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A few months after the death of legendary broadcaster Brian Henderson, his family received a call from Peter Overton with an unexpected proposition.
Property developer Mirvac Group had recently acquired Channel Nine's Willoughby headquarters and planned to dissemble the iconic TV studios that had been Brian's second home for 45 years.
Apartments and open green space would rise up in its place, including a public park the company hoped to name in Brian's honour. But only with his family's blessing.
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"I thought it was a beautiful honour, but it was up to them to process," Overton told 9news.com.au.
Mardi Henderson, Brian's wife of over 50 years, didn't hesitate for a second.
Henderson Park opens to the public
Three years on from that call, Mardi sits on a bench in Henderson Park bathed in uncharacteristically warm Autumn sun.
Saplings shudder in the wind, dropped leaves dancing across the long walkway connecting two grassy lawns she just helped officially open to the public.
"Brian wouldn't have known what to say," she tells 9news of the opening ceremony, which was attended by family, friends, and former Nine colleagues.
Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at mleach@nine.com.au
"Brian was a shy person. He didn't ever seek the publicity or the limelight," she adds.
"For someone who spoke to so many people every night, he hated public speaking … he'd rather sit and talk to you one on one, than have to stand in front of the crowd."
It's hard to imagine Australia's longest-serving news presenter as a shy man. For decades, millions of Aussies welcomed Brian into their homes every night.
But he didn't see the faces of the entire nation staring back at him when he read the news from one of Channel Nine's studio nestled in deep in its Willoughby campus, affectionately known as TCN-9. Usually, it was just Brian and his camera man in the room.
On the rare occasion he did have a studio audience, it was his beloved children.
"If we had to go to dinner after the news, we'd come in and we would be allowed to sit off to the side waiting for him and watching him," daughter Nicole tells 9news from the park named for her late father, who died in 2021 aged 89.
Overton was among the first people the family alerted when Brian died after a long cancer battle, having been a close professional and personal friend for decades.
He lingers by a plaque bearing Brian's name and likeness as he recalls the first time they met in 1991, when Overton landed a job at Nine as a sports reporter.
"I can still vividly remember that first day, going to the gatehouse and saying, 'Hello, my name's Peter Overton, I'm starting today in the newsroom," he says.
Overton grew up watching "Hendo" read the news each night. On his first day, he plucked up the courage to introduce himself.
He was floored when Brian already knew his name.
"Hendo was a really magnificent man," Overton says, gazing out at Henderson Park, "and we need tributes like this to people who've contributed to our society."
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TV history honoured
The three-hectare strip of land on Artarmon road that now houses apartment blocks and Henderson Park is widely considered the birthplace of Australian TV.
It used to house a rabbit warren of TV studios where iconic programs like Bandstand, The Paul Hogan Show, The Mike Walsh Show and 60 Minutes were filmed for decades, and Overton can't help but point out the landmarks that now live only in his memory.
That patch of grass was once a helipad; that children's playground used to be the iconic TCN-9 transmission tower. The structures are gone, but the history remains.
Overton visited TCN-9 one last time in 2020, three weeks after its doors officially closed, and found the place where he first met Brian much changed even then.
"The Channel Nine campus was a living, breathing place and without any humans there, it quickly became silent," he says.
"When people aren't walking around, it loses its whole circulation system."
Because TCN-9 and the history made there was never about the buildings; it was about the people. People like Brian.
'The history will go on'
Mardi watches her children and grandchildren explore Henderson Park with a small smile, eyes hidden behind dark glasses.
Being back has made her emotional, but it's worth it to see what the next generation of Hendersons will inherit; a piece of Brian's world, though it looks different now.
"If he wasn't at home, he was here," she says, "and the history will go on."
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Nine's staff have since relocated to North Sydney and it's easy to forget this was once the home of Australian broadcasting, though a few things were left behind, like a set of goal posts in a TCN-9 car park where The Footy Show often filmed.
"I have a sneaking suspicion that they have been re-erected in a backyard in the surrounding area," Mirvac's CEO of Development, Stu Penklis, told 9news
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