Departures of note

Peter Thompson was an Australian ABC broadcaster, journalist and environmental campaigner. He began his career in radio as a sports broadcaster in 1970 at 2LF before moving to Tasmania, where he worked across several stations and hosted the TV current affairs programme This Day Tonight. In 1987 he joined the ABC and became host of Drivetime on ABC Radio Sydney, making him a familiar voice to listeners across Australia. Beyond broadcasting, Thompson was best known as an environmental campaigner. Working for the Australian Conservation Foundation in the early 1980s, he played a pivotal role in the campaign to save the Tasmanian Franklin River from damming, winning public debates against dam proponents and helping secure the wilderness; colleague Bob Brown credited him as an early advocate and media star in that landmark fight. Thompson also worked as an educator, serving as director of the Centre for Leadership and holding roles including adjunct professor at Macquarie University and Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. He had Parkinson's disease and, after recently contracting pneumonia, died in a Sydney hospital on 11 September 2026 at the age of 73, survived by his partner Jane Rowe and daughter Alexa.