Rowan Callick grew up in England, graduating with BA Honours from Exeter University.

He worked for a daily newspaper before moving to Papua New Guinea, becoming general manager of a local publishing, printing and retail group. After 10 years in PNG, he moved to Australia, working for The Australian Financial Review for 20 years, including 4 years as China Correspondent, based in Hong Kong.

He joined The Australian at the start of 2006, as China Correspondent. After three years in Beijing, he became The Australian's Asia-Pacific Editor and then returned to Beijing as China Correspondent, from March 2016 to April 2018. He remains a columnist for The Australian.

He has been a member of the National Advisory Council on Aid Policy, of the Australia Indonesia Institute board, of the Foreign Minister's Foreign Affairs Council, and of the advisory councils of Melbourne University’s Asian Law Centre and of La Trobe University’s China Studies Centre. He has authored "Comrades & Capitalists: Hong Kong Since the Handover,” “Channar: A Landmark Venture In Iron Ore,” and “Party Time: Who Runs China And How.” All three have been published in both English and Chinese.

Rowan has won the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year, and two Walkley Awards, for coverage of Hong Kong in 1997 and of China in 2007. He was appointed in 2013 as a fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He was awarded the OBE in 2015 for services to journalism and journalist training in Papua New Guinea . He is married with two children.