Australian Children's Television Foundation

The founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Patricia Edgar AM, was the driving force behind its establishment. As the chair of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal's Children's Program Committee for five years, enforcing children's program standards and the children's drama quota Edgar argued that quality programs would not be made without a not-for-profit production company creating exemplary programs. Patricia Edgar's arguments caught the attention of the Victorian Minister for the Arts Norman Lacy, who invited her to work with him. They agreed to join forces to promote the proposal for the establishment of an organisation to achieve their shared objectives. Lacy then used his ministerial membership of the Australian Education Council and the Australian Arts Ministers' Conference to initiate[1] the establishment of the Australian Children's Television Foundation.[2] He appointed Edgar to the Arts Ministry staff to steer the project, provided office space and establishment funding, and won the support of NSW Education Minister Paul Landa with whom he co-chaired the early steering committee meetings.[3][4][5]

In early 1981, Lacy addressed the Senate Standing Committee on Education and the Arts arguing for the strategic and national importance of a Commonwealth commitment to recurrent funding for the fledgling Foundation.[6] The Senate Standing committee report Children and Television Revisited recommended the establishment of an independent children's television production unit, which was the impetus for the foundation of the ACTF, to be funded by the Australian Government with contributions from state and territory governments.[7]

Lacy's political advocacy and practical support coupled with Edgar's intellectual capacity and lobbying skills eventually won through, but before the ACTF could be established Lacy lost his Parliamentary seat at the election held in 1982.[4] Patricia Edgar then turned her attention to funding support from the Commonwealth Government with the support of Dame Beryl Beaurepaire who was President of the Liberal Party. Ultimately, the ACTF was established with Commonwealth Government support collectively matched by all the state governments except Queensland with Edgar as the inaugural Director.[8][4] She served in this role for 20 years, effectively kickstarting the Australian children's television production industry. Her programs include Winners, Kaboodle, Touch the Sun, Round the Twist, Lift Off, The Genie From Downunder, Sky Trackers, Crash Zone, L'il Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers, Yolngu Boy, Noah and Saskia and the ground breaking Kahootz.[4] Her programs won more than 100 national and international awards including four AFI Awards, two Logies, an International Emmy Award, the Prix Jeunesse, a Japan Prize, a Banff Rockie Award, a Grand Jury Prize at the New York Festival.[4] Production value exceeded $100 million.[4]

After Edgar stepped down to produce Noah and Saskia for the ABC and the BBC, Jenny Buckland was appointed CEO in July 2002.[4]

Major productions that the ACTF was involved with between 2002 and 2008 included Holly's Heroes, Mortified, Double Trouble (with CAAMA) and two series of Lockie Leonard. Mortified won more national and international awards than any other children's program in FFC history.

All those series were commissioned by commercial broadcasters, as a result of the quotas. The ABC was only commissioning very small amounts of children's drama during those years and most of its shows, other than its in-house productions such as Play School and Behind The News, were imported.

In 2006 the ACTF publicly highlighted the opportunity afforded by the switch to digital television to provide a much better media service for Australian children, calling for the establishment of a dedicated digital public channel for children. Ultimately the ACTF joined forces with the ABC to champion this idea, which received support from the Howard government during the 2007 Australian election campaign.

The Rudd government gave the ABC funding which saw it establish its children's destinations on ABC2 (for pre-schoolers) and ABC3 (for school-aged children) in 2009.

ABC3 attracted new entrants and original programming ideas. New programs commissioned by the ABC and supported by the ACTF from 2009 include My Place 1 & 2, three series of Dance Academy, several series of Nowhere Boys, three series of Bushwhacked, and more.

The history of Australian children's television and the ACTF are inextricably linked, with the ACTF playing a pivotal role in supporting distinctively Australian programs, and advocating for the support mechanisms required to produce those programs.

The ACTF continues to receive funding from the Commonwealth and all States and Territories (Queensland is now included). Each State and Territory Government has the right to nominate a member of the board, and the Commonwealth Government may nominate three members. Those ACTF Board members may elect up to three independent board members. There is a long and distinguished list of people who have been on the board over its 35-year history, but the most extraordinary contribution of all is that of Janet Holmes à Court. Janet joined the board as a representative for Western Australia in 1983. She was elected chairman of the board in 1990 and has been re-elected every year since. She is now an independently elected member of the board.

The headquarters of the ACTF are on Smith Street in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

Notable television series developed or assisted by the ACTF include:

• Official website