News anchor Richard Morecroft remembered as a 'great Australian'

Late veteran news anchor Richard Morecroft is being remembered as a consummate professional and "a great Australian".The 70-year-old died "at a time of his choosing", a statement on Instagram said, after he received a cancer diagnosis earlier this year."We are devastated to lose such a warm, generous and caring human and hope that all those who knew him, if only through their TV screens, will remember him fondly," the statement said.Morecroft graced television screens for decades as an ABC 7PM NSW anchor for almost 20 years, BTN presenter and host of Letters and Numbers on SBS.Veteran news anchor and television presenter, Richard Morecroft, is being remembered in tributes. (Supplied: Instagram)Geraldine Doogue worked with Morecroft as co-host on The National in 1985, when her late husband Ian Carroll changed the half-hour 7PM television bulletin to an hour-long news and current affairs program.Doogue told 702 ABC Sydney that she was shocked by his death and said his professionalism was a big part of his legacy."He was just terribly good to me and to my late husband ... during that really tumultuous year," she said."I mean, he was very much for it. Richard, once he was in, he was in. He was a very loyal, he contributed massively."Doogue, pictured as a young reporter, worked with Morecroft. (Supplied)Doogue said he had a strong sense of what "an ABC authority ought to be" and modelled it "effortlessly"."He had quite a wit about him, but he fundamentally felt his role, I think, was to be that face of the ABC while he was doing this," she said."He looked out for people who weren't born and bred to that particular spot, which is very admirable, I think."Morecroft eventually moved to the NSW south coast, which Doogue said he called "his cathedral", with his partner of 36 years, Alison Mackay."He had this whole side in him that was artistic, very much involved with the natural world," she said."He just thrived in that environment and gave enormously to [and was] very generous to all sorts of charities."Richard Morecroft at the 2025 Sculpture in the Valley festival with festival director Stuart McCreery. (ABC News: ABC Illawarra/Rory Macdonald)'A figure of absolute trust'Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement that Morecroft was a "great Australian"."Combining a consummate professionalism with an unyielding humanity, Richard was a figure of absolute trust, a warm and familiar presence who guided us through the good times and bad," he said."He loved the arts and was deeply passionate about our natural environment."Nothing completed the picture so delightfully as the time we learned that he used to keep a baby flying fox safe and sound beneath the desk while he was presenting the news."Tributes are flowing for veteran news anchor and television presenter, Richard Morecroft. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)702 ABC Sydney Mornings host Hamish Macdonald said he grew up watching Morecroft on the news."I think he's part of why I wanted to go into journalism. Really, he was just such a reliable, friendly, trusted voice," he said.Nightlife host Philip Clark also recalled Morecroft as a "terrific fellow"."Total professional as a newsreader and broadcaster as well," he said.