A day in the life of a regional Australian journalist

As a country journalist the most important aspect of my job is to tell local stories with accuracy and clarity.

With so many news offerings across all media platforms, people now have unprecedented access to information about wider state, national and international stories.

Therefore it is crucial to portray local happenings, personalities, events, council decisions and sports.

This is what readers come to a local paper for and if you are not relevant at the local level people will lose interest.

Nevertheless, these local stories should always be placed in a wider context, with reference to similar issues affecting communities Australia wide.

When a larger story does affect local residents, it is important focus on the aspects that have the most relevance to your community.

A country journalist must attempt to distill complex issues and figure out what matters most to their readership in an economic, social, political and personal sense.

To do this you must find local people, businesses, schools and organizations that are directly effected by an issue and seek out their opinions and perspectives.

It is also important to be part of the “bush telegraph” to tell stories about local people, their achievements and of the area’s history.

These smaller stories might not get much play in larger newspapers and therefore are especially important to the local community you cover.

In short, local relevance is crucial to country newspapers, however, as a journalist you should always see how local issues can be placed within a larger
context in order to further inform and educate your readers.

One of my more interesting days working as a regional Australian journalist occurred recently when the Governor General of Australia Quentin Bryce came to the Gannawarra Shire, which I cover for The Northern Times.

She visited residents who were affected by the severe floods that hit the region in January.

This was her second visit to our region, which is still recovering from the worst floods to have hit Victoria in living memory.

This time around she visited some of the most affected communities in the regions to show her support for farmers and residents recovering from the devastating floods.

It is always difficult to produce interesting coverage from a visit by a person of such high office.

Such visits are often tightly scripted, giving you less chance to find an interesting or novel angle to report on.

However, due to my role as a journalist for the area’s local newspaper and our close relationship with the local council, I was lucky to be able to accompany Ms Bryce’s entourage as she visited farmers hit by the floods.

For me, this highlighted the importance of cultivating a good working relationship with local government, businesses and prominent community members, as they can often make all the difference in getting you exclusive coverage on a story.

This meant that I was the only journalist attending her visits to the properties of two flood affected farming families.

As such I was able to give more depth to the story than other media outlets covering the Governor General’s visit.

As is often the case with such visits, we were told by her office in no uncertain terms that she would not be answering direct questions from the media during her visit.

In many ways, this was a relief, as there is only so much to that can asked during such a visit, which is really aimed at representing the government and reassuring residents that they have not been forgotten.

Knowing this, I decided to focus more on the story of the farmers she visited and people she talked to, in order to use the event of her visit to highlight issues
still confronting farmers recovering from the floods.

Travelling with a local council employee, I arrived at the Governor General’s scheduled stops 15 or so minutes before she arrived.

This gave me the opportunity to interview the people she was visiting and get their views on what her visit meant to them, as well as background information on their plight in the wake of the floods.

When she arrived I was able to focus more on my photography, which is always a nice thing, as photography tends to come second when you’re playing the dual roles of journalist and photographer.

Having got some good quotes and background material from the people that were being visited, I was able to put my notepad down and concentrate on getting a good shot.

One of the best parts of working at a small regional newspaper is getting to try your hand at all aspects of the craft.

As such, I have been slowly developing my photographic sense and ability, and have been enjoying this aspect of the job immensely.

Visits by well known dignitaries always attract media outlets from a much wider area than a typical local news story.

I always enjoy the chance to watch more experienced journalists and photographers in action and try to pick up some pointers along the way.

This is especially true with photography, I always look to see what experienced photographers are doing, watching the angles and techniques they use to get a good photo, and try and learn from it.

Another aspect of the day was to trying to generate future stories that could be followed up at a later time.

One of the farmers she visited on the day had a son who was using the social networking site Facebook to raise money from people affected by the floods.

Knowing this before hand, I used the opportunity to get more information which I planned to use for up a follow up story about the boy.

I also spoke to the boy’s father about other issues affecting the district and gained some valuable insight to water distribution issues and flood levee works in the area, which served as background for an ongoing series of stories on these issues.

I have found that it is always useful to have a bit of an extended chat with people even if it strays off the topic of the immediate story I am covering.

You never know what will come up and I have found many new angles and stories this way.

Article on the Governor Generals visit to Gannawarra Shire

AUSTRALIA’S Governor-General, Quentin Bryce AM has received a first-hand lesson on how January’s flood event impacted the lives of resident.
Ms Bryce and her husband, Michael Bryce AM AE, visited farms in Benjeroop and Kerang East as part of her tour of the district on Tuesday.
The couple spent the afternoon travelling throughout the area, visiting two properties and community events at Benjeroop and Kerang.
The tour began at the family dairy farm of Benjeroop resident Steve Hawken, which was completely inundated during the flood.
Mr Hawken, along with his father Gary, friend Jacqui Challis, and his children Bodhi, Charlie and Amy, met with the Governor-General and told her about their experiences during the floods and the difficulties face in restoring the farm.
Mr Hawken is currently working at a dairy farm in Moama, where his dairy cows are adjusted while the slow process of recovering his farm continues.
He said he hoped the visit will keep the focus on farmers still struggling to recover from the destructive floods.
Mr Hawken said that there was a lack of financial aid from the government to help farmers recover and criticised the means testing requirements for accessing aid.
“Our biggest problem, as far as I can see, is lack of financial aid....DHS (Department of Human Services) have been really good, but a lot of their help is means tested for off-farm income,” he said.
“I explained to Ted Baillieu and Peter Walsh and a few others, that over the last nine years, most people have had to go off-farm to earn income to keep the mortgage on the farm paid,
“I think Ted will remember, if I ever broach the subject again, that I said it appears to me that some people weren’t lazy enough to qualify for government help.
“Given that that conversation took place just after Anzac Day, I think the diggers would be rolling over in their grave if they could see blokes having a go, working two or three jobs to keep the farm, couldn’t access help when a professional dole-bludger could.
“So a lot of people still need help.”
Ms Bryce spoke with the family for about half an hour, and heard about Bodhi’s Facebook page, which he set up to raise money for flood recovery, before presenting the children with a gift of a football and netball.
Ms Bryce then went to meet Benjeroop and Murrabit residents for afternoon tea at the Benjeroop Memorial Hall.
She was greeted at the hall by Benjeroop flood warden Lindsay Schultz and hall committee secretary Natalie Goudie.
The Governor-General was presented with a bouquet of flowers by Ms Goudie’s daughter, Lilliana, whilst Mr Schultz presented the guests with a framed picture of Benjeroop.
Ms Bryce spoke with several residents and was shown photographs and video news clips of the district taken during the floods.
Murrabit West dairy farmers Stuart and Rosemary Murray spoke with Ms Bryce and showed her photographs of their flood-stricken property.
Mrs Murray said she was pleased with Ms Bryce’s visit.
“I think it’s a great morale booster...she was very interested, we showed her photo’s of the flood and after the flood,” she said.
After leaving the Benjeroop Hall Ms Bryce travelled to Jill North’s beef cattle property, located east of Kerang on the Pyramid Creek.
Ms Bryce and her husband were greeted by Ms North and her son David, who told their visitors of how the floods affected the family farm.
Ms North had only moved back into her house a few days earlier, after having lived at her son’s Kerang house for months after the floods whilst her damaged house was repaired.
She showed the Governor General photos of her house, which was flooded with around 30 centimetres of water during the January floods.
She also introduced the Governor General to the latest addition to the family Noah, a kitten stranded by floodwater that was rescued by Ms North and her son.

Feature Article: John Piccoli, spanner sculptor

Over the years, many people passing through the picturesque town of Boort might have noticed some unusual metal sculptures along the main street.
Intrigued, many people have no doubt stopped to give the sculptures a closer look.
As they draw near, their eyes pick out a familiar shape, it’s a spanner, no, two spanners, no wait, hundreds of spanners, the whole sculpture is nothing but spanners of every shape and size.
These unique creations were all painstakingly crafted by lifelong Boort resident John Piccoli.
But the sculptures in town, commissioned by the local council, are just a fore-taste of John’s incredible artistic talent.
Visitors lucky enough to be able to visit John and his wife Sonia at their magnificent property, situated just a little way out of town, are in for a real treat.
Driving up the driveway, past endless strange looking and ancient farm machinery, two huge metal pillars, again made entirely from spanners, mark the entrance of John’s exceptional homestead.
Like a scene from the days of the Raj, peacocks flaunt their spectacular plumage as they amble through the grounds, seemingly oblivious to the array of imposing and spectacular metal sculptures scattered through the grounds.
Horses, bulls, fish, mermaids and men, all larger than life, inhabit the garden.
Their spectacular forms crafted from hundreds upon hundreds of alternately rusty brown and gleaming silver spanners.
John is only too happy to show a lucky visitor around his beguilingly beautiful property, which has belonged to his family, emigrants from Switzerland, since 1876.
Before long, visitors will hear the sound of John’s other great passion, the calls of dozens of rare and exotic birds he has collected and bred over many years.
John gets around his property on a rugged looking, off-road, electric wheelchair due to a severe attack of poliomyelitis in childhood which took the use of his legs.
Looking at the size of some of his largest sculptures, which stand over four metres tall and must weigh several hundred kilograms, the mind boggles at the skill and dedication needed to craft the massive and complicated objects.
John uses no plans for his sculptures instead he puts them together piece by piece according to an intangible design in his minds-eye.
“It all falls into place as I imagine it, I’ve got a form of autism that let’s me picture things in 3D, it’s a gift,” he said.
Despite their odd shaped constituent parts, the spanner sculptures are superbly proportioned, giving them a strangely life-like quality.
Looking at the quality and detail of the workmanship, you would expect John to have crafted his creative technique over a life-time.
Incredibly this is not so, John having only picked up the tools of his art, a welder and a grinder, late in life after his retirement eleven years ago.
Obsessively collecting old spanners from clearing sales and swap meets, John estimates that some of his larger sculptures contain several thousand dollars worth of old, sometimes rare and valuable spanners in them.
After a stroll through the sculpture garden John introduces visitors to his favourite pets, several large, rainbow coloured South American Macaws.
Once inside the large cage, John’s affection for the majestic birds is clearly evident as he hand feeds them walnuts, which they deftly crack open and devour with their imposing beaks.
John said he has been breeding and hand rearing birds all his life and his collection has grown over the years to include an incredible diversity of species.
“As a kid I would find chicks that had fallen out of their nests and hand rear them” he said.
The centrepiece of John’s bird collection is tucked away at the back of his property, a small orchard of fruit and nut trees completely enclosed in netting to form a huge aviary.
Upon entering the aviary visitors could be mistaken for thinking they had been transported back to the Garden of Eden, dozen of unusual and colourful bird are everywhere, nestling on braches and rustling in the undergrowth. Eggs of different shapes and sizes can be found scattered about the trees, many of which are laden with fruit or nuts beginning to form.
John said he has around 600 birds in the aviary but an exact head count would be difficult, finches, partridges, doves, canaries, ducks and quails are left to their own devices, making nests where they please.
The aviary was only constructed six years ago, but birds are not the only animals that John has been involved with.
“I’ve tried my hand at breeding camels for hair, as well as alpacas and deer. For a while it was rabbits and at one stage I was supplying turkeys for the Collingwood football club. I’ve dabbled in a few things” he said with a grin.
So what do you get for the bird fancier who has everything?
“I would love to get an African Grey parrot, they might not be spectacular to look at but they’re highly intelligent and can be taught to speak really well and even solve maths problems” he said.
Three years ago John opened his property to the public as part of the Loddon discovery tours program. Tour buses organised by the council take people from all over Victoria and Australia to visit some of treasures Loddon Shire has to offer.

As a country journalist the most important aspect of my job is to tell local stories with accuracy and clarity.
With so many news offerings across all media platforms, people have access to sufficient information about wider state, national and international stories.
Therefore it is crucial to portray local happenings, personalities, events, council decisions and sports.
This is what readers come to a local paper for and if you are not relevant at the local level people will lose interest.
Nevertheless, these local stories should always be placed in a wider context, with reference to similar issues affecting communities Australia wide.
When a larger story does effects local residents it is important focus on the aspects that have the most relevance to your community.
A country journalist must attempt to distill complex issues and figure out what matters most to their readership in an economic, social and political sense.
To do this you must find local people, businesses, schools and organizations that the issue directly effects and seek out their opinions and perspectives.
It is also important to be part of the “bush telegraph” to tell stories about local people, their achievements and the area’s history; the smaller stories that would not get play in larger newspapers but are nevertheless important to the local community.
In short, local relevance is crucial to country newspapers but as a journalist you should always see how local issues can be placed within a larger context in order to further inform and educate your readers.