Ken Ball: Famed photographer, journalist and founding Gold Coast Sun editor dies at age 82

A beloved Gold Coast photographer and journalist is being remembered as an “old-school” figure who played a part in the city’s swinging ’60s. READ THE TRIBUTES

Photographer and journalist Ken Ball is being remembered as an “old-school” figure who played a part in the city’s swinging ’60s.

The founding editor of the now-defunct Gold Coast Sun newspaper, who was a well-known media figure across Australia and Asia for six decades, died from a fatal stroke at 4pm on July 12 in Canberra where his daughters live.

He was 82.

Those who knew him have paid tribute to a man who witnessed the Gold Coast’s transformation in the Glitter Strip era of the 1960s.

Ken Ball

Photographer Regina King worked with Mr Ball at the Sun and said she had fond memories of him.

“I remember Ken Ball as a journalist and editor holding various positions with the Gold Coast Mirror, Gold Coast Sun and the lifestyle magazine Living in Paradise,” she said.

“It was a time before we got our ‘glitter’ on and the press was a much more freewheeling place with topless girls featuring regularly in the papers.

“Ken was an old school journo, always looking to break a story with a scoop for his pages. “He entered academia after he left the city.”

Ken Ball, (fifth from left) with Alex McRobbie on his left at the 1966 inaugural meeting of the Gold Coast Press Club in Southport.

Mr Ball was just 23 years old when, in March 1967, he launched the Sun with fellow freelancers Scott Derrick and Jack McKinnon and ad salesman Keith Jackson.

Speaking in 2017 on the 50th anniversary of the publication’s launch, Mr Ball recalled his role.

“It was Bernie Elsey who came up with the name ‘Sun’ because the publication was targeted at the tourist market so the match of the beach and the sun worked,” Ken said. “We set up offices in Cavill Court, opposite the Shell Bar in Orchid Ave and the four of us set about creating a newspaper.

“Back then, we did everything and I mean everything. I would not only write stories and take pictures but would help sell ads as well.

A photo by Ken Ball from 1958 showing Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies at a press conference at Sydney Airport

“Because all the printing presses in the region were owned by our opposition (Murdoch publications), we couldn’t get the paper done locally so we had to rely on a friend of mine to get the job done in Sydney.

“That meant the copy being sent down to be typeset, the headlines being Letraset on the Coast and me flying down to Sydney to stone it as it was being laid out at the printers and then returning to the Gold Coast with copies of the paper. I could only bring back about 3500 copies as that was all that the airline TAA would allow me to take on board for free.”

Also during his time at the Sun, Mr Ball co-founded the Gold Coast Press Club with Bulletin editors John Burton, Roy Chapman and writer Alex McRobbie and were often seen meeting for drinks at Southport’s Hotel Cecil.

Ken Ball at an exhibition of his work.

Mr Ball sold his share of the Sun to Walter Jackson for $1000 and left the Gold Coast for Asia, where he became editor of the Hong Kong Standard newspaper.

It was there he met long-time friend Paul Wright, who remained in contact with Mr Ball until his death.

“I first met Ken in Singapore in 1974, when he took over my position as creative director of Marklin Advertising – which was an Asian agency and our responsibilities covered Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia,” he said.

“In 1976 I met Ken again on the Gold Coast, when he was working on North Magazine, part of the Murdoch stable.

“Ken helped me get Pony Express off the ground – a monthly National Equestrian Newspaper.

“He became my best friend and over the 51 years we knew each other and we conversed by phone or email once a week.”

In later years Mr Ball worked at the Tweed Daily News and became an acclaimed photographer, who held a large number of exhibitions both in Australia and around the world.