Penelope Debelle is an award-winning journalist who began her career at the News in Adelaide. In 1983 she moved to Melbourne and worked as a political reporter at the Herald, then as Melbourne writer for Good Weekend magazine. In 1995, after the birth of her daughter, Honey, she returned to Adelaide where she worked as Adelaide correspondent for the Age for a decade. In 2008 she joined SA Weekend magazine at the Advertiser as a senior writer, winning the SA Press Club 2009 Gold Award for a feature on former South Australian Premier, John Bannon. In 2010 she won the National Press Club Engineer's Australia award for an article on maths. She has a Bachelor of Economics degree from Flinders University (Hons arts).