Helen Wellings

Helen Wellings is an Australian journalist and consumer advocate, who was the presenter and chief reporter of the ABC consumer affairs series The Investigators from 1985 to 1995.

Education and teaching career

Wellings studied a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Russian history) and a teaching diploma at Monash University. She worked as a secondary school teaching in Victoria for several years, teaching history and English.[1]

Consumer advocacy and television career

In 1973, Wellings moved to Sydney, but was unable to work as a teacher as her files were lost by the Department of Education.[2] Instead, she joined the New South Wales Department of Consumer Affairs to implement information programs on consumer rights as head of the department's education and publicity unit. In this role, she made numerous media appearances as a consumer expert on radio and television, including on ABC's This Day Tonight, The 7.30 Report and 2BL; Willesee and 11AM on Seven; The Midday Show and What'll They Think of Next? on the Nine Network; and 2GB radio.[3]

In 1984, she was appointed by the ABC as a reporter on The Investigators, a new factual television series focused on consumer affairs and rights.[3] Wellings replaced Sonia Humphrey as the main host from the show's third series in 1987. The series was one of the ABC's highest-rating programs, and ran for eleven years from 1985 to 1995, when it was cancelled.[4]

After the cancellation of The Investigators, Wellings moved to the Seven Network where she worked as a reporter, and later in 1996, as host for the Sydney edition of Today Tonight. Since 1998, she has been Seven's national reporter on consumer and trade practice issues.[1]

Personal life

Wellings is married to barrister Rod Weaver, with whom she has one child.[2] She is the sister-in-law of actress Jacki Weaver.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Who's Who Australian Women 2015, ConnectWeb, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Freeman, Jane: "The Selling of Helen Wellings", The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 January 1996.
  3. 1 2 "Helen Wellings". 7 News/Today Tonight. Seven Network. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  4. ↑ 'We’re all shell shocked!', TV Week, 14–20 October 1995.
  5. ↑ "Consuming interests of Helen Wellings". The Age. 3 February 1988. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
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