Sarah Macdonald’s ABC Radio Sydney replacement revealed

Hamish Macdonald will replace Sarah Macdonald on 702 ABC Radio Sydney mornings from next week.

Hamish Macdonald will present the show four days per week, from Monday to Thursday and will continue to appear on TEN’s The Project on Fridays. TV journalist Kathryn Robinson will present the morning show on Fridays.

Hamish Macdonald begins next Monday 20 January and Kathryn Robinson will be on air beginning Friday 31 January.

“First and foremost I’d like to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of Sarah Macdonald. I know these are big shoes to fill. I’m looking forward to putting my head down, getting to work from Monday and serving the wonderful 702 audience in what will be a huge year of news for Sydney,” said Macdonald.

Hamish Macdonald is an award-winning journalist who has covered wars, disasters, and major world events. He presents Take Me To Your Leader and co-hosts Global Roaming on ABC Radio National and The Project on Channel Ten.

Hamish has won numerous awards including a Walkley for current affairs journalism. In 2024 he won the EU-Qantas Journalism Prize and the Elizabeth O’Neill Journalism Award. He was also previously named Young Journalist of the Year by Britain’s Royal Television Society. Overseas, he has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya and Ukraine, the nuclear disaster in Japan, uprisings in Hong Kong and Egypt, the London bombings and the rise of ISIS in Iraq. He has featured regularly on the ABC since 2016, hosting Radio National Breakfast, Black Summer bushfire coverage, Q&A, Australian of the Year and reporting for Foreign Correspondent and is also a regular on TEN’s The Project.

In 2016 Hamish became a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is Patron of the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation and Ambassador for Dementia Australia.

Kathryn Robinson is an Australian journalist and presenter who has presented Ten’s Meet the Press, Ten Late Newsand Ten Evening News and was news presenter on 6PM with George Negus. She was a fill in presenter on The Project  and a regular Friday night panellist on the program.

Since 2015 Kathryn has been a part of the ABC News team presenting on the ABC NEWS Channel. She hosted The Business for two years, presented ABC Weekend Breakfast, The Drum and One Plus One and filled in as presenter on Radio National Drive.

With Chris Bath also working Monday to Thursdays so she can present TV news on the weekend, Dom Knight will host a shortened Friday Drive, followed by Thank God It’s Friday, presented from Melbourne by Charlie Pickering. Dom Knight will also replace Simon Marnie on  Saturday Mornings.

Dom Knight is a comedy writer and broadcaster who was one of the founding members of The Chaser when it began as a satirical newspaper in a small terrace house over the road from Sydney Uni. He later worked on most of the team’s ABC TV projects. Dom’s first radio experience came in The Chaser team’s early years, hosting late night shows on Triple M. More recently, he’s hosted several comedy podcasts and radio shows with his Chaser colleagues.

From 2012 to 2016 Dom presented Evenings on ABC Radio Sydney, and in recent years he has filled in across the station, including on Drive this week. He is also the author of nine books, most recently The Dictionary of Terrible Ideas for ABC Books.

On Sunday Mornings science and technology journalist and presenter Rae Johnston will bring audiences a mix of lifestyle, gardening, information and conversation. Johnston is a multi-award-winning journalist. A Wiradyuri and Greek woman who was born and raised on Darug and Gundungurra Country in the Blue Mountains of NSW. Rae is a leading commentator on all things science, technology, video games and geek culture. She is the creator and presenter of Weird Tech podcast and will also present ABC Radio National’s Download This Show in 2025.

Rae is also a presenter on Back Roads on ABC TV and Going Places With Ernie Dingo on NITV and serves on the boards of both the Telstra Foundation and Swinburne University of Technology.

New 702 ABC Radio Sydney Manager Katrina Palmer joined the team this month and is “excited to be starting with such a fantastic line up.”

“ABC Radio Sydney is deeply connected to audiences across Australia’s largest city, breaking news and sharing stories from across the region every day. In 2025 we will build on these connections in new and meaningful ways and I’m eager to get started from ABC Radio Sydney’s new home in Parramatta.”