Elisabeth Wynhausen (23 June 1946 – 5 September 2013) was a Dutch-born Australian journalist and author. David Marr
"Elisabeth Wynhausen: A writer sharp of eye and tongue"
Obituaries, ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', 12 September 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2021.Tom Dusevic, "Obituary: Elisabeth Wynhausen: Wynhausen's fire lit up newsroom", ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

''. 9 September 2013.Dirt Cheap by Elisabeth Wynhausen
abc.net.au. Retrieved 15 June 2021."Elizabeth Wynhausen, acerbic truth-teller, dies aged 67", ''The Australian'', 6 September 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2021. During her career she worked as a senior journalist with ''

'' and in her earlier years for '' The Bulletin'', ''

The National Times ''The National Times'', later ''National Times on Sunday'', was a weekly newspaper published by Fairfax News from 1971 to 1986. Background The paper quickly developed a reputation for accurate investigative journalism, winning four consecutive W ...

'' and ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

''. In her articles and books she was "passionate about social justice and telling 'people' stories".

Life and career

Elisabeth Wynhausen was born in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 23 June 1946. Her parents were Paul Wynhausen and Marianne Nathans, "Dutch Jews who had escaped the Nazis". She migrated to Australia with her parents and her younger brother Jules in 1951.

Rodney Cavalier Rodney Mark Cavalier (born 11 October 1948) is a former Australian politician, statutory officer and author. Cavalier was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Fuller between 1978 and 1981 and then Gladesville betwe ...

, "Thicker than water", ''

Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'', 8 December 1989. Retrieved 16 June 2021. She grew up in Manly in Sydney's northern beaches area. After a brief spell teaching at

Frensham School Frensham School is an independent non-denominational comprehensive single-sex preschool, primary, and secondary day and boarding school for girls, located at Mittagong, in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. Estab ...

, she joined ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' as a cadet in 1970 and later worked as a staff writer for '' The Bulletin'' magazine.Elisabeth Wynhausen
mup.com.au. Retrieved 15 June 2021. In 1970 she left for New York where she would work for twelve years as a foreign correspondent for ''

'' and ''

'' newspapers and also submit articles to ''

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

''. Returning to Australia "to be close to her ageing parents", she worked firstly for ''

The Sun-Herald ''The Sun-Herald'' is an Australian newspaper published in tabloid or compact format on Sundays in Sydney by Nine Publishing. It is the Sunday counterpart of ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. In the 6 months to September 2005, ''The Sun-Herald' ...

'' and then moved across to ''

'' newspaper where she would work for many years as a senior journalist. In her final years she "remade herself as a tweeter and blogger", using the pen name "Betty of Bondi".

Assessment

Speaking of Wynhausen, the Australian journalist and writer, David Marr, who was one of her former colleagues at ''The National Times'', said "she was harsh and unsentimental, and deeply compassionate, all at the same time" and added "she was deeply, deeply concerned about social justice but she came at it without any cant". Kim Williams, former chief executive of

News Corp Australia News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...

, said: "She was the most truthful person I've ever known... She was awesomely direct, passionate...". In 2005 the Australian journalist

Ellen Fanning Ellen is a female given name, a diminutive of Elizabeth, Eleanor, Elena and Helen. Ellen was the 609th most popular name in the U.S. and the 17th in Sweden in 2004. People named Ellen include: *Ellen Adarna (born 1988), Filipino actress *Ellen A ...

criticised an article by Wynhausen on poverty in "none-too-complimentary terms", accusing her of not acknowledging that article's inspiration by the American journalist

Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich (, ; ; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and awar ...

's book ''

Nickel and Dimed ''Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America'' is a book written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Written from her perspective as an undercover journalist, it sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on the working poor in t ...

''. Fanning also claimed that Wynhausen's book, ''Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market'', on the same subject erred by suggesting that the American problems pertained in Australia when "it's not really Australia's dilemma".

Personal life

Wynhausen died of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

on 5 September 2013 at the age of 67. Both of her parents and her brother having already died, she was survived by her niece Gabi and her nephew Jesse and their partners and children. She was for a number of years married to the Australian academic, writer and literary critic Don Anderson.

Award shortlists

Two of her books were shortlisted for Australian literary awards: ''Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market'' in 2006 for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non Fiction in the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

and ''Manly Girls'' for the

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...

Bibliography

Books

* ''Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market'', Sydney and Auckland: Macmillan, 1985. * ''Manly Girls'', Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books, 1989. * ''On Resilience'', Melbourne University Press, 2010 (Little Books on Big Themes); Sydney: Hachette Australia, 2021.Little Books, Big Themes (Melbourne University Press) – Book Series List
publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 16 June 2021. * ''The Short Goodbye: Skewed History of the Last Boom and the Next Bust'', Melbourne University Press, 2011.

Articles

* "Children of the Cross", ''The National Times'', 28 March – 2 April 1977. * "Standoff in Buckeye and Bayou County", ''The National Times'', 8 February 1981. * "Reagan: peeling away the layers of illusion", ''The National Times'', 29 November — 5 December 1981. * "The strange casebook of Dr Sacks", ''The Age'', 4 April 1987. * "I'm not wild about Harry, but Harry's wild about me", ''The Sun Herald'', 10 May 1992. * "The brothers", ''The Weekend Australian'': Review Section, 6–7 January 1996. * "Watching the world go round", ''The Weekend Australian'': Review Section, 6–7 January 1996. * "Block Out", ''The Australian Magazine'', 14–15 June 1997. * "The end of the road", ''The Australian Magazine'', 20–21 June 1998. * "The Miller's Tale", ''The Australian'', 15 February 2000. * "Bright lights, dim city", ''The Weekend Australian'': Review section, 26–27 February 2000. * "Welcome to the Hell Hotel", ''The Australian'', 30 March 2001. * "From school lunches to lockups", ''The Australian'', 10 May 2001. * "Tricked, trafficked and terrified", ''The Weekend Australian'', 16 August 2003. * "Road to nowhere", ''The Australian Magazine'', 20 May 2006. * "In the face of hostility", ''The Australian'', 22 November 2006. * "Give it everything you've got", ''The Australian'', 20 September 2008. * "Inside the cleaning industry's dirty little secrets", ''The Australian'', 4 October 2008.

References

External links

Elisabeth Wynhausen: Journalist and Author
official website featuring text of selected articles
"Backstreet Bondi"
photo essays by Wynhausen about the locals in Bondi,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wynhausen, Elisabeth 1946 births 2013 deaths University of Sydney alumni Dutch emigrants to Australia The Australian journalists Australian women journalists Australian women writers Writers from Maastricht People from Manly, New South Wales