{"id":923555,"date":"2026-10-10T23:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T23:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923555\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T23:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T23:02:24","slug":"70-years-of-seven-spotlight-special-commemorates-seven-decades-of-australias-most-iconic-television-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923555\/","title":{"rendered":"70 years of Seven: Spotlight special commemorates seven decades of Australia\u2019s most iconic television network"},"content":{"rendered":"

She\u2019s an icon of Australian breakfast television and has reported across the world, but Nat Barr\u2019s incredible career as a journalist and Sunrise presenter began in her parents\u2019 living room in regional WA.<\/p>\n

Nat, who was born and raised in Bunbury, spoke to The West Australian to commemorate the Seven Network\u2019s 70th birthday on October 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in regional WA, so everyone got the ABC and GWN, and then if you were really, really lucky and you hit the jackpot, you had an aerial (so) you got Channel Seven,\u201d Barr recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we love GWN and the ABC, but we felt very lucky because we had an aerial and we got the Perth stations. We just felt we were Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nat eventually flew the nest, and after a stint at university in Perth she began working as a journalist at the Wanneroo Times, before eventually heading out to Kalgoorlie for a cadetship with GWN.<\/p>\n

\"Natalie,Camera IconNatalie, who was born and raised in Bunbury, spoke to The Sunday Times to commemorate the Seven Network\u2019s 70th birthday on October 12. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

It was the beginning of a brilliant career, which included a stint in Los Angeles before eventually landing a job at Channel 7 in Sydney upon returning to Australia in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy imagination didn\u2019t stretch further than Perth, to be honest. I didn\u2019t think of living over East . . . I just thought maybe one day I\u2019d get to Perth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of followed my nose. I think I had the work ethic that my dad had drummed into me, and he always said, \u2018Put yourself in a position to get lucky. You\u2019re not going to get lucky sitting on the couch\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

For eight years, Nat worked as an on-the-road reporter, before she received a phone call from a TV producer about a \u201cfledgling breakfast program\u201d called Sunrise, which needed a news presenter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy then, I had worked my way up to be a semi-senior reporter in the newsroom and I thought I was on my way, and I didn\u2019t know whether I should go to this program that wasn\u2019t rating at all,\u201d Nat said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Today Show was winning. It had been the major show for breakfast for years and years in Australia, and I thought, \u2018I don\u2019t know whether I want to go to this show that no one\u2019s watching\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201c(However), something made me take that job . . . that changed the course of my life, saying yes to that producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunrise went on to become a ratings juggernaut \u2014 recognised as Australia\u2019s leading and favourite breakfast television show across all networks \u2014 which Nat has been an integral part of since joining.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a small part in a show that I really think shaped and changed breakfast television in Australia has been such a proud moment, and being part of an amazing, enormous, wonderful team has been something that I feel so grateful for,\u201d Nat said.<\/p>\n

The Sunrise stalwart has reported on and presented many of the most profound moments of the 21st century, including live coverage of Barack Obama\u2019s inauguration in 2009, and the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting there at Buckingham Palace for those two weeks and seeing her coffin lie in State, and you\u2019re at the centre of a story the whole world is looking at . . . those moments you really do think, \u2018I\u2019m from Bunbury \u2014 I\u2019m so proud and quite daunted to be doing this, and quite nervous in parts\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you have to pull yourself together and think, \u2018I\u2019ve got to step up here, get it together and do your research, put the work in, find every fact that you can and do your job. You\u2019re here because you\u2019ve been chosen to be here. Put in the work and and make sure you do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HostCamera IconHost Michael Usher will be joined by a brilliant lineup of Seven\u2019s most enduring stars, including Bruce McAvaney, Johanna Griggs, Larry Emdur, Sonia Kruger, Georgie Parker, Effie, and Nat Barr herself. Credit: Seven<\/p>\n

Since she first began at Channel 7 in 1994, Nat says she has felt \u201cvery valued\u201d during her time at the network, which has seen her through several major life events including the birth of her two boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a 21 and a 25-year-old, so their entire existence is their mum working at Channel Seven,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019ve ever needed anything, Channel Seven has warmly accepted whatever I\u2019ve needed, and I have been able to climb a ladder that I never thought possible. It\u2019s something that I will always be grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nat is \u201creally proud\u201d to play a part in delivering Australians \u201ca snapshot\u201d of what\u2019s going on, whether it\u2019s news, politics, weather, sport, or entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a lot of work into bringing Australia a really even-handed approach at the news. Every day there\u2019s a newsroom full of people in at work, and a bunch of people dotted around the country in their houses too, working to bring you tomorrow\u2019s show,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to walk away and feel like we have come into your lounge room, we\u2019ve had a chat, we\u2019ve told you what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spotlight will be airing a special program to celebrate 70 years of Seven on Sunday evening, to recognise Australia\u2019s most memorable television moments on the network since 1956.<\/p>\n

Host Michael Usher will be joined by a brilliant line-up of Seven\u2019s most enduring stars, including Bruce McAvaney, Johanna Griggs, Larry Emdur, Sonia Kruger, Georgie Parker, Effie, and Nat Barr herself.<\/p>\n

\"KathCamera IconKath and Kim. Credit: Seven<\/p>\n

The birthday special will revisit Australia\u2019s most memorable moments of live television events over the past seven decades, from Olympic victories to royal weddings.<\/p>\n

Television shows iconic to the network will also be highlighted, such as Home and Away, Cop Shop, Kingswood Country, A Country Practice, Gladiators, Popstars, Fast Forward, Acropolis now, and of course, Kath and Kim.<\/p>\n

Usher has spent the past 10 years of his career at Seven as part of his decades-long career as a journalist. He is now the Chief Network Anchor and has his own memories of watching the network as a child in Perth.<\/p>\n

A self-described \u201cTV-generation kid\u201d, Michael remembers demanding that his parents drive him to the old Seven studios in Tuart Hill so he could hand-deliver his drawings for Fat Cat\u2019s colouring competitions.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The studios were) this big mysterious building, and you knew that great things happened in there. It was almost like going to the Holy Grail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s family \u201cwatched a lot of news\u201d, he told The West Australian, which he says informed his decision to become a journalist. He began in Bunbury and Kalgoorlie, but would eventually go on to report from locations across the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember watching the Australian correspondents who would travel the world \u2014 and to really remote parts of Australia. And I remember watching and thinking, \u2018That\u2019s actually a job. How amazing would that be?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d get into it early to end up being one of those correspondents that gets to go around the world and tell Australians what the news is through Australian eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChannelCamera IconChannel 7 reporter Michael Usher in the studio at Eveleigh in Sydney.
\nAdam Taylor Credit: Adam Taylor\/Adam Taylor<\/p>\n

The importance of his job \u2014 delivering accurate accounts of Australia\u2019s most profound and often tragic moments \u2014 is not lost on Michael.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you can cover a terrible event like the Bondi massacre, and you know it\u2019s happening in the moment, you\u2019re trying to report it calmly and accurately because it was terrible enough as it was. There\u2019s a sense of dread sometimes when we report those big events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s years of experience of saying, \u2018This is bad, but what are we in for now?\u2019 The world just shifted a bit. Now we\u2019ve lost a bit more of our innocence and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Seven\u2019s \u201cdistinctly Australian\u201d nature which Michael says makes him proud of working for the 70-year-old network.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Australian society has been swallowed up by pretty generic corporate thinking, very anonymous boards, you know, people who don\u2019t really invest in Australian storytelling, and I\u2019m proud we still do that at Seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tell Australian stories. We\u2019re an Australian company. We are distinctly Australian in every way, and I think that\u2019s a really good thing and something to be proud of and to hold on to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his incredible career, Michael says he often pinches himself to think how far he has come from his time as a final-year cadet at the GWN newsroom in Bunbury, to leading Australia\u2019s premier investigative and current affairs program in Spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think back from when Mum and Dad were teachers and we were posted to various parts of country WA \u2014 in areas that only had two TV stations if the aerial worked properly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m grateful for is the can-do attitude when you grow up in WA. I was only led to believe that I could go out there and conquer Australia and conquer the world and give it all a go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d stay away. I just thought someone offered me a job in 1993, and I thought, \u2018Wow, a big boss in Sydney wants to give me a job. How did that happen?\u2019 And here we are, 36 years later. I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

7NEWS Spotlight Presents: 70 Years of Seven \u2014 Sunday 11 October at 8.00pm on Seven and 7Plus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She\u2019s an icon of Australian breakfast television and has reported across the world, but Nat Barr\u2019s incredible career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,134,44,427,45],"class_list":["post-923555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-news","tag-tv","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}