Binny Lum collection

Listen to Binny Lum's radio interviews with the Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Dame Joan Sutherland, Fred Astaire and more.

The extraordinary career of Binny Lum (1915–2012) in radio and television broadcasting spanned five decades, from 1934 to 1984.

She was an actor, scriptwriter, accompanist, compere, television host, radio presenter and interviewer extraordinaire.

Born in Adelaide, she was the daughter of a respected doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, Lum Yow, and his Australian-born wife, Eleanora Laker.

She hosted Channel Nine's first ever daytime television talk show, Thursday at One with Binnie Lum, in 1957.

Binny went on to host one of radio's first magazine-format programs on 3XY in Melbourne, where she interviewed many high-profile people before venturing overseas to New York and London, obtaining interviews with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Dame Joan Sutherland, Richard Attenborough and, most famously of all, The Beatles.

This collection includes many of these interviews along with some candid photographs of Binny throughout her career.

With thanks to Binny's daughter Sharon Terry for the generous donation of more than 100 sound recordings to the NFSA.