Heartbreak as Australian media legend who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal dead at 91
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Australian media trailblazer Vaughan Hinton died in August this year at the age of 91, with reports of his passing only recently becoming public. The legendary newsman passed away in the small Victorian town of Monbulk in the Yarra Ranges, after a long health battle.
![[The legendary newsman passed away in the small Victorian town of Monbulk in the Yarra Ranges, after a long health battle]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/03/93300279-14208329-image-a-14_1734578499609.jpg)
He was a jack-of-all-trades who worked as a journalist, presenter, producer and writer across his celebrate five-decade long career. Hinton was born in Toowoomba, Queensland in 1933 and began his esteemed career in the mid-fifties as a journalist at a regional newspaper.
![[He was a jack-of-all-trades who worked as a journalist, presenter, producer and writer across his celebrate five-decade long career]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/03/93300275-14208329-He_was_a_jack_of_all_trades_who_worked_as_a_journalist_presenter-m-16_1734578550268.jpg)
The media personality always had a strong interest in promoting social justice issues. In 1977 he joined ABC Radio as a presenter, where he could speak on a range of issues that were important to him. Australian media trailblazer Vaughan Hinton (pictured) died in August this year at the age of 91, with reports of his passing only recently becoming public.
As an early advocate of Australia's LGBTQ community, Hinton was integral in ensuring Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was broadcast on the ABC and helped it first go to air in 1994. He also worked on the program as an executive producer and it was an enormous success, with his colleagues at the network later congratulating him on attracting a then-record 2.5million viewers.
The passionate broadcaster continued to work with the ABC across the 80s and in 1986 was appointed the networks executive producer for all significant national events and Indigenous affairs. The following year he created the long-running ABC lifestyle program Compass, in which spirituality, ethics and values were openly discussed.
