Rachelle Mackintosh

Rachelle Mackintosh is an award-winning travel/wildlife journalist, photographer and producer who landed her first travel editing gig in the late 1990s. Since then, she’s travelled everywhere from Sydney to Siberia to Silale to meet wild animals, and her photos have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, USA Today and the UK Times, among other high-profile titles. Along the way she’s also recorded podcasts with some of the world’s most celebrated wildlife advocates, including Dr Jane Goodall, the Black Mambas, Ian McAllister, Tim Faulkner, Shannon Wild and Valerie Taylor.

Accredited by the Australian Society of Travel Writers, Rachelle worked as an on-staff journalist, travel editor, chief editor, lifestyle director, producer and subeditor for 20+ years – specialising in travel/lifestyle for Seven West Media, Women’s Health, Who, Travel Week, The Great Outdoors, New Idea, Cosmopolitan, Girlfriend and The Australasian Post. Since going freelance in 2020, her clients have included  The Sunday Telegraph, Australian Geographic, escape.com.au, Dare magazine, Signature Luxury Travel, Tourism Australia, Destination New South Wales, Hello British Columbia, Telstra, Microsoft, Allcastles Homes, Kmart and more. Rachelle’s writing style is lively and conversational (and occasionally booby-trapped with Dad jokes). 

Rachelle is the host and producer of the Wild Lives podcast – a show about wild animals and their people, from conservation icons to Emmy-winning film-makers and field naturalists. Balancing interviews with doco-style narratives, Wild Lives gets you up close to the animals you love, with personal tales of tigers, sharks, wolves, bears, whales, lions and elephants – and everything with fur, feathers and fins in between. A seasoned host and former music producer, Rachelle first started podcasting in 2015 when she launched the Women’s Health magazine’s Live Better Podcast, before going on to produce/launch a suite of podcasts for Seven West Media.