Craig Allen
Craig Allen is Canberra's ABC weekend newsreader and a member of the reporting team.
Craig began his journalistic career in 1992 as a cub reporter in the 'Beef Capital' Rockhampton in central Queensland. After three years visiting cattle properties he still could not work out a painless way to tell if electric fences were 'live' so decided to move to Toowoomba.
While the 'Garden City' was more his style, Craig soon felt Canberra calling. He jumped at the chance to return to the city of his birth.
During his reporting career in Canberra, Craig has covered the 1997 Thredbo landslide disaster, the Canberra Hospital implosion and nine ACT Budgets.
Craig's scariest reporting moment was on January 17, 2003, as he sat in a helicopter above wild bushfires in Namadgi National Park being buffeted by gale-force winds, smoke and embers. A day later as the bushfires roared into his own suburb, Craig sat at the news desk anchoring ABC Canberra's first ever weekend news bulletin. He has read the weekend news ever since.
In his downtime, Craig enjoys time away with his family - particularly road trips in his vintage VW campervan. He loves bushwalking and exploring the hills of Namadgi National Park but his all-time favourite trekking destination is Nepal. Craig also grows Australian native orchids and loves communing with the fishes, snorkelling on the NSW south coast and the Great Barrier Reef.
Latest by Craig Allen
Scientists rush to save Australia's loneliest tree from extinction
The Mongarlowe mallee — which had its heyday in the last ice age — now has just six known survivors, but ecologists say it could be rescued in a plan reminiscent of the Wollemi pine.
Worried by reports of fentanyl contamination in Australia's drug supply, Donna* got her heroin tested for the first time
Convincing recreational users to get their pills tested at Australia's first fixed drug-testing site is one thing – but cracking the community of Canberrans addicted to harder drugs, like heroin and ice, is another challenge entirely.
'How much love?' At 75, Leo Sayer has swapped the life of pop stardom for secret singalongs in a Canberra hospital
A music heart-throb of the 1970s and 80s, Leo Sayer finds a new audience by spreading hope through the wards of a Canberra hospital.
Money can't buy me love: Beatles super fan to sell his massive memorabilia collection
Dallas Atkins has been collecting Beatles memorabilia since 1968, now he's decided it's time for his collection – which is one of the largest in Australia – to find a new home.
Pushing bikes in the car capital: Canberra road network may be overhauled to encourage cycling, walking
The ACT government wants to introduce some features of the world's most cycle-friendly cities to Canberra, including safer intersections.
Why are staff at one of Australia's national institutions playing video games on the job?
Unable to part with your old video games because of nostalgia? Staff at the National Film and Sound Archive know the feeling. In fact, they want to keep them for hundreds of years.
Stephen and Helen evaded the Nazis and the Soviets, then set off to preserve Australia's fading cultures
When researching the previous owner of his 1976 kombi van, Craig Allen unearthed an unlikely tale of two post-war migrants who dedicated half a century to preserving Indigenous culture.
Turning poo into produce: Canberra's plan to make fertiliser from human waste
Spreading human waste onto crops may not sound appealing, but a multi-million-dollar Icon Water scheme is hoping to turn Canberra's sewage into a valuable farming product.
'People have a right to choose': The wait for ACT's laws on voluntary assisted dying to change
The ACT government is expected to introduce laws allowing voluntary assisted dying by the end of this year. For those like Kath Dyason, who has a terminal illness, it can't come soon enough.
Art Gallery of NSW to hand back 800-year-old carving that was stolen from Nepalese temple
The gallery is preparing to hand back a sacred medieval wooden carving, nearly two years after it was identified on social media as being stolen from the Kathmandu Valley.
Outgoing chief says museums need to 'be honest' about Indigenous history
As he announces his resignation, National Museum of Australia director Mathew Trinca urges historical institutions to "be honest" about the conflicts that marked Australia's colonisation.
Twenty years from the day Canberra 'lost its innocence'
It has been 20 years since a bushfire tore through Canberra's suburbs. The firestorm changed the way the ACT responds to fires, but a question lingers: could it happen again? Warning: this story contains content that may distress some readers.
'Little Kathmandu'? Canberra's rapidly growing Nepali community
The capital had just 70 Nepal-born residents a decade ago, but Nepali is now the third-most-spoken language in Canberra homes, after English and Mandarin.
The program pulling troubled teens back from the brink and into the classroom
A tiny classroom in a former air force hospital is transforming the hopes of ACT students who had given up on attending school.
The ACT will soon be Australia's drug decriminalisation capital. There are lessons from overseas
Portugal and the US offer contrasting lessons in what might unfold in Canberra when it decriminalises hard drugs, and police remain split on whether the plan will work.
Caroline Kennedy speaks with surviving members of Australian military team that helped rescue her father during WWII
Newly appointed United States ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy learns more about the elite Australian military unit that helped rescue her father — John F Kennedy — and his crew during World War II.
The green way to go: The rise of cremations and alternative burials
In a dark storage room beneath Canberra's Norwood Park Crematorium sits row after row of plastic boxes — each with a silent story to tell.
Grim warnings over bushfire risk to Canberra's new suburbs
Bushfire experts have raised concerns about moves to build new suburbs to the west of Canberra, saying deadly fires are likely to become more frequent.
'We want girls to be bold, strong, and to fearlessly find their way in the world'
Canberra is widely known as Australia's most affluent city, but scratch the surface and there's a worrying adolescent mental health crisis. A new charity is hoping to change that.
Canberra's sewage plant has released partially treated effluent into the Molonglo River three times in the past three months
There are questions over the capacity of the ACT's wastewater treatment system, after partially treated sewage was repeatedly released into the Murray Darling catchment during recent heavy rainfall.
These carnivorous marsupials are expected to 'mop up' endangered animals — and that's all part of the plan
An apex predator is being turned loose in bushland in northern Canberra — and every other animal in its path should be very concerned.
'A very special place': Home to birds and rare orchids, this wildlife haven at Canberra's edge could be bulldozed
Calls grow for the ACT government to protect part of a historic soldier settlement block in the Molonglo Valley from future urban development, because of its outstanding ecological value.
Drone delivery services halted as birds and machines clash in Canberra's air space
Aerial drone deliveries in Canberra's north are paused to allow bird experts to investigate reports of "territorial" ravens swooping at moving objects.
Canberra's population is set to nearly double within 40 years — but one developer wants it to grow even larger
Canberra's population is on track to grow from 432,000 to 700,000 people in the next 40 years. But the verdict is out on whether that is a good or bad thing.
Analysis
analysis:How the ABC exposed a massive communications breakdown and sparked a coronial inquiry
Forty-five critical minutes of emergency services radio calls exposed a massive breakdown in communications over the devastating 2020 Namadgi National Park fire – and will now be the subject of an ACT coronial inquiry.