John Hinde AM (1911-2006), film reviewer and reporter, had a couple of false starts in journalism before being hired by the ABC's news and current affairs department in 1939. In 1942 he was attached to General Macarthur's headquarters in Melbourne and Brisbane. In New Guinea, he suffered eye injuries that gave him lasting trouble. Returning to Australia, he wrote the ABC's first television news bulletin. Able to live on the income of his wife Barbara Jefferis, a successful novelist, he dabbled in electronics, but when the ABC's film reviewer died unexpectedly, he took up the post, working on radio until 1983 when he transferred to television. A regular on the Sunday evening news from 1986, the frail and ancient Hinde became an unexpected star. He gave up reviewing in 2002, when his sight prevented him from seeing films properly. He left a million dollars endowing the Barbara Jefferis Award for literature, for 'the best Australian novel that empowers the status of females or depicts them in a positive light'.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
© Lorrie Graham
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