Australian rural broadcasting legend, long-standing president of the Australian Council of Agricultural Journalists and friend of the IFAJ, Colin Munro, has died at the age of 70. The former head of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s highly respected rural department, Colin had a career spanning some 40 years with the ABC. He was among those who helped to establish the ACAJ in Australia, organise and host two IFAJ world congresses in 1988 and 2000. Colin retired from the ABC and as president of the ACAJ president in 2005.
In 2007 he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his service to regional Australia through the promotion and preservation of rural culture, particularly through television and radio. Colin had slipped progressively into advanced dementia in the past year and suffered several strokes last Friday, remaining in a coma until his death on November 29. “We are going to miss him,” says current ACAJ president Liz Harfull. “For many of us he was the voice of rural Australia – a great raconteur, a gentleman in every meaning of the word, and passionately committed to telling the stories of the Australian bush. His ongoing support was critical to the development of the ACAJ and Australia’s links with the IFAJ.” Read Colin’s obituary and listen to some audio highlights of his career.
www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2010/s3079610.htm
