Alexander ‘Storry’ Walton AM (46-52)

Alexander Storry Walton (Storry) attended Wesley College both as a boarder and a day boy between 1946 and 1952.

Storry’s great-grandfather was a founder of Wesley College and Walton House is named after him. His grandfather and father served the Methodist Church in Western Australia in voluntary roles and his great-aunt was the principal of Methodist Ladies College.

Soon after leaving school he joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Drama and Features department in Sydney where he produced and directed drama, arts and literary programs for radio. He became one of the pioneering producers and directors of Australian television.

Storry is proud to say that he was one of the first producers of Mr Squiggle, but he is slower to admit that he was part of the team that made Australia’s first political television campaign. He apologises for this.

He redeemed himself as a prolific television producer of programs and documentaries on the arts. He was the Australian national producer of the world’s first global live-to-air satellite program ‘Our World’ which ran continuously for 24 hours and linked audiences in over 30 nations. He produced University of the Air and directed plays and serials, including the first adaptation of George Johnston’s My Brother Jack.

Based in London, he directed social documentaries for BBC television, in Britain, India and Australia. He helped pave the way for an Australian film school as director of an intense national experimental training scheme which produced international directors Phillip Noyce (who made Rabbit Proof Fence in WA), Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion and Chris Noonan. Soon after,
he became Director of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and Vice-President of CILECT, the International Federation of National Film Schools, based in Brussels.

He has been a consultant and associate producer on Australian and overseas feature films and documentaries. At National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Storry was Chairman of the Board of Studies and also a member of the governing Board.

In his musical life, he was Chairman of the Seymour Group and a member of the Board of Management of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He was the executive director of the International Cultural Corporation of Australia during which time he managed and toured a series of major art exhibitions to Australian state and overseas galleries.

Throughout his life, he has kept his feet on the ground through a continuing interest in rural and remote Australia. He produced many rural programs and documentaries, worked for Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service, and writes for rural journals.

From 2003 to 2008 he was a visiting Senior Lecturer at the Television Centre of Charles Sturt University. Storry has continued the family association with the Wesley tradition through 15 years as a Board member of Uniting Church Frontier Services.

We thank Storry for his contribution to his story.