Her career has been one full of adventure, glamour and opportunity, and has taken her all over the world.
Create a free account to read this article
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But in her new memoir, 60 Minutes anchor Liz Hayes recalls an idyllic childhood on a NSW Mid North Coast dairy farm, and getting her start as a cadet in a country newsroom.
An iconic Australian television journalist who has graced our screens for more than four decades, Liz Hayes (aka Beth Ryan) grew up on Oxley Island on the Manning River without a TV. Her father's family had been farmers there for generations.
"All our information came through the radio and there was a telephone exchange on the hill that plugged through telephone calls," she said.
"It was a pretty idyllic life, even though milking cows morning and afternoon is hard yards, but we didn't see it like that because we were kids."
Liz experienced island life at a time when the river serviced the community.
"The milk boat came and collected our milk, and the grocery boat came by, and the butcher boat came by," she said.
Liz attended the little local school that sat atop a hill in the middle of the island.
After graduating high school, she began a cadetship at the local newspaper in Taree, The Manning River Times, where the future star learned the "A to Z of local news".
Covering sport to courts, Liz remembered she was expected to do it all.
"There's nothing that you aren't expected to ultimately do and there's no better training ground than that," said Liz.
"I grew to understand what storytelling was about; news stories, human-interest stories, and local events."
Liz says one of the hardest parts of job were the court rounds, "because invariably you would run into somebody you knew, and that was a real test."
She remembers a time when the local courts and police decided they were going to make an example out of young people smoking marijuana.
"It was horrifying because just about everybody I knew did it and they were sending them to jail," she said.
"That was a round that had me perpetually nervous, because that was my generation, everybody smoked dope."
Nowadays, Liz's face is more than familiar to an Australian audience and beyond.
For years Liz co-hosted Channel 9's Today show before diving into investigative journalism on 60 Minutes for over two decades now.
She's told people's stories from all over the world and now, has told her own.
'Your postcode shouldn't limit you'
I'm Liz Hayes is a memoir with a message that a humble start can lead to broad horizons.
"It's a story about my career, that was the purpose of it ultimately," said Liz. "But one of the things I would like the readers to know is that your postcode shouldn't limit you.
"You can do pretty much what I have done, if you choose to."
Liz says her story is an example of step by step, accepting opportunities, and taking a bit of a risk every now and again.
"I would never have thought in a million years I would be doing what I'm doing.
"It's really important for people to know that success doesn't mean what I have. As long as you feel fulfilled in whatever it is you do, and that can be anything," she said.
"If you fail, it's not really failure because you've given something a shot and if it doesn't work out so be it."
