Australia’s first television broadcast took place decades earlier than widely believed, newly uncovered archive footage has revealed as Channel 7 marks 70 years on air.
For years, Bruce Gyngell was remembered as the first face on Australian television after welcoming viewers in 1956. But silent film star Janet Gaynor had claimed that distinction in 1934.
The discovery has also highlighted the forgotten story of Australia’s first television station, which operated more than 90 years ago and held the country’s first full television licence — as well as the first in the Southern Hemisphere.
The station was run from Brisbane by X-ray technician Tom Elliott, with broadcasts reaching viewers in Sydney and Melbourne.
Archive footage shows the modest scale of the pioneering operation: a small screen and a schedule running for two hours each evening, from 7.30pm until 9.30pm.
Elliott’s friend Alan Campbell recalled lending him a film of Mickey Mouse playing the piano for one of the broadcasts.
“And then I loaned him a piece of film which showed Mickey Mouse playing the piano. And of course, when that came over [the air], we got a terrific thrill,” Campbell said.
Television’s early progress was halted by the Second World War, and the pioneering broadcasts faded from public memory. When television returned in peacetime, the earlier chapter in its history had largely been forgotten.
Gyngell became the face of the 1956 relaunch, despite the cramped studio conditions. Recalling the opening night, he said: “The chair wouldn’t move any further, so I had to sit like this to get on camera.”
He added: “So I sat the entire night with my left shoulder dropped and my right shoulder up saying, ‘good evening, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to television’.”
