Educated at Sydney University, Mungo MacCallum worked as a journalist, and was employed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) as a writer and producer. During World War II he served in the Australian Army, and established and edited the Army education journal Salt. After the war MacCallum visited Europe and England, where he delivered a lecture series about Australia, then rejoined the staff of the ABC to write and produce radio features.
In 1954 MacCallum won an Imperial Trust scholarship which enabled him to study television and broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Europe. He worked as a producer, announcer and interviewer in ABC television, and as a freelance broadcaster, film and arts critic. Writing documentary film scripts, radio plays and poetry, MacCallum also published two novels, A Voyage in Love (1956) and Son of Mars (1963), and an autobiography, Plankton's Luck : A Life in Retrospect (1986). His (unpublished) radio play, 'Stone-Bloody-Henge', won an AWGIE Award in 1972.
Mungo MacCallum was the grandson of Sir Mungo William MacCallum, the son of Mungo Lorenz MacCallum, and the father of Mungo (Wentworth) MacCallum (qq.v.).
