Rob Astbury

Rob Astbury (1948 – 9 November 2017)[1] was an Australian radio and television sports journalist and real estate agent.

Biography

Astbury was born in Avoca, Victoria. During a media career spanning 21 years, he won ten VFL/AFL awards, two national Penguin Awards and was twice nominated for the Logie Awards for the Best News Story of the year. After an early career in Melbourne radio, Astbury made a successful jump to television—firstly for the Channel 0/10 network, then for the Nine Network, after accepting a personal job offer from owner Kerry Packer. During his television career, Astbury was Australia's highest-paid sports correspondent.

In 2005, Astbury revealed he was HIV positive,[2] although medical tests showed he was a rare long-term nonprogressor (or "elite controller"), whose body can suppress the virus for a long period without antiretroviral drugs.[3] In 2006, celebrity agent Anthony Zammit published King and I: My Life With Graham Kennedy, a biography that detailed Astbury's relationship with entertainer Graham Kennedy.[4]

After retiring from television, Astbury worked as a real estate agent at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, Queensland between 1995 and 2000. For the next decade he ran a property development company in Thailand. During the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami while Astbury was holidaying in Phuket, he reported on the devastation for the political website Crikey.[5] Returning to the Gold Coast in 2010, Astbury worked with the Ray White Real Estate agency in Broadbeach. On 9 November 2017, a colleague found him dead in his home after he did not turn up to work and could not be contacted.[1]

References
  1. "Gold Coast agent Rob Astbury dead at 69 - realestate.com.au". realestate.com.au. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  2. "Astbury to set record straight". www.theage.com.au. 9 June 2005. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  3. "TV legend's gay lover in HIV vaccine study". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 June 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  4. "Kennedy book launch descends into chaos". The Age. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  5. "Rob Astbury's frontline tsunami account". Crikey. 30 December 2004. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
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