The Reporters
The young journalists who made Simon Townsend's Wonder World.
Simon Townsend always said the genius of the show was the reporters, not him. They were young, some of them barely older than the audience, and they went out and did real journalism: interviewing prime ministers, reporting from Antarctica and Rome, investigating cane toads, all for an audience aged six to sixteen. Many of them went on to long careers in broadcasting, film and music. This is who they were, and where they went.
Across eight years Simon credited seventeen reporters with telling around eight thousand stories. Names are still being matched to the surviving tapes, so this roster separates the people confirmed in the digitised archive from those documented elsewhere on this site and in reputable sources. It will grow as the family works through the footage.
Full profiles
Amanda Keller
Radio and television presenter, The Living Room and Jonesy and Amanda
Andrew Lesnie
Academy Award winning cinematographer, The Lord of the Rings
Angela Catterns
One of Australia's best known radio broadcasters
Anita Jacoby
Award winning television producer and journalist
Edith Bliss
Pop singer turned Wonder World reporter
Harvey Shore
Television writer and producer for five decades
Jonathan Coleman
Radio and television broadcasting in Australia and the United Kingdom
Monica Trapaga
Singer and television presenter, later a Play School host
Sheridan Jobbins
Journalist turned screenwriter
Tim Webster
Sports and news broadcaster
The host
Simon created and anchored every episode.
Simon Townsend
Host/Creator
The reporters
Named in the digitised archive and the show's own records, with their catalogued episodes linked where they are online.
Angela Catterns
One of Australia's best known radio broadcasters
Edith Bliss
Pop singer turned Wonder World reporter
Jonathan Coleman
Radio and television broadcasting in Australia and the United Kingdom
Sheridan Jobbins
Journalist turned screenwriter
Adam Bowen
Original reporter
Alita Fahey
Brett Clements
Carolyn Mee
Hugh Munro
Hugh Piper
Malinda Rutter
Maurice Parker
Went on to become a top television producer
Moira McLean
Phillip Tanner
Sandra Meagher
Sandy Mauger
Original reporter
Wednesday Kennedy
More of the team
Reporters and early-career names documented on this site's own pages and in reputable sources, not yet matched to a digitised episode.
Monica Trapaga
Singer and television presenter, later a Play School host
Tim Webster
Sports and news broadcaster
Jo Pearson
Wonder World reporter
Nathan Dawes
Wonder World reporter
Researchers and writers
Names who got their start on Wonder World behind the scenes, finding the stories and checking the facts, before the cameras found them.
Behind the camera
The people who made the show without appearing in front of it.
The mascots
No Wonder World roster is complete without them.
Woodrow the Bloodhound
The show's first mascot, Simon's own pet bloodhound.
A sulphur-crested cockatoo
Took over as mascot after Woodrow died in 1986.
Logie the Labrador
The labrador pup viewers named after Simon's Logie award, the mascot after the cockatoo.
How this roster was put together
The backbone is the restoration archive itself: the reporters confirmed on the episodes digitised so far, with their years and the era they belonged to. Where an episode is online and a reporter can be credited to it, the count is shown on their card.
The names under "more of the team" are documented on this site's own pages, including Simon's biography and the essay Wonder World: The Legacy, and in public sources, but they have not yet been matched to a specific digitised episode. Better to be honest about that than pretend the archive is more complete than it is. Anyone who reported on the show, or who remembers an episode placed wrongly, is welcome to get in touch. Share your Wonder World and help fill the gaps.