Richard Zachariah, former journalist and television newsreader, has died at age 80.

Born in Melbourne, his early career was at The Age newspaper before heading to BBC in London.

Unable to obtain a work permit to stay in the UK, he returned to Australia to work for a Melbourne Sunday newspaper before becoming Melbourne editor for The Sunday Australian.

He then moved to Sale, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, to open a restaurant. As well as running the restaurant, he also worked as a newsreader for local TV station GLV8, based in Traralgon.

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In late 1985, he moved to Sydney to be close to his new love, fashion icon Maggie Tabberer, and joined the Seven Network. By early 1986 he was hosting Seven’s national morning news program, Eleven AM and guest hosted Day By Day in Melbourne. From January 1988, he was reading the revamped Seven Nightly News in Sydney with Ann Sanders.

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In 1990, he and Tabberer embarked on a joint venture to host a lifestyle show, The Home Show, on ABC, which ran for three years.

After separating from Tabberer, he returned to Victoria and became an author, writing an autobiography, Zachariah, and the book The Vanished Land, about the changing culture of farming in Western Victoria.

A funeral service for Zachariah is to be held next week in Warrnambool, Victoria.

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Source: The Age, The Weekly Times. Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 1986, 17 January 1988.