ABC podcast Spies in the Outback takes top gong in New York

Australia Broadcast Center

23-05-2025

Friday 23 May 2025
ABC podcast Expanse Series 3: Spies in the Outback, hosted by Alice Springs journalist Alex Barwick, has won the top gong at the New York Festivals Radio Awards.
Announced today at the gala ceremony, Spies in the Outback won gold and Expanse Series 4 Uncropped is a finalist in the documentary / history category.
The prestigious Awards celebrate creative storytellers from across the globe and recognise exceptional quality in broadcast audio content. The Grand Jury chose the podcast series from a field of thousands of entries across six continents.
The story starts in the Cold War era and examines the secretive US/Australian defence base Pine Gap, hidden in Barwick's back yard of Alice Springs.
Barwick, who pitched the winning audio concept to the ABC, has been a reporter in the region for 17 years. She says she wanted to tell a story from regional Australia that would capture the imagination of a global audience.
'Working with an incredible team – Piia Wirsu, Grant Wolter and Elsa Silberstein, and led by our Executive Producer Blythe Moore, we were able to explore just how significant Pine Gap is in the Australia/US defence relationship,' Barwick says.
'It was important to tell the history of Pine Gap and how it's shaped my town with care, while also examining what role it may have played in past and present global conflicts.'
EP Blythe Moore: 'The ABC's strength and its point of difference is that we have boots on the ground in some of the most remote and far-flung places in Australia.
'We couldn't have told this story for a global audience without Alex's extensive experience reporting for ABC Alice Springs, her incredible local contacts and connection to the community, and her doggedness to understand what is going on at Pine Gap. That's what took this investigation to a whole other level.'
Media contact: Emma Brown | ABC Communications
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