Simon Townsend, host of Wonder World, dies at 79 after cancer battle

Australian journalist and TV presenter Simon Townsend, known for Wonder World and activism during the Vietnam War, has died at 79 after a long battle with cancer.

Simon Townsend and Woodrow.

Australian journalist and television presenter Simon Townsend has died, aged 79, after a long ­battle with aggressive cancer.

“In his final days, Simon was surrounded by his family and a mix of journalists, writers, actors, political activists and Italians,” his family said in a statement confirming his death. “The conversation to the last was loud, passionate and full of laughs.”

Townsend hosted the children’s television show Wonder World with his permanent sidekick, a bloodhound named Woodrow who doubled as his family pet and captured the hearts of Australian families.

Wonder World provided informed entertainment and accessible news to young people, with a music segment in each episode, and dominated the afternoon time slot from 1979 to 1987.

Unusually for its time, the show tackled difficult topics such as homelessness, animal cruelty and terminal illness.

“We travelled a lot, across the whole of Australia and internationally,” Townsend told TVTonight in 2019. “I suppose the hallmark of the shows was that they always involved humour and popular music. That was how they came together.”

Townsend would end every show with his signature farewell: “And remember, the world really is wonderful!”

Townsend with Woodrow in 1988.

Townsend often had to battle for his vision of the show.

“Simon often found himself in a stoush with Australian children’s television regulators, ­fighting to maintain his show’s boundary-pushing ethos and preserve his children’s TV rating,” his family said in their statement.

“The edict to all involved in making the show was that they never talk down to children.”

Wonder World may have been the crown jewel of Townsend’s ­career, but he first made headlines in 1967 as an activist against the Vietnam War.

Remembered for showing up to protests in his iconic three-piece suit, Townsend was a force in the anti-war movement and ­refused orders when he was ­conscripted.

In court, the magistrate deemed his defence of being a pacifist as “insincere” and jailed him for a month in Long Bay, which then led to solitary confinement in a military prison.

Townsend became front-page news and a national symbol for peace as “Free Townsend” posters and graffiti appeared throughout Sydney.

Townsend en route to Paddington police station in 1967 following his arrest as a Vietnam War conscientious objector opposed to national conscription.

His passion for progress would drive him for the rest of his life and was the fire that fuelled his journalism career.

He worked as a reporter for ABC’s This Day Tonight until he hosted Wonder World for nearly a decade.

Storytelling remained Townsend’s lifelong passion, despite him suffering ongoing health battles and five strokes.

“I watch a fair bit of Foxtel and still, five nights a week I watch A Current Affair. Sometimes I think, ‘We did that story years ago!’ ” he told TVTonight.

“He was a wonderful, fascinating, complex person and a wonderful family man,” his daughter, Lisbeth Kennelly, told ABC Radio.

Townsend is survived by his brothers, his three children, and his five grandchildren.