Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue have led tributes to former Young Talent Time host Johnny Young, who has died aged 79.

Young died following a “brief battle with pancreatic cancer”, his family announced on Friday.

Arena, who was the show’s longest-serving cast member, expressed the shock and sadness she felt upon hearing news of Young’s death in a tribute on Instagram.

“I’m struggling to find the words today to express the profound loss of a man who allowed, and equally encouraged, me to find my voice! Just know that you leave behind a beautiful legacy that we will continue to uphold because you deserve that, and much more,” the singer-songwriter wrote. She also shared a collection of images of herself and Young, including some from her stint on Young Talent Time.

Young was best known for his work on the children’s talent show, which also launched the careers of stars such as Jamie Redfern and Debra Byrne. Even actor Asher Keddie appeared on the show in 1983, singing Fame at just nine years old. But he was also a successful singer-songwriter in his own right, penning hits such as The Real Thing for Russell Morris and Smiley for Ronnie Burns.

Minogue, who first appeared on Young Talent Time on her eighth birthday in 1979, said Young’s death was heartbreaking.

“Johnny Young holds a place in so many hearts, and today my heart is broken,” she wrote on Instagram on Friday. “He has so many achievements from his music and TV career, pop writing and releases, and family entertainment on our televisions. For me, this is where my career started, and generations of Aussies hold Young Talent Time and the song All My Loving so fondly in their memories.”

She went on to say that his show brought 17 years of “colour, choreography, sequins, music and smiles” to Australians’ Saturday nights.

“My heart goes out to his family and to his YTT family. From cast, crew and every Johnny Young Talent School member, this is a very sad ‘Goodnight Australia’,” she continued, referencing Young’s signature send-off.

Born Johnny de Jong in The Netherlands in 1947, the youngest of four children, Young migrated with his family to Australia following World War II and settled in Perth, where he grew up in the suburb of Kalamunda.

After working as a trainee disc jockey in his late teens, Young scored a job as the host of Channel 7 Perth’s pop music show Club Seventeen, where he met various pop stars and began writing and performing himself.

After a brief period in London, Young returned to Australia and launched Young Talent Time in 1971. The show would become appointment viewing for families across the country and ran until 1988.

The show featured a core group of performers doing well-known pop songs, as well as hopeful youngsters competing in a talent show, and making household names of Minogue (long before Kylie came to fame) and Arena, among others. Each week, Young would sign off by singing The Beatles’ All My Loving, a version of which he had recorded in 1967.

Arena first appeared on Young’s show in 1974 before joining the main cast three years later, when she earned the affectionate nickname “Tiny Tina”. Earlier this month, she paid tribute to Young’s guidance in comments to this masthead.

“He’s very much like a father figure; he wanted me to be as protected as I possibly could,” she said.

“There were times when he said, ‘Be careful, I don’t like that person’ – and he was right. He taught me about discernment as a very little girl. I wasn’t able to intellectualise the term back then, but it became much clearer down the track.”

Russell Morris, one of Young’s most notable collaborators, described him as a great friend and an “extremely talented man” in a tribute shared on social media. The pair worked together in the late ’60s, writing Morris’ breakthrough psychedelic rock hit The Real Thing, and later other tracks such as Part Three into Paper Walls.

“He was a success at everything he set his mind to – a force of nature,” Morris wrote on Facebook on Friday.

“He and I spent many years working together, and socialising; many laughs and achievements – it was a great ride. He will be remembered as a great talent, and a great person.”

In 1990, Young was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame. In 2010, Arena returned to Australia from her Paris base to induct Young into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

“I don’t think I would ever have had the beauty and the diversity of career that I’ve had without my apprenticeship on TV,” Arena said at the induction.

Arena also performed Young’s Here Comes the Star, which was a hit in 1969 in Australia for Ross D. Wylie and in Britain for Herman’s Hermits.

Following news of his death, Beven Addinsall, who joined Young Talent Time at the age of 11, paid tribute to Young on Instagram, sharing a photo of himself alongside Young on a red carpet.

“Rest in Peace, my dear friend,” the caption read.

Young is survived by his wife Marisha, sister Cornelia, daughters Anna and Fleur, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A son, Craig, died in 2014. The family’s statement said details of his memorial would be announced “soon”.

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