Bill Birnbauer studied journalism at RMIT and then joined the Melbourne Herald in 1975. In the late 1970s he transferred to the Age, where he occupied various editing and reporting positions. He joined the Journalism unit at Monash University in 2008.
Birnbauer has published two books, contributed chapters to other books and edited at Stanford University a book of short stories A Year of One's Own (1993). He has also produced documentaries for SBS and the ABC, for example The Big Lie (2005) on the machinations of the tobacco industry. Birnbauer led a team in 1996 that won a Walkley award, Australia's most prestigious journalism award, for an article on the Port Arthur massacre. He has been a Walkley finalist four times. He has won a Melbourne Press Club Quill award (he has been high commended four times in the Quills), the Victoria Law Foundation award (five times), the Human Rights Award, the UN Association's Media Peace Award and a Dart Award.
Birbauer is a member of the invitation-only International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Washington-based Centre for Public Integrity, and has engaged in major investigations for the consortium. He was a contributing member of a team that won an Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award for online journalism in 2003 (The Water Barons) and another team that was a finalist in the 2001 IRE awards.
Birnbauer was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University, California, 1992-93. He has undertaken study towards a Masters degree by research examining models for non-profit investigative journalism.
Source: information provided by the author.
