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- Toowoomba
Television pioneer celebrates her life in print

Few people can match Judy Brown’s cheeky sense of humour and zest for life – except perhaps her husband Tony. After a career as a model, pioneering daytime television host, casting agent, successful businesswoman, and mother of nine children, including three sets of twins, 86-year-old Judy shows few signs of slowing down.
Despite surviving serious heart problems and a brush with leukaemia, Judy is currently writing three books about her adventures in show business, including her search for old American vehicles, planes and helicopters, which she planned to house in a museum and hire as props to Australian filmmakers. One of her books about motherhood is titled “Nine Lives” – a promise Judy made to her good friend, the late Maura Fay, one of Australia’s best-known casting agents.
“Maura came up from Sydney every year because she believed the best actors in Australia came out of the Darling Downs Institute of Acting. “I adore writing and I always wanted to be a journalist. “But my father wanted me to do an economics degree — which is the greatest laugh in the world — and I ended up being a model. I got married and became a PR person for Myer and organised and compered the big fashion shows at the EKKA.”
Judy was a fresh face on early daytime television in Queensland fronting Nine O’clock and Brisbane Today on Channel 0/10, followed by Good Morning Brisbane on Channel 7. Boxes of old photographs in her garage attest to the dozens of world-famous celebrities, actors and politicians she has interviewed. After her stint in the media. Judy took a tilt at Federal Politics, running for the National Party in the die-hard Labor seat of Bulimba. “I honestly don’t know how I managed it all. My husband at the time did not do a thing. Luckily, I had a very good friend who used to mind the children for me. When I had the television show I made sure I was home at 3:30 in the afternoon to pick them up and I’d get up early and drive them all to college.
“I’ve got a wonderful husband now – the most perfect husband in the world. He doesn’t sit still for five minutes.” At 81, Tony Brown is a keen tennis player, and a life member of the Range Tennis Club, the oldest club in Queensland (1893). He is a school crossing supervisor, a long-standing volunteer at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, and part of a musical trio that regularly performs at aged care homes. A drummer in his earlier days, Tony was well known on the Brisbane jazz circuit before he broke his wrist falling from a horse and swapped drumsticks for the ukelele and banjo.
Between them, the couple have 13 children, 25 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. The fun-loving pair, who have been together more than 40 years, have made a big splash since moving to Seachange Toowoomba in 2021. They discovered their first home in Toowoomba by chance while visiting friends in 2008. “I thought we were helping them look for a property,” Judy laughed. “On our second trip up here we saw an absolutely fantastic unit opposite Queens Park and bought it on the spot.
“When we got home we realised we hadn’t seen the laundry and the stairs became a problem, so we looked around and found Seachange. “Moving here is just the best decision I have ever made and we have the most beautiful neighbours. “I have done some incredible stuff in my life but I had actually kind of forgotten about it until I started to write this book and that is bringing the memories back. “It’s important keep your brain active all the time and get out and do something. Think about what you are going to leave for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren and sit down and write your stories.”