 Harvey studied his journalism cadetship with the Sydney newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" and won a Walkley Award in 1964.He worked at radio stations 2UE and 2GB before moving to London and working for BBC Radio.He then went on to "The Guardian" (where he received the British Reporter of the Year Award for a series of articles about the sale of confidential information) and the American "Newsweek" magazine as a reporter in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.