Story Of A logie Win

This was Australia’s first terrorist attack.

September 16 1972.


Two bombs were exploded in Croatian Travel agencies in Sydney’s Haymarket. 16 people were injured in the first attack, 2 critically. None in the second. The perpetrators of the attack were said to be Croatian separatists.

Channel 9 reporter Greg Grainger had only been in the job 9 months when he was heading over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with cameraman Vernon McGrath and sound assistant Ross Boyer.

On news of the bombing, they drove over the large median strip separating the Cahill Expressway they were on, to slip in behind an ambulance on the Brafield Highway, allowing them to get to the scene only minutes after the blast.

Vernon was filming on a CP-16 camera using a 10-minute reel of film. As they began filming a store worker who survived the first blast, there was a second explosion.

Without faltering, the Channel 9 team, as one, began running towards the second blast, McGrath filming, Grainger commentating.

The action was considered so gripping by the Channel 9 producers of the day, they ran almost the entire 10-minute reef film, largely unedited.

On seeing the coverage, Channel 9 owner Kerry Packer instructed the news director to re-run the coverage in its entirety.

At the following Logie ceremony in Melbourne, Grainger was presented with a Logie for Best News Coverage 1972 by actor Glenn Ford.

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