Working at TVW Channel 7 in the Early Days:

Private staff party showing Peter Partridge and Gwen Andrews

My introduction to working as a secretary at Channel 7 was for Bill McKenzie when he was Film Manager to fill in for Margie Naylor (Heweston) while she was on leave in South Africa. From the first day I felt so ‘at home’ and enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of TVW. When Margie came back we worked together for a little while and I really valued hers and her twin sister, Joy’s friendships during my time at Seven.

I went to work for Brian Treasure when he was still General Manager and his office was on the ground floor. (I also had the pleasure of getting to know Jocelyn (Brian’s wife) and his 4 children quite well over the years I worked for him.)

Brian Treasure

After the new section of the building was completed upstairs, Jill Norton (Korbosky) and I shared space with the Sales Staff with Brian’s and Greg Byrne’s offices opening into ours. When we were given our new ‘golf ball’ typewriters we were ecstatic, although we still needed to type six copies at a time (with carbon paper between the pages when doing reports) and not being able to make mistakes certainly honed our skills to be accurate with our typing. When the first photocopier came into accounts we were in awe!! (A far cry from the gestener in the room downstairs!!)

What fun it was to work at 7 back then. We were often called on to do other jobs as well and had many fun times helping out the producers on outside broadcasts, hosting at the special events (like the Sandover Medal) held in the studios, the Sales Christmas party in the Studio Grounds every year, Miss West Coast, ushering at big events and answering the phones and working at Telethon, etc. There was always something different and exciting happening and Jill and I were usually lucky enough to be involved in some way. You never knew who would be walking through the door next and the array of personalities from all over the world was amazing. We were often informed of what was happening with world events via the News Room and would know of major happenings mostly before they went to air. We had lots of fun, but also worked long hours (often on public holidays) staying until everything was done!!

Seven was small, but expanding so rapidly and Brian was always on the lookout to make Seven bigger and better. Along with many other things like Telethon, the Entertainment Centre, Miss West Coast, etc., Brian’s (and Michael Edgley’s) vision of bringing Disney on Parade to Australia was very successful. For me, it was an amazing opportunity being involved in such a production, first here in Australia and then being seconded to work overseas for Mike Grilikhes of Walt Disney Productions on the European Disney on Parade. When first doing the auditions, we were catching planes every second day all over Western Europe and Scandinavia for about 6 weeks. I was accommodated in the beautiful Grosvenor Hotel in London for 4 months (using it as my office) and had a chauffer driven car to take me to the theatre or airport. We also had 6 weeks in beautiful Geneva for the initial rehearsals. When the show started, I became a ‘night owl’ with the rest of the company. I would start work around 11am (a bit before the cast) and finish up after the show with everyone around 11pm. Then if we had the energy (which we always seemed to have back then) we would go to a movie, for a meal, to a club, etc! The opportunity to work and travel with so many people from so many different countries was amazing experience and something I will always be grateful for.

I look back on my years at Channel 7 with many happy memories and consider myself to have been very fortunate to have been part of those early years.

Gwen (Wendy) Storey (nee Andrews)