Portrait of Philip Williams, 2019

Philip Williams (b. 1957), foreign correspondent, grew up in the Canberra region and began work at the local ABC station in 1975. In due course appointed the ABC’s Bureau Chief in Japan, by 1992 he was getting beaten up in the midst of a riot in Seoul. In 2001 he reported on the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, and in 2003 the invasion of Iraq. In 2004 he covered the Beslan school siege in Russia, in which hundreds of people including 186 children were killed by Chechen rebels. In 2010 he covered the Haiti earthquake. In mid-2011 he was on his way to the Tour de France when he was diverted to Norway, where a right-wing extremist had perpetrated a car bomb attack in Oslo and a massacre on Utøya island. In 2014 he reported on Ukrainian riots and the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine; he was on the scene following terrorist attacks in London, Spain, Paris and Russia. He was London Bureau Chief before his appointment as chief foreign correspondent in 2016, the year he reported on the Fiji earthquake. Since then he has covered the rise of Donald Trump, the Arab Spring and the subsequent Syrian crisis, and Brexit. Since 1993 Williams and his partner have owned Wallaroo Wines in Hall, building their property into one of the ACT region’s larger suppliers of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling grapes.

Philip Williams and Rick Amor are brothers-in-law.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rick Amor and Meg Williams in memory of Althea 'Bid' Williams 2020
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Rick Amor/Copyright Agency, 2020