SHERRY WHEELER

 

Sherry Wheeler, originally named Berta Joanna van Wheeley, migrated from the Netherlands to Australia with her family in 1950. She arrived in Melbourne with her mother and sister Sonja. They travelled by boat as did many migrants from that time. Her father had arrived about eight months earlier to secure a job and when they were reunited, they moved to Brisbane. They stayed in the Rocklea Migrant Centre for some time along with many others.

Berta began singing on Channel 9 with Billy Thorpe on the show Teen Beat. She performed on this TV show once a fortnight from the age of 16. The producer of the show thought that her name was too ethnic and suggested Sherry as a stage name. Along with her TV commitments she was a regular performer at Brisbane venue Teen City appearing alongside Tony Worsley. Wheeler recorded one single on the Sunshine label titled ''Single Girl'' in 1967.

She completed her education at Salisbury High school and applied for a teacher scholarship to become a teacher.  She moved to Channel 0 (now 10) and began compering the new children's show called The Channel 0 Saturday Show with Danny O'Dibble (Darryl Boyd) and The Wicked Witch (Babs Wheelton) both Babs and Darryl were well known stage actors in Brisbane at that time. The show was a three hour live show which had a number of different segments and a different story line each week. The writer of the show was Martin Overson.

Sherry also compered another children's show on Channel 0 called Kindy. She became the producer of this show and sold it nationally. She then became the producer of The Saturday Show and sold this nationally as well. At this time there were only two women television producers in Australia. After her television career, Sherry pursued a profession in social work, dedicating herself to community service. She and her husband raised their family in Brisbane, maintaining strong ties to both their Dutch heritage and Australian culture. Sherry’s experiences as a migrant and her contributions to Australian society have been documented by the National Archives of Australia. In a video portrait, she reflects on her journey from the Netherlands to Australia, her television career, and her work in social services.