Richard Morecroft remembered as a reassuring ABC news presence and devoted wildlife carer

Richard Morecroft, the ABC newsreader who anchored nightly bulletins for close to two decades, is being remembered for the warmth he brought to a often grim trade and for an unusual sideline: raising an orphaned baby flying fox. The recollections come in a tribute published by The Guardian and written by Max Uechtritz, a former colleague who worked alongside Morecroft at the broadcaster's Gore Hill studios in Sydney.

Morecroft fronted nightly news from 1983 to 2002, a stretch that included co-hosting The National with Geraldine Doogue. According to The Guardian, the prime minister has described him as beloved and a figure of absolute trust.

Why it matters

Morecroft's career spanned a period when a single newsreader spoke to millions of Australians in their living rooms each night, and The Guardian's tribute argues that his manner — calm, empathetic, unhurried — made him a steadying presence when the day's events were anything but. Friends and strangers alike have pointed to his voice as the quality that reassured viewers during conflicts and crises, the piece notes.

The tribute also pushes back against a familiar critique of television journalism. Uechtritz writes that Morecroft was the opposite of Hunter S Thompson's famous description of the TV business as a cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the industry. In Uechtritz's account, Morecroft made the Gore Hill newsroom close to beautiful, giving it heart, soul and empathy, and making it interesting, fun and inclusive.

A newsroom boss without hierarchy

According to The Guardian, Morecroft had no use for rank when the cameras were off. Newcomers — from anxious cadet reporters to production assistants and first-time co-hosts — were pulled aside for a warm word over a hot drink. For someone at the top of the broadcast tree, the tribute says, hierarchy simply was not part of his vocabulary away from air.

The piece credits him with a particular steadiness on set. Former ABC sports presenter Peter Wilkins, who sat beside Morecroft for years, describes him as self-effacing, unflappable and the ideal person to have on a set. That composure was tested, The Guardian reports, by studio crews who pulled faces and played practical jokes in attempts to break his concentration — the kind of camaraderie the tribute associates with a bygone era of television.

Morecroft's path to the national bulletin ran through children's programming. The Guardian notes that he fronted the ABC's Behind the News before moving to the national stage. A well-known photograph from the ABC's coverage of the 1984 federal election, taken in Canberra's national tally room, shows Morecroft alongside Barrie Cassidy, Chris Clark, Jenny Magrath and Dr Victor Prescott, described in the tribute as a pre-Antony Green guru.

The flying fox called Archie

If Morecroft was part of a small group of broadcasters to anchor nightly bulletins for nearly twenty years, The Guardian argues he was alone in another respect: no other newsreader on the planet is likely to have rescued and raised a baby flying fox, at times keeping the animal wrapped in a handkerchief close to his chest while reading the news.

The animal, named Archie, had been found clinging to his mother after she was electrocuted on power lines, according to the tribute. Morecroft took on the role of foster parent — washing and feeding the pup, changing his nappies and carrying him to the post office to be weighed. He also helped teach Archie to fly before releasing him back into the wild. The experience led to a book and a television production titled Raising Archie.

The Guardian's tribute also highlights Morecroft's interest in the natural world. He wrote at least seven books, including titles for children about animals and nature. Among them is Zoo Album, co-written with his wife, Alison Mackay, which Uechtritz recalls as a family favourite and which the couple inscribed for his children at its 2003 launch. His daughter Isabella was eight at the time; she is now a veterinary surgeon, a detail the tribute offers as evidence of the mark the book left.

What to watch

The Guardian's remembrance stands as one of the fuller public accounts of Morecroft's career and character to emerge, and further tributes from former colleagues and viewers are likely to follow.