This photograph shows (left to right) Molly Brownless, producer Mike Ramsden and master controller Max Maxwell in the TCN9 control room on 16 September 1956. 

On the night of 16 September 1956, Molly Brownless was working in TCN9’s central control room and was responsible for ensuring the ‘first’ broadcast was transmitted without a hitch.

Highly qualified in technical aspects of television, Molly had previously worked in BBC Engineering, initially at radio transmitter stations during the Second World War, and from 1946 as a camera operator and vision switcher in the post-war television service at Alexandra Palace in London.

After migrating to Australia, Molly began working at TCN9 while the station was still in the testing phase and was one of the only staff members with practical experience in television engineering.

On the night of 16 September 1956, Molly Brownless was working in TCN9’s central control room and was responsible for ensuring the ‘first’ broadcast was transmitted without a hitch.

In this excerpt from her oral history interview conducted by Jeannine Baker in 2019, Molly explains her role in central control.

Highly qualified in technical aspects of television, Molly had previously worked in BBC Engineering, initially at radio transmitter stations during the Second World War, and from 1946 as a camera operator and vision switcher in the post-war television service at Alexandra Palace in London.

After migrating to Australia, Molly began working at TCN9 while the station was still in the testing phase and was one of the only staff members with practical experience in television engineering.

Image: Molly Brownless, 2019. Photographer: Jeannine Baker. NFSA title: 1654057.

Excerpt from Project Teleview (1959), a documentary about the planning, building and opening of TVW 7, Perth, Western Australia in 1959.

In this clip staff are shown installing and testing equipment, and producer Coralie Condon, director Bev Gledhill, assistant Penny Hoes and program manager Lloyd Lawson auditioning presenters and variety acts.

A clip from the documentary Project Teleview about the planning, building and opening of TVW 7, Perth, Western Australia in 1959.

This clip shows station staff preparing for the official station opening, and director Bev Gledhill and director’s assistant Penny Hoes working in the control room on the opening night on 16 October 1959.

We also see the arrival of guests for the opening night, including His Excellency the Governor of Western Australia Sir Charles Gardner.

The TCN9 opening night running sheet used by Molly Brownless in central control.

Supplied by Molly Brownless.

The TCN9 daily program master log (page 1) for 16 September 1956.

In this excerpt from her oral history interview, director Kay Roberts talks about performing multiple roles at Atransa Park Studios, including continuity, 'script girl' and casting, and her excitement at seeing her commercial go to air on the first night of television in September 1956.

Roberts was interviewed by Stuart Glover in 1998.

Listen to another excerpt from this oral history interview with Kay Roberts here.

Image: Kay Roberts. Supplied by Di Morrissey.

Kay Roberts (middle) with cast and crew shooting a Seppelts television commercial at Artransa Park Studios.

Text on reverse of image reads:

'Television commercial – Seppelts Solero. From left: Make-up (David Eastman's wife, name?), David Eastman looking at script, Kay Roberts to his right, Bren Brown (focus puller), George Lowes (camera), Ross Wood (director of photography), Alan Grice (in background, electrician).'

Excerpt from oral history interview with Val Byth by Brendan Horgan in 2000.

Val Byth began working at GTV9 Melbourne as secretary to Managing Director Colin Bednall, while the station was still in its testing phase.

It was a multifaceted job that included selecting the first booth announcers, assisting with test pattern transmissions and fielding enquiries from the public about how to operate television sets.

In this clip, Byth talks about how she was even tasked with recording the results for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, which GTV9 filmed as part of its test transmission.

In her interview with Brendan Horgan in 2002, Coralie Condon recalls producing TVW7’s first variety show, Spotlight, on a shoestring budget.

Television producer Bev Gledhill, interviewed by Brendan Horgan in 2000, talks about training as an ABC production assistant when she was 16, the launch of ABC television, and her move across to Channel 7, where she was soon producing live programs.

Listen to more excerpts from Bev Gledhill's oral history interview:

• Bev Gledhill talks about The Inventers
• Bev Gledhill on producing Sydney Tonight.

ABC producer Alan Burke and script assistant Ruth Page, who worked on the ABC’s opening night of television in November 1956. 

Script assistant Prue Bavin with (L-R): Gordon Waterhouse, Lloyd Berndt, Ken Middleton and Mungo MacCallum inside an OB (Outside Broadcast) van during a training exercise for the launch of the national television service, 1956. 

Left: Joan Lord as Lady Sims wearing Thelma Afford’s costume design for The Twelve Pound Look, the television play broadcast on the ABC’s first night of television in November 1956. NFSA title: 460838.

Right: Margo Lee as Kate wearing Thelma Afford’s costume design for The Twelve Pound Look. NFSA title: 460721.

The Weatherly sisters, wardrobe mistresses, preparing Thelma Afford’s costumes on the opening night of national television, 5 November 1956.

This silent filmed tour of NWS9 in Adelaide from 1969 shows women performing a range of secretarial and technical jobs, including film editing.

Donated by John Hatcher.

This tour of the inner workings of FNQ Cairns was produced for the opening of the station in September 1966.  

In the silent clip we see women working in a range of administrative and production support roles, including in the film library.

This is an excerpt of a 1980 oral history interview by Graham Shirley with Margaret (Maggie) Cardin – one of the ABC’s first film editors. 

Maggie was an experienced British editor and negative cutter who edited the Australian feature Captain Thunderbolt before coming to the ABC in September 1956.

In this interview excerpt, she talks about instructing ABC staff in the basics of working with film.

Image: Film editor and negative cutter Margaret Cardin. NFSA Title No: 378695.

This image features Pat ‘Billie’ Teare, who joined NBN3 Newcastle in 1962 as a film handler. She soon took on the role of videotape operator due to her aptitude with machinery.

The TV Times declared that the 'glamorous blonde' had a 'feminine intuition of her own that helps her "sense" the quickest way of getting ailing pieces of complex machinery going again', an account that emphasised Billie’s femininity and downplayed her technical expertise.

Judy Johnston was hired by ATN7 Sydney in 1961 after completing a TAFE course in TV production. She began in telecine, then moved into the highly technical and physically demanding job of videotape operator, and then into vision switching.

In this excerpt from an oral history interview with Jeannine Baker, Judy describes her work as a vision switcher and the need to stay calm in the high-pressure environment of live television.

Image: Judy Johnston, 1970. Supplied by Judy Johnston.

Women were finally employed as full-time television camera assistants from the late 1970s. Jen Ward was hired as a news camera assistant at ATN-7 in Sydney in 1979 after graduating at the top of her television production course at North Sydney TAFE.

As Jen recalls in this excerpt from an oral history interview with Jeannine Baker in 2018, the introduction of video cameras and other electronic equipment transformed news gathering, but also spelled the end of working with film.

Image: Jen Ward and operations manager Graham Storer at the door of ATN-7’s helicopter, looking at a RCA TK-76 colour camera, 1979. NFSA title No: 809079. Courtesy Seven Network. All rights reserved ©.

When Jenni Meaney entered the ABC in Sydney in March 1980 as a camera assistant, she was the only woman working in camera or sound.

As Jenni recalls in this interview with Ina Bertrand in 1993, the lack of a women’s toilet in News provided an unexpected benefit by propelling her into more prestigious work on documentaries.

Image: Jenni Meaney and sound recordist Dave Pearson shooting news for the ABC in the 1980s. Supplied by Jenni Meaney.

Claire Lupton interviewed by Jeannine Baker, 2018.

Several women worked as camera operators in early television, initially as freelance camera ‘stringers’ to cover events that regular news crews could not easily reach.

Claire Lupton, née Harrison, was working in the ABC’s Sydney news department in 1958 when the male camera operators secretly trained her on the film equipment, and then demanded she be given the opportunity to become a ‘cameraman’ by passing a test.

In this excerpt from her oral history interview, Claire recalls being set an especially difficult task.

Listen to another excerpt from Claire Lupton's 2018 oral history interview, in which she talks about the impact of covering traumatic news events.  

Image: Claire Lupton née Harrison’s ABC camera correspondent certificate. NFSA title: 1526020.

Director Marion Ord (crouching), 'continuity girl' Betty Barnett (standing) and camera operator Bob Feeney filming Valley of the Sentinels in Newnes, NSW, 1971.

Marion Ord was an ABC radio and television scriptwriter who wrote and directed 2 short films for children, Valley of the Sentinels and The Island (1971).

Excerpt from an oral history interview with Joyce Belfrage by Graham Shirley, 2001. 

English-born Belfrage arrived at the ABC in 1958 as its first female Talks producer.

She wrote, directed and produced a range of programs including panel show The Critics, interview programs such as Women at the Top, and magazine program Spotlight.

In this excerpt she talks about the events leading up to her leaving the ABC in 1963.

Image: Joyce Belfrage, 1960. Courtesy of Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales.

End credits of Spotlight featuring singer Paul Robeson.

Produced by Joyce Belfrage, 1960.

An excerpt from Women at the Top with Dr Grace Cuthbert Browne, Director of Maternal and Baby Welfare in the NSW Public Health Department.

Produced by Joyce Belfrage, 1959.

Babette Smith had worked at the Elizabethan Theatre Trust and for theatrical producer Harry M Miller on rock musical Hair, before starting at TCN9 Sydney in 1973 as an assistant producer on the live music program The Sound of Music with Barry Crocker.

In this oral history interview by Jeannine Baker, Babette reflects on typical gendered roles in television in the 1970s and the barriers to women advancing to decision-making roles.

Listen to more excerpts from Babette Smith's oral history interview:

• The challenges of live television
• Women seen as 'less than' their male counterparts
• Current affairs for women

Image: Babette Smith at TCN9. Supplied by Babette Smith.

This clip from The Never Never Land shows a fish hunting dance from Yirrkala.

The dancers are Wadaymu Ganambarr, Dhäkuwal Gumana, Dundiwuy Wanambi, Narritjin and Bokarra Maymuru, Gambali Ŋurruwutthun, Yaŋgarriny and Dulayŋa Wunuŋmurra, Rrikin Burarrwaŋa, Djarrkudjarrku and Muluŋ Yunupiŋu, Dhuŋgala and Dadayŋa Marika, and Bäŋgil, Mäw, Daymbalipu, Djunmal, Warrinyi, Djayila and Munuŋgurr.

Overhead shots using a crane camera convey the beautiful symmetry of the dance.

Directed by Kay Roberts at Atransa Park Studios, 1964.

In 1964 Kay Roberts directed The Never Never Land, a filmed version of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust’s Aboriginal Theatre, featuring 45 performers from the Tiwi Islands, Yirrkala and the Daly River.

Kay replicated many aspects of the theatre version, commenting that she ‘was extremely careful with all the lighting and everything like that to get this wonderful fire-lit value that they had on the stage and translate that into film’, but added narration by dancer and choreographer Robert Helpmann.

In this excerpt from her oral history interview for the NFSA, Kay recalls working with the performers.

Kay Roberts interviewed by Stuart Glover, 1998. NFSA title: 371321
Image: Kay Roberts. Supplied by Di Morrissey.

Dawn Kenyon was one of the very first employees of ATN Channel 7 in Sydney, hired as the first Coordinating Producer of children's programs. She was interviewed by Brendan Horgan on 19 December 2000.

In this excerpt from her oral history interview, Dawn talks about achieving the right balance of education and entertainment in her programs, the importance of viewer participation and embracing spontaneity.

As a creative producer of the nautical-themed Captain Fortune, Kenyon sourced contributions from government departments and organisations including Surf Life Saving and the police service.

She also brought in the Mission to Seamen (now Mission to Seafarers) senior chaplain Colin Craven-Sands, who through his regular character ‘Sandy’ fostered interest in the sea and the work of sailors.

Dawn was also the first presenter of Romper Room, which began as a 15-minute segment within Captain Fortune and was later expanded to a standalone program.

Dawn Kenyon (then Dawn Dingwall) was the first presenter of Romper Room, which began as a 15-minute segment within Captain Fortune and was later expanded to a standalone program.

Romper Room was an enduring Australian franchise of the North American program for pre-schoolers, characterised by a mixture of physical activities and simple moral lessons and a host who spoke directly to the children viewing from home.

Dawn was ATN7 Sydney’s first coordinating producer of children’s programs in 1956, after having worked at radio 5KA Adelaide and CBC in Canada.

Thursday at One was an early daytime television show filmed in Melbourne's GTV9 studios in the early 1960s hosted by women and targeted towards a female audience. 

Programs like Thursday at One were often described as a ‘conversation’ and personalities as a guest in the viewers’ home. As you can see from this image, sets were designed as an extension of the viewer’s living room.

Excerpt from a 2008 oral history interview with Ailsa McPherson by Brendan Horgan.

McPherson started working as a script assistant on drama programs in the early days of ATN7 Sydney and rose to become a versatile studio director across news, drama, light entertainment, comedy and panel discussions.

In this interview excerpt she tells Horgan about her first break as a studio director and the varied career that followed.

Image: Ailsa McPherson in the control room directing Sydney Wide commercials, ATN7. From Ailsa McPherson’s scrapbook no 4, NFSA title: 1583468.

This is an excerpt from an interview with Australian television pioneer Val Sarah. Sarah was interviewed by Jeannine Baker in 2019.

English-born Sarah was the first woman announcer – as well as a presenter, producer and newsreader – at Anglia Television (UK).

After travelling to Australia, she began working at fledgling regional commercial television station BTV6 Ballarat in January 1963.

In this clip she recalls her time working as a presenter and producer on a range of programs, including women’s and children’s shows.

Listen to more of Val Sarah's oral history interview here.

Image: Val Sarah and Fred Fargher on Wednesday Magazine, BTV6, c1974. Supplied by Val Sarah.

Val Sarah and Jessica Stone host Focus on Fashion, on BTV6 Ballarat, 1964.

Image supplied by Val Sarah.

Excerpt from an oral history interview with Mary Rossi by Christine Hogan in 2005. In this clip Rossi recalls her time hosting Woman's World.

Woman’s World was one of the ABC’s first programs at its launch in November 1956 and pushed the boundaries of women’s programming, canvassing a wide range of topics, including immigration, literature, the creative and performing arts, science and medicine.

A mother of 5 at the time she began hosting Woman’s World, and highly educated, Rossi challenged the view that women could not have a career as well as a family. Viewers followed along as Rossi's family grew – she retired from broadcasting after the birth of her eighth child in 1964.

Image: Mary Rossi on Women's World. Courtesy Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Library Sales.

Mary Rossi interviewing Dame Patricia Hornsby Smith on Woman’s World. Rossi hosted Woman's World from 1956 to 1964.

The program covered a wide range of topics including immigration, literature, the creative and performing arts, science and medicine.

Excerpt from an Australia Council for the Arts interview with Jean Battersby in 1992.

In this clip she explains how she came to work in television.

Battersby was informed and articulate, with a PhD in French literature, and by the late 1950s she was in demand for talk and women’s programs across the ABC and commercial stations.

She was the host of Woman’s World for ABC Melbourne in the 1960s. She also wrote, produced and edited a series of short films for GTV7 Melbourne’s women’s program. Battersby believed strongly that women should develop interests beyond the home. 

In 1968 Battersby became the founding executive officer of the Australia Council for the Arts.

© Australia Council for the Arts. All rights are expressly reserved.

Jean Battersby was an early Melbourne compere of the ABC’s first daytime television program for women, Woman’s World.

In this clip Battersby interviews a recent Austrian migrant about the art of woodcarving.

Excerpt from a 1976 episode of No Man’s Land, hosted by Mickie De Stoop. No Man’s Land was a daytime current affairs program on GTV9 Melbourne, produced and presented ‘by women for women.’ 

This clip illustrates the program’s in-depth approach to the news of the day, with de Stoop and reporter Robyn Miller dissecting the impact of then federal treasurer Phillip Lynch’s 1976 budget on various sectors of the community.

Compere of No Man's Land, Mickie de Stoop at GTV9 studios in 1975. 

No Man's Land was a daytime current affairs program produced and presented ‘by women for women’.

Image courtesy National Archives of Australia, 11410097.

In 1963 Rosemary Eather was working as a science and geography teacher in Sydney when she began working at TNQ7 Townsville as their second hostess, after Glenice Hodges.

Eather was the presentation announcer, weather reporter, and the host of Televille, a daytime children’s program which began in 1962 and interspersed cartoons with live segments.

In this 1964 clip from Televille we see Rosemary Eather playing a game with her child guests.

Rosemary Eather, the host of TEN’s Good Morning With Rosemary, wore this improvised spacesuit, fashioned from a sparkling gold suit and a fish bowl from the props department, to mark the moon landing in 1969. 

Wildly popular television presenter Rosemary Eather surrounded by bags of fan mail for her television program Good Morning with Rosemary (TEN).

In 1969 Woman’s Day reported that Rosemary received 3,000 to 4,000 letters a day – rising to 14,000 when she was running a contest.

Eather was an accomplished and versatile presenter who also researched, scripted and produced her own program.