Andrew Chounding
Andrew Chounding connects health and policy debates to life in regional Western Australia, telling stories that show how biosecurity, sexual health, disability and environmental decisions play out for farmers and small-town communities. He reports for ABC News across its regional services, contributing both online features and broadcast segments for areas including ABC Great Southern and ABC Pilbara.
Health, biosecurity and the impact on farming communities
Health and disease control are central threads in his coverage, especially where they intersect with agriculture and local livelihoods. In his reporting on the spread of bird flu and the nervous wait for farmers as investigations expand, he focuses on the uncertainty facing producers and the practical consequences of biosecurity decisions on regional businesses and supply chains. He brings the same lens to debates over sexual health information, co-reporting on the push in Albany to restrict children’s access to sex education books in the public library, including motions targeting titles such as Welcome to Sex and Sex: A Book for Teens and the concerns raised by LGBTQI advocates about moral panic and censorship. Across these stories, he treats health not just as a clinical issue but as a community concern, showing how policy, classification systems and disease management shape everyday life.
Rural life, agriculture and working animals
Chounding spends considerable time on the rhythms and challenges of rural life, often through the lens of farming and regional industries. He has co-authored pieces that look closely at working dogs, exploring the differences between collies and kelpies as muster dogs and asking which breeds translate into better pets, blending practical advice with the experiences of people on the land. His work also extends to commodity stories, contributing to Landline coverage on gold, which is carried across ABC’s local platforms from Perth to Brisbane and Hobart, linking regional extraction industries to broader economic narratives. In these reports he foregrounds the voices of farmers, station owners and regional workers, making technical and economic themes accessible through the decisions and dilemmas they face.
Culture, technology and creative industries in regional towns
Beyond health and agriculture, Chounding frequently explores how global technological shifts and cultural trends affect regional writers, readers and institutions. In his feature on Esperance author Fleur McDonald and the Books3 database, he covers claims that a US-based AI training set “stole” thousands of works without permission to build linguistic software, explaining how copyright, consent and the economics of writing are now pressing issues for regional novelists as much as metropolitan publishers. He also follows how communities manage information and media more broadly, with ABC Great Southern describing him speaking at Albany Public Library about false images, videos and online misinformation, helping residents navigate what they see on their screens and social feeds. His reporting and public-facing work show a sustained interest in how technology, artificial intelligence and digital literacy intersect with the book trade, local libraries and cultural life outside major cities.
Environment, fire and Western Australian landscapes
Environmental management and the health of Western Australia’s landscapes are another recurring focus. Community posts highlight his interviews on the ecological impacts of prescribed burns, where he discusses negative outcomes of recent springtime fire regimes and their potential to harm biodiversity in the state’s forests and bushland. He has also been associated with coverage on protecting Western Australia’s forests and biodiversity on ABC Mornings, indicating a continued engagement with conservation, land management and the tension between hazard reduction and habitat protection. In these pieces he gives space to scientists, land managers and local residents, framing environmental decisions in terms of both ecological health and the safety of nearby communities.
History, disability and regional storytelling
Chounding contributes to long-form and feature storytelling that ties personal narratives to place. He worked on coverage of Clare Reilly becoming the first person to complete the 1,000-kilometre Munda Biddi trail in a wheelchair, a story that combines endurance sport, accessibility and the experience of moving through Western Australia’s bush trails with a disability. His name also appears on features about wartime history, including coverage of Italian prisoners of war sent to Mount Barker and other camps, where images credited to ABC News and his work help bring archival stories and local memories into the present. Alongside co-bylines from ABC Pilbara on community obituaries, these assignments show he is comfortable switching from hard-news angles to reflective pieces about memory, identity and how individuals and families are shaped by larger historical forces.
Taken together, Andrew Chounding’s body of work is defined by an interest in how health, environment, technology and policy touch regional lives. Whether he is tracking a bird flu investigation, unpacking controversy over sex education books, detailing the work of muster dogs, or examining the fallout from AI training datasets, he keeps the focus on the people and communities of Western Australia, making national and global issues legible through their experiences.
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