Australian entertainment mogul Neil Balnaves – who brought Big Brother, Bananas in Pyjamas, Water Rats, and McLeod’s Daughters to TV screens – died on Sunday, February 20, 2022 at age 77 after a tragic boating accident in Tahiti. He was born in 1944 in Adelaide, South Australia.
Balnaves was holidaying on board the Oneworld mega-motor yacht off the Polynesian island when it flipped over in the waves, throwing him under.
The millionaire also suffered a near-fatal boating accident on the Australia’s Gold Coast in 2002. Balnaves was best known for running Southern Star Television (later Endemol Shine Australia), a company that he founded in 1988.
He went on to become a philanthropist, with his Balnaves Foundation giving away A$20 million. The foundation, which was established in 2006, disperses over A$3 million annually. That money was given to eligible organizations that, according to the Foundation, aimed “to create a better Australia through education, medicine and the arts with a focus on young people, the disadvantaged and indigenous Australia.”
He is survived by his wife, Diane Balnaves, who he married in 1971, and his children, son Hamish and daughter Victoria. In 2019, he and Diane lost their daughter, Alexandra, to cancer.
Generous man and mentor. Well done, Neil!
Di xx