News of the passing of Southern Star founder Neil Balnaves has rippled across the TV industry.
The Daily Telegraph reported it was yet another boating accident that took his life. His first was a near-fatal accident in 2002.
Balnaves worked in the media industry for over 60 years, previously holding the position of executive chairman of the Southern Star Group, which he founded in 1988.
Most recently he was best known for the great philanthropic work done by the Balnaves Foundation, an organisation that disperses $3m annually in grants with the aim to create a better Australia through education, medicine and the arts with a focus on young people, the disadvantaged and Indigenous Australia.
Balnaves was the chairman of Ardent Leisure Group, the owner and operator of premium leisure assets, from 2003 until 2016. Other former directorships include Hanna-Barbara Australia, Reed Consolidated Industries, Hamlyn Group, Taft Hardie, Southern Star Group and Southern Cross Broadcasting.
Balnaves was also the Chancellor of Charles Darwin University, from 2016 until 2018, and a former director and trustee Member of Bond University, receiving an Honorary Doctorate of the Bond University in 2009. In addition, he was a board member of the Art Gallery of South Australia from 2013 to 2019, is a former member of the Advisory Council and Dean’s Circle at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and in 2010 received an Honorary Doctorate of the University NSW.
He was also recently a director of the Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute, a member of the Chairman’s Circle at Sydney Theatre Company, served on numerous advisory and community organisations and is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
In 2006, he established The Balnaves Foundation and in 2010 was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his services to business and philanthropy.
Neil Balnaves with son Hamish pictured in the Mosman Daily in 2021
Former Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner told Mediaweek this morning:
“Neil started Southern Star virtually from scratch. It went on to become THE powerhouse of Australian drama. This was at a time when ratings were totally dominated by the weekly appointment Australian viewers made with their favourite Australian drama. Together with Errol Sullivan and Cathy Payne, he then moved the company into distribution and it was a pioneer in the export of many tens of thousands of hours of Australian television to the world. The company eventually became the subject of a bidding war. None of that would have been possible without his relentless optimism, his tenacity and his passion for making great Australian television.”
Former Network 10 chief executive, and now CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, Grant Blackley told Mediaweek Neil was the most committed and disruptive thinker he came across in the TV business. He also remembered how he once lent his helicopter to the Pope!
“He was completed committed to Southern Star on its journey. The format for Big Brother is a classic example of his passion. He listened to others but always had his own very strong opinions. He sold Southern Star for a substantial amount and then proceeded to give away a lot of his money because he thought that was the right thing to do.”
Blackley was at 10 when it commissioned Big Brother and he recalled how Balnaves would move “heaven and earth” to make sure a project like that would be a success.
Blackley noted he had a great passion for toys. “He once lent his helicopter to the Pope. When the Pope was traveling around it was in Mr Balnaves’ chopper. It was one of the biggest twin-engine choppers in Australia and he loved to fly it overseas. He told me stories about the places he took it that fundamentally it was not supposed to go.”
Balnaves had homes in Mosman and on the Gold Coast. He had a passion for artwork and emerging artists.
See also: Balnaves Foundation pledges over $500k to NIDA’s First Nations program