Whilst I couldn't use the lofty term photojournalism to describe most of the work I carried out as a freelance or casual news photographer in Sydney-based Australian newspapers from the early eighties until mid 1998, I think there was a degree of cross-over. Some of the best news photographers were true photojournalists. Others were mad, but real and lovable. As a group, I felt they were more representative of the wider Australian population than journalists.

In all the years I had spent within the Murdoch and Fairfax Empires, I had always felt I was an impartial observer. I was never employed full-time and never sought to be. I relished the opportunity to simply observe not only Australian society but also the society of the media which in itself was quite a treat. In the end I left the business of "doing shifts" to other younger photographers. $200.00 a day flat is not bad money when you're 20 years old, but at 45 yrs and with the company absolutely refusing to negotiate terms, I went fishing elsewhere.
There were also the unresolved and disturbing questions of copyright.

When I first walked into Murdoch's photo department in Sydney, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had come from the rather serious and self-important Bulletin Magazine and I walked into the almost total anarchy of doing shifts with the Australian, The Telegraph and The Mirror. The strength of character and humour of newspaper people in those days was completely intoxicating. It wasn't just that the work was exciting and interesting- so were the people. Everyday of my life was like walking onto a Fellini set.

The work wasn't challenging in a technical sense but there was a high level of skill displayed by many photographers in the darkroom and of course ethical considerations often gave way to pleasing the editor. One photographer produced a stunning shot of the first Skylab above Sydney. The photo published in Sydney was immediately wired around the world. Only, the whole thing had been a darkroom creation, something this particular guy was a master at.

Work often took a back seat when the larrikin element took hold. Two blokes kept black and white cut-out life-size photographs of Rupert (you know who) with rubber bands attached in their lockers. One day when Murdoch was in town making some big decision and other media crews were camped outside the office, they grabbed brief-cases, stuck the Rupert masks on and dashed from the front of the building. The TV cameramen were momentarily fooled much to the amusement of our two photographers. On return to the department, yet another practical joker posing as a photo-editor instructed them to report to Mr Murdoch's office! When he finally confronted them he asked them what he could do for them and of course they were compelled to spill the beans. Rupert apparently shared their humour though I can't say there was ever any evidence of him playing tricks around the place. That was largely left to the photographers some were very good at it and carried off friendly vendettas that sometimes went on for months.

Journalists loved to visit the old Sydney photo dept. Although they were generally of a more serious demeanour, there was a worn and run-down air about the department that indicated anything could happen and being essentially curious and voyeuristic they loved the entertainment provided by photographers. Many journalists in war zones have commented on this ability that mad photographers have of keeping them amused and News Ltd wasn't too much different. In essence, the photographers allowed themselves to be closer to their emotions and thus to life itself.

I worked for some years at Fairfax with the Sun Herald and Sydney Morning Herald but it was never as colourful or entertaining as News Ltd. I think the Herald people took themselves more seriously. Gradually I realised there were less and less inducements for me to be there. I am not just talking about money but I think there were less people in editorial who understood good photography. Photo-editors gradually became more disempowered. The result was that the visual decisions were increasingly made by men with untrained eyes and none too subtle at that. Usually journalists who had been promoted to editorship, these men were trying to compete with television. In my belief the still image should never compete with the moving image and the subtlety of many a photographers work was lost on them.

I sought work in other areas, lifestyle-magazines, corporate and news agencies and P.R. Soon the returns from this work exceeded any recompense from newspapers and I was more than happy to leave them behind. I loved that whole period of my life from my first newspaper work which I took after leaving a job as an advertising photographer in New Zealand until I walked out the Fairfax door. I loved the way the whole building shook when they fired up the presses. I loved the people, smell and earthiness of the business but it has changed. newspapers no longer have as their primary reason for being the dissemination of news, now they are in the news business which is a whole different story.

I found that after the frustration of trying to negotiate with people within the News business dealing with other business was comparatively easy and pleasant. People actually had respect for what I could do for them as a professional with many years experience that could be focussed for their particular purpose. I was so used to having my professional abilities taken for granted within the media that this came as something of a pleasant surprise. Of course we all come across the..."Oh you actually get paid for taking snaps!" attitude. But when it comes to the crunch I/we get paid for our ability to focus and portray in a very precise way and to deliver that in a professional manner.

Photojournalism? We still have some great photojournalists in this country and they should be employed in newspapers where truthful, moment by moment documentation really counts. Unfortunately the standards of visual literacy in our newspaper staff are not good. Usually it is not the picture editors but journalists posing as editors that make the big visual decisions and as long as the big profit mentality continues this situation will not change.

However, the last few years have shown a wonderful growth period for Australian photojournalism, unfortunately for the most part, the employment has come from outside the country.

DIANA PLATER:
I have a rather weak saying - stress the lance not the free. Whenever I used to say I was a freelance journalist people would think that meant doing something for nothing or very little. Fortunately the professionals involved in freelance journalism have gradually encouraged editors and others to pay more realistically although there's a certain national newspaper based in our capital city that thinks $150 for a 1000-word story is fair pay not charity.

Usually rates are around 50c to 70c a word. But that's slightly better than the $25 an hour casual subs are still paid at certain places. Outrageous!

I began freelancing in the late 1970s when I left the Canberra Press Gallery to work in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory covering the burgeoning Aboriginal land rights movement and mining developments. I've continued to freelance over the years in between other jobs, both from Australia as well as Latin America - based in Nicaragua -the United States and Europe. It was never glamorous (in Nicaragua it involved filing stories on an ancient telex machine from the Managua post office) but always fascinating and usually fun.

When I returned from working overseas in 1987 I took to freelancing again, especially as there was a new interest in Aboriginal affairs by foreign media, with the lead up to the protests at the Bicentenary in 1988. I started writing for Canadian newspapers such as the Montreal Gazette and the Toronto Star and others. Later, I found that arts stories were the easiest to sell to domestic media and overseas media and, as it's an area I'm extremely interested in, also enjoyable.

I've been able to combine freelance writing for magazines and newspapers with casual sub-editing and some freelance public relations work as well as writing several books and a couple of plays. One of the advantages is the flexibility of time and being able to combine work with pretending to be a good mother.

My stories have been published widely including in The Australian, The Canberra Times, Australian Author, Australian Art Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin, NSW university magazines, the Sunday Mail (in Perth) and WIN, an international internet magazine for women, read in 90 countries, which unfortunately has now folded.

I have written about indigenous issues for over 30 years and find it's still a subject that also interests overseas publications. I've found however it's not so easy these days to successfully pitch other Australian stories to overseas newspapers. There's just too much happening internationally to be interested in Australian domestic issues. Even Michael Moore left Australia out of the `Coalition of the willing' in Fahrenheit 9/11.

But Aussies are adventurous on the whole and if you're prepared to go further afield it can land you some great stories.

Last year I was in the Philippines for the International Women's Playwrights Conference and wrote some travel stories on Manila's nightlife as well as spas and resorts for AAP - my bars and spas tour. I also visited the island of Boracay to write some travel stories. While there I ran into a former colleague who, as well as continuing to freelance, also runs a tourist and adventure resort business. You find Aussie freelance journalists moonlighting everywhere! And I'm still planning to open a bar one day.

STEPHANIE GARTELMANN: My freelancing career goes back to 1999. During this time, the pay has been between $0.30 and $1.00 per word. I've survived these discrepancies by only doing low-paying work if it's worth it career-wise/contact-wise/experience-wise, and then ensuring I have high paying jobs to pay the rent even if these aren't always about subjects that make my heart do flip-flops.

I think everyone knows that being a freelancer is extremely competitive (i.e. there's more supply of writers than demand for them), which is why I usually ignore debates about pay being "unfairly low." I have always been paid on time and by the due date, so no bad stories to report here.

Everyone knows the real rewards of freelancing are in the lifestyle, not the pay: i.e. the fact you learn fascinating things all the time, the fact you can write, the fact you can dictate your own schedule and so on. To insist otherwise would be to say that tightrope-walking should be a safe occupation, when its raison d'etre is in looking as though you could fall any minute!

I was based in Japan for nine years until 2002 and I've been in Sydney since then. Survival as a freelancer is all about contacts because everyone wants to work with someone they trust. Having few contacts since returning here has been tough, but building them up has been rewarding.

I write for the Singapore Straits Times, Vogue Living, The Local Agenda (local government industry magazine) and I am a researcher for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK).

My advice to those with overseas based stringing contracts is to visit that country whenever possible to maintain excellent relations, but not to rely on these jobs for income. You are just too far away to be important to the editors or even to be human - you are just a name who produces text and is paid for it electronically. I know this sounds negative but its how I feel. Freelancers shouldn't think that just because they are independent, that they are also independent of the real interpersonal ties that make or break working relations. So, guys, go foster those next-door-neighbour writing contracts.

PETER HADFIELD: I have seen cutbacks and I have felt a distinct lack of interest recently. I phoned the editor of a shortwave broadcasting network I work for and was told that emphasis for the Asia-Pacific programme had shifted to South Asia -- because that is where the English-speaking audience is. Australia is no longer considered to be a part of Asia, which had always been the previous practice. Okay, but isn't it still part of the Pacific, I thought?

The stories that do tend to 'sell' to that network and others have international ramifications -- like Guantanamo Bay, the Timor maritime boundary dispute and the recent hearings about who knew what about Abu Ghraib prison.

Most of my work has been overseas features over the last two years -- Cambodia (Khmer Rouge Trials, damming of the Mekong), Thailand (human trafficking), Indonesia (reaction to the intervention in Iraq) and Taiwan (presidential election.)

Even the election may be just a footnote, unless Mark Latham (Australian Labour Party) gets in and George Bush decides to tell the world that we are all doomed as a result.

KIRSTEN FOGG: It's taken two years and many excruciating moments for freelancing as a foreign correspondent to start to work. Australia is a stable country that, for many US and Canadian publications, just can't compete with the Middle East.

The papers I work with -- The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Times, and Canada's two national papers -- The Globe and Mail and The National Post, get most of their news stories off the wires and are only interested in big-picture feature articles or travel pieces. It actually suits me because I would rather take the time to research and write in-depth features than be phoned in the middle of the night to do a 300-word news story.

When I first moved here, I talked with editors from Australian newspapers and targeted them with ideas as well as the foreign press. According to one editor at the Financial Review, freelance rates had actually dropped from about $1 a word in the 1980s to 75 cents or so. This was enough to discourage me to tapping the Australian market with any vigour. Instead, I focused on large papers in North America and sought out editors that treat freelancers with the same respect and offer the same feedback as they do to staffers.

When I arrived in Australia, I only knew the foreign editor at the Washington Times. In two years, I've built up my contacts by diligently emailing article ideas (with curriculum vitae and sometimes published articles attached), and a follow-up phone call.

One of the best pieces of advice I received actually came from FCA President Mark Chipperfield. He mentioned that every year he does a sales trip, touching base with all his editors. My first trip back to Canada, I set up meeting with different editors and every time since then I've stopped to meet new editors and grab a coffee with the ones I know. It's proved tremendously effective in helping people remember me as a person and not just an email address that pops out interesting features.

It can be trying to be a freelance foreign correspondent and it can be isolating: You can't negotiate pay for articles or photos and in some cases it may take longer to bank that cheque, some editors will ignore your email for weeks while others will want a story overnight.

However, the rewards are many: You make your own hours, don't have to wear a suit most of the time, you meet interesting people and you learn quickly how the country works because you have to write about it.