Long time ABC journalist and ABC Perth Breakfast presenter Russell Woolf has died overnight, aged 57.
Woolf had a long career with the ABC, beginning his time there at the Karratha bureau in 1997. Since then he hosted the Drive program, and presented the weather for the ABC’s West Australian television news from 2007 to 2011.
He briefly moved to Minneapolis, USA in 2015 before returning to Perth to take over Breakfast with former co-host, Nadia Mitsopoulos.
See More: Woolf back in Perth: On ABC Radio breakfast with Nadia Mitsopoulos (2019)
Nadia Mitsopoulos and Russell Woolf
Woolf’s colleague, Drive radio presenter Geoff Hutchison made the announcement on ABC Radio Perth this morning, saying “today is a sad day.”
“It has come as a huge shock to us,” Hutchison said.
“We have only just learnt of his passing in the last few hours and it’s still sinking in.
“Everyone here at ABC Radio Perth is in shock and trying to make sense of it.
“Russell as you know is a much-loved and much-cherished part of our ABC family and we’re going to battle to find words for a little while this morning.
Hutchison also reminisced on the day he met Woolfe in June 2006
“I saw this big lumbering galute come up the stairs at ten to twelve, because we went to twelve o’clock then, and he was carrying a single stubby of Coopers pale ale and he brought it straight into the studio to me and said ‘have that, you’ve deserved it.’
“And that was pretty much the first day I met Russell Woolf in person, and that to me has said plenty about who he is, who he was and how we’ll remember him.”
His passing has been met with an outpouring of grief, with WA Premier Mark McGowan tweeting that “For many of us, whether we knew him personally or not, it will feel like we’ve lost a friend today.”
I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of local media legend, Russell Woolf.
Most recently, Russell was the host of @abcperth‘s Breakfast program, but he had a long and storied career in Western Australian journalism.
— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) October 26, 2021
Woolf is survived by his wife Kylie and daughter Bronte.