Former Age editor Michael Gawenda, who worked with [Pamela Bone] for 20 years, said she was “one of the bravest and most thoughtful columnists I have ever met”.

After leaving The Age in 2005, Bone wrote for The Australian, knowing her time was limited, “and they were terrific columns”, Gawenda said.

“She showed a moral insightfulness around the big issues of global poverty, the plight of women in the developing world and theplight of the poor,” he said. “She was incredibly important for the humanitarian heart of Australia.”

TRIBUTES have poured in from leading figures in Australian journalism following the death of columnist Pamela Bone, who died on Saturday after a battle with cancer. She was 68.

Determined not to spend her last days in hospital, Bone died at her Melbourne home at about 6pm surrounded by family.

The pioneer journalist leaves behind four daughters and six grandchildren, as well as her long-time partner Jurgen Nelles.

Bone was known for many years for her passionate columns in The Age, and more recently in The Australian.

She twice won the Melbourne Press Club’s award for best newspaper columnist and is a recipient of the UN media peace prize. She was an associate editor at The Age, helping women journalists break into senior roles.

Her work took her to some of the toughest places in the world. She watched bodies being exhumed from mass graves in Rwanda and held emaciated babies in Malawi.

Paul Austin, who was her opinon editor for several years at The Age, said Bone had been a role model for generations of young female reporters.

“She did more than report and edit, she became an opinion leader way before it was fashionable for women to play such a role,” he said.

Former Age editor Michael Gawenda, who worked with Bone for 20 years, said she was “one of the bravest and most thoughtful columnists I have ever met”.

“After she became ill with cancer, Pam continued to engage with the world,” he said.

“Her book, Bad Hair Days, was one of the best ever written on dealing with terminal illness. It was unsentimental, clear-eyed and full of good humour, just like her.”

After leaving The Age in 2005, Bone wrote for The Australian, knowing her time was limited, “and they were terrific columns”, Gawenda said.

In the past six months, despite her deteriorating health, Bone wrote a number of articles, including on the death of Benazir Bhutto, as well as what she saw as the betrayal by Western feminists of their Muslim sisters.

Melbourne University Publishing chief executive Louise Adler said she was proud of encouraging Bone to move from journalism to writing books, which led to the publication in 2004 of her first book, Up We Grew: Stories of Australian Childhood. It was followed by Bad Hair Days, about coping with terminal illness.

Right up to the past week, Bone was working on her final commission from MUP, a book tentatively titled The Woman Question: Women and Islam.

Ms Adler said she saw Bone on Monday, where they discussed the almost-completed first draft.

“It was an extraordinary focus, she was determined to finish it,’ she said. “I showed her what it would look like. It was a measure of her commitment to the cause.

“She was a woman of great moral courage. She fought passionately for the rights of women, for a decent society, for the millions of starving people in Africa. She was a campaigner against injustice in the most modest way. She was never an ideologue.”

Bone first became ill with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, while on assignment for The Age in Chad in central Africa. She was diagnosed on her return home.

“I felt as if some giant hand had come and slapped me on the face and said, `Get out of the human race’,” she said.

World Vision chief executive Tim Costello called Bone “a great humanitarian”.

“She showed a moral insightfulness around the big issues of global poverty, the plight of women in the developing world and theplight of the poor,” he said. “She was incredibly important for the humanitarian heart of Australia.”

Long-time friend and Age colleague Louise Carbines said Bone would be remembered for her integrity and fierce “determination to say what she thought to be true”.

Cut & Paste — Page 9