ABC Friends – the first 50 years
  • HISTORY
  • ABOUT ABC FRIENDS
  • MAKE CONTACT
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  • HISTORY
  • ABOUT ABC FRIENDS
  • MAKE CONTACT
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements

Oral history interviews

Bobbie Mackley
Vikki Uhlmann
Margaret Reynolds
Ruth Waller
Tom Molomby
Meg Paul
Corin Fairburn Bass
Ed Davis
Mal Hewitt
Janine Kitson
Angela Williamson
Terri MacKenzie
Glenys Stradijot
Rod Quantock

June Factor
Shirley Parkes
Rosie Spear
Marcus May
Ranald McDonald
Jeff Waters
Maureen MacPhail
Heather D’Cruz
Margaret Hanrahan
Peter Monie
David Risstrom
Leonie Miller
Joe Toscano
Phil Corser
Robyn Williams

Thanks for help with research and the preparation of materials

Holly Goodridge
Richard Girvan
Keith Jackson
Natasha Marfutenko
Carmel Shute
Chris. Cartledge
Aussie Kanck
Michael Kinnane
Jennifer Lord
Gerry Constantinou
Peter Lindenmayer
Bruce Stevenson
Anne-Maree Newbold
Dan Milne
Paul Martens
Bob Miller
Glen Tandberg
Quentin Dempster

Diana Perkins
Johannes Leak
Georgina Simmonds
Phil Somerville
Geoff Pryor
Lindsay Foyle
Tess Howes
Jackie Deacon
Michael Henry
Simon Strong
Phil Evans
Cathy Bardon
Natalie Leader
Daryl Regan
Susan Scott
Cassandra Parkinson
Michael Ward

Institutions

ABC Archives
Australian Cartoonists Association
State Library Victoria
State Library of NSW
State Library of South Australia
National Library of Australia

For a detailed bibliography click here.

National Museum of Australia
University of Melbourne Archives
National Film and Sound Archives

Every effort has been to ensure the accuracy of material and appropriate credits for the information included on this website. For any queries or concerns, please contact ABCF.

Produced by Dr Jennifer Bowen
Website design and development by Dimity Mapstone
Project management and production Way Back When Consulting Historians

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ABC Friends – the first 50 years

What began with five people in April 1976 has grown to over 80,000 in 2026. This is the story of ABC Friends.

© ABC Friends 2026

Andrews, Kylie Trailblazing Women of Australian Public Broadcasting, 1945–1975, Anthem Press, London, 2022.

Bandler, Hans ‘Mass Communication for the Younger Generation’, Quockerwodgers: Mass Media Control, Australian Mass Communications Council, Sydney, 1973, pp. 35–37.

Berg, Chris and Sinclair Davidson, Against Public Broadcasting, Connor Court, 2018.

Bongiorno, Frank Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia, La Trobe University Press, Melbourne, 2022.

Dempster, Quentin, Death Struggle, Allen & Unwin, 2000.

Inglis, K.S., This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932–1983, 2nd ed, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2006.

Inglis, K.S., Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1983–2006, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2006.

Ganter, Sarah Anne,Christian Herzog and Viola Candice Milton, ‘Public Service Broadcasting-Friends groups as a microcosm of public interest media advocacy’, Humanities & Social Science Communications, vol. 7, no. 68, 2020.

Griffen-Foley, Bridget ‘Chronically Concerned’: The Australian Broadcasting Commission and its Advisory Committees’, Media History, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2025, pp. 279–310.

Harding, Richard Outside Interference: The Politics of Australian Broadcasting, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1979.

Holmes, Jonathan, On Aunty, Hachette Australia, 2019.

Iveson, Kurt, ‘Building a City For “The People”: The Politics of Alliance-Building in the Sydney Green Ban Movement’, Antipode, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014.

Molomby, Tom, Is There a Moderate on the Roof?: ABC Years, W. Heinemann Australia, Port Melbourne, 1991.

Lawrence, Mark, ‘How ABC acquired an abundance of nieces and nephews’, The Age, Green Guide,23 November 1978, p. 2.

Napoli, Philip M., ‘Public Interest Media Advocacy and Activism as a Social Movement’, Annals of the International Communication Association, vol. 33, no. 1, 2009, pp. 385–429.

Newspapers: The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times

National Archives of Australia

Paul, Meg, ‘Public Pressure Groups in Broadcasting’, in Brendan O’Dwyer (ed.), Broadcasting in Australia: Today’s Issues and the Future. Proceedings of the National Conference held in July 1980, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980, pp. 137–43.

Ricketson, Matthew & Patrick Mullins, Who needs the ABC, Scribe, 2022.

Stephens, Tony, ‘Bandler, Ida Lessing Faith (1918–2015)’, Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/bandler-ida-lessing-faith-15982/text30791, accessed 16 January 2026.

Stephens, Tony ‘Bandler, Hans (1914–2009)’, Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/bandler-hans-19329/text30793, accessed 16 January 2026.

August 1996: rallying season

Rallies have traditionally given the public a chance to declare their support for a cause: a slew of rallies took place in August 1996 to let ABC supporters do precisely that.

The first, at The Domain in Sydney on 4 August, was organised by ABC staff – journalists Maxine McHugh and Quentin Dempster shared the stage with Jemima from Play School and the Bananas in Pyjamas, before Christine Anu, Roy and H.G. and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra among others entertained an estimated crowd of 60,000.

A stall run by NSW Friends of the ABC enabled 4,000 letters to be written by members of the public to politicians. Among the many speakers was magistrate Pat O’Shane, who took issue with Bob Mansfield saying he did not want the inquiry he was then chairing into the ABC to become ‘emotional’. Pat O’Shane’s response was to declare ‘we are entitled to be emotional about the things we care about and if he can’t stand our emotional heat, he should get out of the kitchen cabinet.’

ABC rally at The Domain, Sydney, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August 1996, p. 3.

Rallies continued across Australia. Friends of the ABC in Queensland spokesman George Blair spoke at an event in Brisbane on 10 August calling for ‘protection’ of the ABC.

The Herald Sun, 11 August 1996, p. 14.

While in Melbourne, the City Council provided the Melbourne Town Hall for a rally and concert on 12 August organised by Friends of the ABC.

Flyer promoting the rally. ABC Friends Archives.

June Factor’s committee produced a stylish program for the occasion. It was almost a manifesto, with statements affirming the value of the ABC from groups such as the Council on the Ageing Victoria and the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, as well as listing ’10 good reasons’ to save the ABC.

Save Our ABC rally program, 12 August 1996. ABC Friends Archives.

Glenys Stradijot, then a Friends of the ABC Victoria volunteer and later employed as campaign director, remembers the part the ABC itself played in the Melbourne rally.

In September, ABC Managing Director Brian Johns addressed a Friends of the ABC rally in Adelaide, describing the proposed cuts as ‘not a pruning exercise, but wrenching’ in their impact. He made a point of referring to ‘the public outcry’ shown by the rallies.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 1996, p. 2.