Sydney – Brianna Parkins

I’m a 25 year old journalist who found herself unexpectedly wearing a sash and crown at the Sydney Rose Selection ball back in May. I entered the Rose of Tralee as an outside chance to spend more time with my family and to give my Irish grandmother something to brag about to her sisters. No one thought I would make it to Tralee, least of all me, but I’m beyond proud to represent the city which has accepted immigrant families like my own. I grew up in working class Western Sydney to an Irish mother and an Australian father. My mother’s family come from Dublin’s Liberties and my father’s great grandmother hails from Armagh. My intimidating height (177cm) means I’ve never missed a season of netball once in 19 years. I graduated with distinction from the University of Wollongong with two degrees in politics and journalism. I was nominated for NSW Regional Young Journalist of the Year for my investigative pieces into sex work and the online drug trade. I’m lucky enough to be a researcher for the Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC. I work on the TV show Media Watch, which for 26 seasons has been holding the media to account and I’m lucky enough to share an office with some of the best in the game. In my spare time I’m a passionate women’s rights campaigner and union member. I am, at best, a very average surfer. My mother and her family immigrated to Australia 50 years ago. Their grit and hard work meant that in two short generations we have come from factory workers with limited education to me, the first university graduate in the family. I did the Rose as a way of saying thank you to them for the sacrifices they made for us.