Regional television in Australia

In Australia, regional television is the local television services outside of the five main Australian cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).

The first regional television stations were launched five years after the rollout of television to metropolitan Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. GLV-10 in Traralgon opened on 9 December 1961 and was followed 14 days later by GMV-6 in Shepparton and BCV-8 Bendigo.

Television continued to expand throughout Victoria and the rest of the country throughout the 1960s with no fewer than twenty five stations making their first transmissions between 1962 and 1968.

1962 station openings

1963 station opening

1964 station openings

1965 station openings

1966 station openings

1967 station opening

1968 station openings

Many of the first stations produced their own local programming, supplemented to content from the capital city stations such as GTV-9 Melbourne's In Melbourne Tonight. GLV-10 Traralgon was amongst the first to make use of live 'off-air' relays of programmes from metropolitan stations without the use of video recording equipment.

VEW-8 Kalgoorlie opened on 18 June 1971 and ITQ-8 Mount Isa commenced on 11 September 1971 before regional television reached the Northern Territory on 11 November 1971 with the launch of NTD-8 Darwin. The last regional stations to launch were GSW-9 Albany (a relay of BTW-3 Bunbury) on 29 August 1974, RTS-5A Loxton on 26 November 1976 and GTW-11 Geraldton on 21 January 1977.

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