in which she fights for them, would without a doubt make the most terrifying dragon look like a newborn kitten.

From a very early age she had strong sense of justice with a conviction to stand up for the little guy. Becoming very enthralled by politics at a young age, and then growing up in the Thatcher era and age of conservatism, while living in a part of Scotland that was very much negatively affected by Thatcher’s policies. Witnessing that at an early age instilled in her a sense of equality that developed and would eventually entwine itself within her career.

One of the most fascinating things about accomplished journalists and writers is where they began, what inspired them to become who they are. As fierce as Jill is her story is easy to sympathise with and understand as to why she chose to follow the path of a journalist.

“My parents used to say they were worried I would get hit by a car, because I would walk across the street reading a book.” She said.

Certainly not a method of reading that should be tried at home, however not even a mass of metal could pry Jill away from her book, and whatever adventure she had embarked upon that day.

Her sense of equality and thirst for justice has yet to weaver and shines through quite often on her Twitter page much to the chagrin of a great many online trolls, but also to the casual delight of her followers and the students she teaches.

A pre-conception about journalists is that they tend to have a bit of an ego from time to time, a perfect blend of fame and a $300 bottle of whiskey and one rejection away from a twitter rant are all it takes for a Journalist to fall from grace. It is remarkable that Jill has never to succumb to an ego that has claimed the careers of so many, or any ego at all for that matter.

she joined the age in 2006 after harassing the editor of The Age after he had given a lecture, as all journalists should do when trying to get job interviews. “Be persistent, harass people” she says

Throughout her career she has earned an incredible number of awards and commendations including several awards for media excellence for Victorian sports and then for the Australian Drug and Alcohol Awards which she then won, but her greatest achievement was yet come.

2014 gave Jill the moment she is most proud of she won the GLOBE LGBTI Straight Ally of the Year award for a series of articles she wrote about homophobia in sports and telling the story of Jason Ball the first openly gay football player back in 2012. Which then lead to the first pride game in 2016. With a gay pride jumper hanging on her wall, as a reminder of the lives she changed and the difference she has made to so many.

The way she talked about her awards was if they weren’t for her but for those she wrote about, and those who’s rights had been trampled on again and again. To her she was simply doing her job.

“I like to think I’ve made a small difference, but really our job as journalists is to be the conduit between the public and the people’s experiences make up the world we live in”

With such an incredible career, surely there must be a skeleton in her closet, some mistake from her tabloid days in the UK that haunted her. Perhaps a body hidden at the bottom of a loch.

The tone takes a sharp turn when talking about what she could’ve done better was akin to watching a children’s program on tv then without warning switching over to Black Hawk down

“Not standing up for myself as much, against some of the pressure that you get when you work for the tabloids in the UK to bend the rules, or to go a bit hard when you’re on the doorstep particularly when you’re dealing with grieving relatives”

It’s hard to imagine someone so strong having such a profound dislike for her past actions that ultimately weren’t her fault, actions she had no real choice in the matter. It is curious however had the environment in the UK tabloids been different would she have taken the chance on Australia?

During her first year at The Age along comes the Melbourne Commonwealth games.

“I had to write a two-hundred-word piece on the event of the day, and so I was doing swimming, I think it was the two hundred metres woman’s freestyle, I had to speak to Kieren Perkins the former Olympic champion he was my expert, so I went to him to ask who he thought would win the race.”

“And he told me that Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe was going to win the race, so I report that and it went into the paper, and it come back to me the next day that Zimbabwe wasn’t actually at the commonwealth games, so I had spent two hundred words writing about this woman, the picture of her and her country weren’t even at the games, so that was a bit awkward”

With her second book on the horizon she reflected on why she decided to write a follow up and the links to its predecessor, it was surprising to hear someone so successful talk that about a subject matter that is quite often ignored and forgotten or very rarely mentioned at all and she did it without missing a beat.

“Basically, that book came out and I thought this was going to be the pinnacle of my life, and I’ve always wanted to write a book and here I had just written it and not only was it successful, people loved it and they were buying it, I should be the happiest I’ve ever been. It didn’t happen like that.”

Her second boo is currently without a title but is due out next year and deals with the unspoken consequences of being successful and the mental health issues that it comes with, and the importance of switching off from Social media.

In 2016 Jill took up a teaching position at Macleay College where she imparts her vast experiences and wisdom to young prospective journalists.

“I’ve always wanted to teach”

From the tabloids to The Age, Author, Journalist and now teacher there’s not much Jill Stark hasn’t done. And with many more years to come, there is no doubt she’ll continue to have a remarkable career

“I want to be on the right side of history”

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Luke Hancock

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Freelance Journalist, completely irresponsible, highly inquisitive and always ready for a chat at 2 am.