Mary-Louise O’Callaghan

Mary-Louise O’Callaghan is an award-winning journalist and senior strategic communications specialist with more than three decades’ experience in the Pacific, based in Solomon Islands.

As a foreign correspondent for Australian metropolitan newspapers, she reported extensively on political, security and development issues across the region. In 1997, she won the Gold Walkley for her investigation exposing the Papua New Guinea Government’s decision to hire foreign mercenaries during the Bougainville conflict. Her book, Enemies Within: Australia, PNG and the Sandline Mercenary Affair (Opens in new window), was published the following year.

She subsequently served as Public Affairs Manager for the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), and has held senior communications and public affairs roles with World Vision Australia, Médecins Sans Frontières, Internews and the Asian Development Bank. She has also worked on governance and media development programs in Solomon Islands and taught investigative journalism at Monash University.

Mary-Louise is currently based in Melbourne and continues to write on Pacific affairs.