35 Facts About Sally Sara

Sally Sara has worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for many years, including stints as foreign correspondent in Africa, South Asia, and Afghanistan.

Sally Sara grew up in Port Broughton, on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

Sally Sara's grandmother was a singer, and acted in local plays and school productions, and her mother acted in amateur productions.

Sally Sara developed a love of theatre, and wanted to be a playwright when she was young.

Sally Sara is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, staying in the residential college of St Mark's in North Adelaide from 1988 until 1990.

Sally Sara did a course in screenwriting as a component of her course.

Sally Sara's career began with Outback Radio 2WEB in Bourke, New South Wales.

Sally Sara worked in Alice Springs, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Canberra.

Sally Sara was the ABC's Africa correspondent from 2000 to 2005, the first woman to hold this post.

Sally Sara has reported from Jakarta, the Middle East and London during the 2005 London Bombings.

In February 2006, Sally Sara became the presenter of the ABC's Landline.

From February to December 2011, Sally Sara was based in Kabul as the ABC's Afghanistan correspondent, which included numerous assignments in the field reporting on the war from both the Afghan and NATO sides of the conflict.

Sally Sara reported from the frontline, entrenched with coalition forces.

Sally Sara covered terrorist attacks and political unrest, and followed the rebuilding of the country.

In October 2016, the ABC announced that Sally Sara was returning to Africa as the broadcaster's Africa correspondent, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sally Sara has reported from more than 40 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

In November 2024 it was announced that Sally Sara would be taking over from Patricia Karvelas as host of RN Breakfast.

Sally Sara has written for the Boston Globe and The New York Times.

Sally Sara contributed a chapter in Travellers' Tales Stories from ABC TV's Foreign Correspondents, published in 2004.

Sally Sara is the author of the book Gogo Mama, which tells the diverse stories of 12 women from different African countries.

In February 2013, Sally Sara released the first of a 12-part online series called Mama Asia on the ABC website, inspired by Gogo Mama.

Sally Sara spent a week with most of the women featured in the project, getting to know them and their families.

In researching for the show, Sally Sara interviewed all the real people who inspired the characters in her play, which, she said, gave greater depth to her writing.

In September 2007, Sally Sara was awarded the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship for human rights journalism, that recognises women in journalism, and entails study overseas.

Sally Sara was a visiting fellow at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sally Sara was made a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2011, "For service to journalism and to the community as a foreign correspondent raising awareness of international issues and as a reporter on rural Australia".

Sally Sara was recognised by St Mark's College as a Distinguished Collegian in 2012, and in September of that year was named as an Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Centre at Columbia University in New York.

Sally Sara has won many awards in her career, both domestic and international, starting with a few in her first job at Outback Radio 2WEB, and including four UN Media Peace Awards.

Sally Sara was named South Australian Young Journalist of the Year and Queensland Journalist of the Year.

Sally Sara won three awards in the Dalgety Award for Excellence in Rural Journalism in 1993, and won the John Douglas Pringle Award in 1999.

Sally Sara has been a finalist in the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism many times and in 2017 she won a Walkley for her report on famine in Somaliland.

Sally Sara has won a second Walkley, for radio reporting.

Sally Sara has been nominated twice for the Graham Perkin Award.

Sally Sara is a state Masters Athletics champion, and won a silver medal at the Australian Masters Athletics Championships in 2007.

Sally Sara has a younger brother, Tyson, a defence industry strategist who happened to be in Afghanistan at the same time she was there.