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Vale: Ian ‘Beat’ Hill

Former Newcastle TV presenter best known for wildlife show Beating Around the Bush has died.

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Former Newcastle TV presenter Ian “Beat” Hill best known for wildlife show Beating Around the Bush has died, aged 65.

He died on Monday at Lake Macquarie Private Hospital after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Together with long-time collaborator Art “Poppa” Ryan he presented NBN series Beating Around the Bush from 1979 to 1982. The series began as a weekly nature segment on NBN’s children’s program, The Breakfast Club.

Each episode followed Hill as he escorted Ryan into the scrub to uncover native animals and plants around the Hunter Valley. In later years, he worked as a freelance television producer and director on campaigns for Woolworths, Cadbury and Schweppes.

“He was one of the best naturalists I’ve come across, especially with Australian fauna and Australian snakes,” Ryan told the Newcastle Herald. “He understood snakes, their venom and their way of working and he was the same with spiders.

“He was a highly intelligent man and there weren’t many things you come bring up that he couldn’t discuss.”

One Response

  1. I grew up around that area. We had two channels ABC and NBN. I remember watching Ian on the telly, and I remember the show from when I was a kid. It’s nice that he is remembered today.

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