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Rob Astbury

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rob Astbury (1948 – 9 November 2017)[1] was an Australian radio and television sports journalist and real estate agent.

Biography

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Astbury was born in Avoca, Victoria. During a media career spanning 21 years, he won ten VFL/AFL awards, two national Penguin Awards and was twice nominated for the Logie Awards for the Best News Story of the year.[2][3] After an early career in Melbourne radio, Astbury made a successful jump to television—firstly for the Channel 0/10 network, then for the Nine Network, after accepting a personal job offer from owner Kerry Packer. During his television career, Astbury was Australia's highest-paid sports correspondent.

In 2005, Astbury revealed he was HIV positive,[4] although medical tests showed he was a rare long-term nonprogressor (or "elite controller"), whose body can suppress the virus for a long period without antiretroviral drugs.[5] In 2006, celebrity agent Anthony Zammit published King and I: My Life With Graham Kennedy, a biography that detailed Astbury's relationship with entertainer Graham Kennedy.[6]

After retiring from television, Astbury worked as a real estate agent at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, Queensland, between 1995 and 2000. For the next decade, he ran a property development company in Thailand. During the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami while Astbury was holidaying in Phuket, he reported on the devastation for the political website Crikey.[7] Returning to the Gold Coast in 2010, Astbury worked with the Ray White Real Estate agency in Broadbeach. On 9 November 2017, a colleague found him dead in his home after he did not turn up to work and could not be contacted.[1]

Astbury left a second biography unpublished.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Gold Coast agent Rob Astbury dead at 69 - realestate.com.au". realestate.com.au. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  2. ^ Gold Coast Ray White estate agent Rob Astbury dies leaving unpublished second book, Urban, 8 December 2020; [1]
  3. ^ Obituary: Rob Astbury, Television.Au, 11 November 2017;[2]
  4. ^ "Astbury to set record straight". www.theage.com.au. 9 June 2005. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  5. ^ "TV legend's gay lover in HIV vaccine study". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 June 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  6. ^ "Kennedy book launch descends into chaos". The Age. 26 October 2006. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Rob Astbury's frontline tsunami account". Crikey. 30 December 2004. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  8. ^ Gold Coast Ray White estate agent Rob Astbury dies leaving unpublished second book, Urban, 8 December 2020; [3]
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