Oh my goodness, NSW had an absenteeism? 
But seriously, probably answers my earlier question about the backup behind Lydia.
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Guessing Nakia Thorpe is now back from maternity leave. They usually remove presenter names and pictures if they go on extended leave.
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Isobel Roe
Today marks five years living in Australia's greatest city, Sydney. I will be back... but... I'm excited to be heading to the Bush Capital in a few weeks to join the ABC's Canberra press gallery. Please send your best coffee recommendations and frostbite prevention techniques.
â Isobel Roe (@isobelroe) June 8, 2024
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I think Stephanie would be a good replacement. Itâs only Monday to Friday I recall, no weekends. They could even pull it back to Mon-Thur. I donât think market share would shift if they even got rid of it all together.
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Or they may not even replace him, with ongoing budget pressures. When Simon McCulloch left the Tasmanian bulletin, they didnât get a replacement, and simply the presenter does the segment from the desk.
Iâd only invest in a dedicated presenter moving forward if they are perhaps a meteorologist, or someone who has been presenting weather for yonks. Otherwise I wouldnât bother. Probably an important part of the bulletin for say 9 or 7, but not the ABC.
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The ABC need a meteorologist somewhere given their role as an emergency broadcaster. Could also be utilized in a rolling coverage of a major flood for instance on TV or radio.
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They have one in Sydney - NSW Weather presenter Tom Saunders
They also have Nate Byrne on News Breakfast.
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I did know about Tom, didnât know about Nate, so itâs good that theyâve got some cover.
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Yes indeed. IIRC Graham Creed also initially continued to do a phone chat to RN Breakfast after leaving the NSW 7pm news, although not sure if heâs still there.
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Tonightâs 7pm Victorian bulletin ended with a 90-second retrospective of Paul Higginsâ 38-year career at the ABC. Amazingly, Paulâs voice has not changed a bit over the period.
It was followed by a brief chat between Tamara Oudyn and Paul at the desk. Tamara said that Paul is retiring.
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Very sad scenes on ABC Melbourne tonight with the departure of Paul Higgins.
It was rather low-key, but good to see Tamara stick it out of the week and present on a Thursday for once. Her farewell seemed genuine and was quite poignant.
Was also good to see veteran former newsreader Ian Henderson return in the closer when every man, woman and child walked on set.
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A behind the scenes photo from the farewell, by colleague Norman Hermant.
You can see Ian Henderson in the photo. Heâs left of a man wearing a short sleeved blue shirt.
EDIT
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I think a few of us here including myself have been a bit harsh on Paul since the âcovid incidentâ, tonightâs farewell shows how much he was valued by his colleagues, seemed very genuine and sincere.
During the 80s we were always National Nine News then flick over for the last half of Eyewitness News, so remember when at friendsâ houses who watched Seven News being confused as to why the BTN guy was doing the weather on another channel! Hopefully he enjoys retirement.
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Low key? It was 6 minutes in total including the weather report. Considering the bulletin only goes 30 minutes and there was a fair bit of news around I reckon they spent more than enough time saying farewell.
I feel like sometimes these farewells can be over the top.
Still. A terrific career, worth recognising. I thought they got it right.
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havenât had a weather presenter in SA for like 20 years now.
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Iâm not convinced the ABC needs a whole suite of meteorologists, especially if all theyâre going to do is dedicate a few minutes a night to the weather - having one for the network would be sufficient IMO
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If the meteorologists also act as weather presenters Like Tony Auden in Brisbane on Seven I donât see that as a bad thing. But yes of they arenât on air roles I donât see any need for the ABC to have more than one.
Would save money if ABC just set up one centralised weather centre - somewhere - had say three or four presenters on a roster and they could record weather segments for the whole country and do news channel weather live.
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