Terence Gallacher, one of the pioneers of production in Melbourne television, has died at the age of 85.
Educated in London, Gallacher began his career as an office boy at British Movietone News in 1945. He worked his way up to the position of Foreign Editor and had been involved in preparing news film for BBC‘s early TV news bulletins.
He came to Australia in 1956 and was appointed Senior Film Editor for GTV9 prior to its official launch in 1957. His experience working with film and television in the UK was integral in setting up GTV9’s fledgling film unit and presentation of news bulletins. In those early days his work day would start at 9.00am, collecting newsreels that had arrived from overseas, and would still be at the station when its late news was winding up at around 11.00pm.
Gallacher was later approached to join the ABC as Supervising Film Editor at ABV2 and was involved in directing and producing programs, including the 1960 documentary Operation Crowflight, the first documentary film ever broadcast about the U2 aircraft and its mission in Australia. The program was later broadcast in the United Kingdom.
He returned to British Movietone News in 1961 and later spent 20 years at United Press Movietone Television (UPITN/WTN).
Since his retirement Gallacher, at home in France, had been documenting his many stories and experiences from over 50 years in production via a blog — writing more than 350 articles — and a series of podcasts related to his years at Movietone News. The blog led to him making contact with many of his former Melbourne colleagues of 50 years ago.
He had also recorded a long interview for the National Film and Sound Archive‘s oral history project.
Source: Terence Gallacher
