Alan Wilkie

Alan Douglas Wilkie (23 July 1928 – 10 July 2023) was an Australian meteorologist and radio and television weather presenter.

Wilkie was the first weatherman on broadcast television in Australia. He began in the first week the ABC opened in Sydney, later moving to commercial television at the Seven Network. Finally, he would become best known for his lengthy 25 year career as a Sydney-based television weather forecaster at the Nine Network during the tenure of news presenter Brian Henderson.

Early life Wilkie was born on 23 July 1928 to William Wilkie and Daisy Isobel Lewis. He grew up in Childers, Queensland, where his father worked at the nearby Isis Central sugar mill.

From 1943, he attended Maryborough Boys State High School.

After initially embarking on a career as a school teacher, Wilkie graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science.

Career In 1950, Wilkie commenced working for the Bureau of Meteorology.

Wilkie also delivered weather reports for radio stations including 2SM.

In 1977, he was poached by the Nine Network's Sydney station TCN-9 to deliver the nightly forecasts on National Nine News. Seven's attempts to convince Wilkie to stay with their network failed.

Upon Wilkie's retirement, the Nine Network indicated that they didn't intend to replace Wilkie with another weather presenter, instead preferring to have long time news anchor Brian Henderson read the weather from the news desk at the end of the bulletin.

His older brother Ray Wilkie was also a meteorologist and television weather presenter, best known for his work at Network 10's television station in Brisbane. Ray Wilkie died on 18 May 2023.

Wilkie's engagement to Virginia Anderson was announced in August 1960. They married at St Philip's Church in Sydney on 30 November 1960. After their marriage, they purchased a house at Killara in 1961 where they lived until listing the property for sale in 1992.

They eventually divorced and Virginia Wilkie died at the age of 75 on 5 May 2015.

Wilkie died on 10 July 2023, a couple of weeks shy of his 95th birthday, and just under two months after his brother's death at 98.