ABC News Queensland weather presenter Jenny Woodward has received the state's Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism award, recognising a broadcasting career that includes 40 years explaining the weather to the ABC's Queensland audience. The honour was presented at the Queensland Clarion Awards in Brisbane on Saturday (10 October), according to the ABC's report of the award.
A Brisbane native, Woodward began her television career at Channel 10/4/5a in Toowoomba in the 1970s, working on children's programmes and special-event television. Her responsibilities included reading news and weather, and the ABC dates her first weather presentation to 1975. After a brief stint at Channel 7 in Brisbane, she joined the ABC in 1986.
By 1987, Woodward was presenting the ABC's weather alongside news presenter Rod Young and sports presenter David Mackay. She told the broadcaster how the job once involved travelling into the city to collect Bureau of Meteorology charts, speaking with a forecaster, then returning to the studio before going to air.
The tools have changed, but that contact with the bureau continues each day. Woodward described the shift from studio camera operators and a floor manager to robotic cameras and cues delivered through an earpiece. Graphical maps projected using a green screen now accompany her explanations of the forecast.
Woodward told the ABC her priority was making scientific information understandable rather than overwhelming viewers with terminology. Her approach is to turn the data into a story the audience can follow. “So I want the audience to understand what's happening, but not overwhelm them with the detail,” she said.
Viewer-submitted pictures of weather formations and Queensland landscapes have also become part of her presentation. “I look at every photo that comes in,” Woodward said, describing the connection created when viewers send stories with their images. Her outside broadcasts have included the Ekka, where animals and the noise of the show add an unpredictable element to the weather report.
The Clarion honour follows her Medal of the Order of Australia in 2024 for service to broadcast media. In its coverage of that earlier award, the ABC described her work guiding audiences through cyclones, bushfires, floods and extreme heatwaves. That account also recorded her move onto the stage in 2021 with Weathering Well, a one-woman show sharing anecdotes and behind-the-scenes experiences from weather presenting.
Her community work also includes a weather calendar. Government House's record for 4 August 2026 confirms that Queensland Governor Jeannette Young attended the launch of the Jenny Woodward ABC/Queensland Country Women's Association 2027 Weather Calendar at the ABC's South Brisbane studios and addressed guests.