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Lexy Hamilton-Smith is one of Queensland’s most respected and experienced news presenters with a career in television spanning over 25 years.
She started in journalism after graduating from Flinders University in Adelaide with a Bachelor of Arts.
Her first job in television was at the Channel Ten newsroom in Adelaide, where she won a Thorn Award for an exclusive story on the arrest of “The Poisoning Granny Emily Perry.”
Lexy moved to Brisbane to work on Ten’s expanded one-hour news format as police reporter and then to SBS Television in Sydney where she worked in news and nightly current affairs. She then spent two years living in Papua New Guinea where her husband took on the challenging role as press secretary to the Prime Minister Paias Wingti. Lexy worked there as a freelance journalist filing for the Melbourne Age, The Bulletin magazine and Asia Week.
Lexy was then head hunted to join the Seven Network’s News in Sydney. Her work on the Nyngan floods led the bulletin which won a Penguin Award in 1990. During that time Lexy was one of the first journalists to file from Long Tan in Vietnam on Anzac Day. It was also a first when she covered the brave former Australian soldiers from 6RAR Delta Company who agreed to meet with ex Viet Cong in an attempt to mend the hurt of war.
While at Seven Lexy also gained exclusive access to heroin trafficker and ex Rugby League star Paul Hayward who had contracted AIDS while serving time in a Bangkok jail.
A move to Brisbane saw her join Seven’s top rating news team there. Not long after, Lexy started reading the weekend news eventually hosting Today Tonight, where she took on ACA’s Ray Martin in a worthy ratings battle.
During that time she hosted a live broadcast detailing the death of Princess Diana and also exclusively hosted her brother Charles Spencer 9 th Earl of Spencer at a lunch in honour of the naming of the Royal Brisbane Hospital Foundation Lady Diana Perinatal Centre.
Her success at Seven led to the prestigious role as the face of Australia Television, a nightly news beamed into Asia and watched by over 40 million viewers, also run by Seven.
Travelling to Asia Lexy hosted the Australia/Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce Business Awards in Hong Kong. She also was MC at the Business Asia News Magazine Awards in Sydney. Then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was the guest of honour.
Family pressures saw Lexy eventually move back to Brisbane where she worked for Channel Nine on the much-loved Brisbane Extra and later back to Ten as a senior news reporter and presenter.
Lexy covered the death of Croc Hunter Steve Irwin for the network and won Ten’s 2009 Queensland Journalist of the Year.
She has also worked extensively on a Medical round, her skill as a reporter and ability to empathise with people enduring hardship winning her the recent Queensland Mental Health Media Award for a story on suicide prevention. Lexy also won the 2010 National Older People Speak Out Award for a story on breaking down barriers between young and old.
The well-respected presenter is also an experienced Master of Ceremonies, host and facilitator working for charities including Bonnie Babes, the Australian Lung Foundation and Blue Care, which she was a patron of for four years.
Lexy is a moving public speaker having endured her own journey of love and loss through the passing of her husband Dave, also a well–respected journalist. Lexy has a 17 year old daughter Laurel.