He, along with ABC Investigations-Four Corners team, won the 2020 Gold Walkley for their special report Killing Field, which covered alleged Australian war crimes.
In 2023, Willacy was found to have defamed Heston Russell, a former special forces commander, after making unproven allegations of war crimes.
[4] From 2008 to 2013 he was a North Asia region correspondent based in Tokyo, where he covered the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
[6] This includes awards for coverage of the Iraq War in 2003, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Australian environmental contamination in 2015 (with producer Mark Solomons), a Four Corners report into the Tham Luang cave rescue, and for an investigation with producer Alexandra Blucher into local government corruption.
[2] Willacy was awarded a Eureka Prize in 2011 for Environmental Journalism in reporting of alleged systemic corruption inside Japan's scientific whaling program.
[9] In 2019, Willacy was part of the Four Corners team that won the Logie Award for Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report for their Thai cave rescue story.
The judge said the 2021 article "overstated the cogency of the evidence in the ABC's possession" and was published following several "missteps", including the failure to seek a response from the veteran.