Colin Blore Bednall (13 January 1913 – 26 April 1976) was an Australian journalist. He was born at Balaklava, South Australia, to bank manager Edward Blore Bednall and Naomi Caroline Gertrude, ''née'' Ferry. He attended Pulteney Grammar School and the Collegiate School of St Peter, but left during the Great Depression following the death of his father. He became a journalist at the ''Adelaide News'' and then at the ''

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

'' and the ''

Herald A herald, or a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms. The title is commonly applied more broadly to all officers of arms. Heralds were originally messengers sent by monarchs or noblemen to ...

''. From 1937 to 1938 he was a special correspondent in Darwin, where he met Hilda Marion Abbott, daughter of administrator

Aubrey Abbott Charles Lydiard Aubrey Abbott (4 May 1886 – 30 April 1975) was an Australian politician and administrator of the Northern Territory. He was born at St Leonards, Sydney, to Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, a magistrate, and Marion, née Lydiard. He c ...

, whom he married on 4 February 1939 in Radlett, Hertfordshire. From 1938 Bednall worked for Australian Associated Press in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and from 1942 to 1944 was aviation correspondent for the '' Daily Mail''. His articles were informed by his flights as a qualified gunner over Germany. In 1945 he worked briefly as a correspondent for

Lord Louis Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of Germa ...

's command in India, and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the war effort. Although he was an assistant editor at the ''Daily Mail'', he was persuaded to return to Australia by his mentor,

Keith Murdoch Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch (12 August 1885 – 4 October 1952) was an Australian journalist, businessman and the father of Rupert Murdoch, the current Executive chairman for News Corporation and the chairman of Fox Corporation. Early life Murdoc ...

, who made him managing editor of Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd, and therefore the '' Courier-Mail''. In 1954 he succeeded Murdoch as managing editor of the '' Argus'' in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Bednall was the first managing director of GTV 9, one of Melbourne's first two commercial television stations; this became the local station for Channel Nine, and Bednall cultivated a number of local television personalities, including

Graham Kennedy Graham Cyril Kennedy AO (15 February 1934 – 25 May 2005) was an Australian entertainer, comedian and variety performer, as well as a personality and star of radio, theatre, television and film. He often performed in the style of vaudevilli ...

. In 1965, he left the channel after a disagreement over finances. He was then appointed to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's space communications committee, and from 1966 to 1969 he managed an English-Chinese television station

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. His time in China saw his previously conservative political views shift to the left, and when he returned to Australia he joined the Labor Party, and ran unsuccessfully for the seat of Flinders in the federal elections of

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

and 1974. From 1973 to 1975, he also worked as a part-time media consultant for

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...

. In 1976 he died suddenly of

hypertensive heart disease Hypertensive heart disease includes a number of complications of high blood pressure that affect the heart. While there are several definitions of hypertensive heart disease in the medical literature, the term is most widely used in the context of ...

at the age of 63. He is commemorated with the Colin Bednall Award, presented annually for services to television.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bednall, Colin 1913 births 1976 deaths Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Australian journalists The Argus (Melbourne) people