Helen Pitt

Helen Pitt is an Australian journalist and author. She reported for The Sydney Morning Herald from 1986 to 2024. Pitt wrote the book The House: The dramatic story of the Sydney Opera House and the people who made it, which won the 2018 Walkley Book Award.

Career Pitt had always wanted to be a journalist, and had her first Sydney Morning Herald byline at 16-years-old, on 8 September 1986, when she wrote an opinion piece for her high school newspaper on the film Puberty Blues. After writing her first byline, she won a cadetship with the newspaper. She was appointed Melbourne correspondent with the paper in 1988, one of the youngest journalists in an interstate bureau. Pitt took a voluntary redundancy from the Herald in 2024. As of 2025, Pitt is currently a senior writer and has also been an editor for opinions and letters.

She has also worked as a feature writer for The Bulletin magazine, the New York Times Digital, and as a reporter at Euronews.

Pitt also works as a tour guide with Renaissance Tours, a company that specialises in cultural tours. Austcare Media Award

She has survived breast cancer, which led her to write her book Beating the Banana: Breast Cancer and Me.

Her husband, William, died of a brain tumour in 2005, while the couple were living in San Francisco for his treatment. The trustees of the Journalists Benevolent Fund assisted her in paying for William's funeral as well as contribute partially to her salary when she was working part-time to care for her elderly parents.