Growing up in Tasmania, how did your interest in maritime/shipping develop?
I was born in Burnie but lived the first eight years of my life in the tiny West Coast railway/forestry town of Guildford Junction, where my father was a forester. The total population was less than 100, and the single-teacher school had 24 pupils from grade 1 to grade 8.Average annual rainfall was 90 inches and it snowed through winter. Not a lot of fun for a child!
Consequently a lot of time was spent at my maternal grandparents’ place in Burnie, which overlooked the port. My grandmother had been a Bass Strait Coastwatcher during WWII and my grandfather was particularly interested in the port expansion work literally taking place before our eyes in the 1960s. My grandmother kept a daily record of all ships calling and my grandfather photographed them. The seeds were sown.
You studied a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Tasmania, was this where you learned to write?
My degree was actually not completed; I was majoring in English Literature and Asian History but became disillusioned when the faculty downgraded the latter near course’s end. And I had a distressing practical teaching experience amongst cynical, jaded, time-servers. I quit. But yes, by then I knew how to write.
Have you ever written for a non-shipping related publication?
I have dabbled in some mainstream commentary/analysis but I don’t really have the time (or inclination) to write more than I already do!
What would you say has been the highlight of your career, if you can pick one?
I guess my original stint at DCN would be it. From ‘not-a-journalist’ to deputy editor then editor of an historic national daily newspaper in little more than five years was something of an achievement.
You were involved in commercial radio in Tassie and Sydney- what was this like and what was your role?
After a period of aimlessness I scored a job as a junior copywriter at Hobart radio station 7HO. During four years there I took on many other roles: traffic reporter, album show host (it was the 70s), sponsorship manager, everything I could try, I would. A station presentation I wrote, targeted at interstate advertising agencies, attracted considerable attention and I was recruited to 7EX in Launceston in 1981 as promotions manager.
In 1985 I was approached by and moved to Sydney’s 2GB to set up their promotions department. In 1988 internal politics saw my departure and along with the station’s commercial writing/production head we set up a business providing radio creative services for small advertising agencies and their clients.
In early 1990 my then girlfriend, now wife, was asked by her IT employer to establish a Melbourne branch of the company. Cognizant that our parents were aging we decided to move to be closer to them. Then that company got cold feet but we were committed. I kept working for Sydney clients but this was pre-internet and mobile phones, and became too hard.
Because of my lifelong interest in shipping I had long been a DCN reader. One day I saw an ad that said “Wanted: keen young journalist”. I applied, noting (a) I wasn’t a journalist, and; (b) I could no longer be called young. But I did know quite a lot about shipping. I got the job.
What kind of movies or music do you like?
I haven’t been to a cinema in 20 years and I don’t watch a lot of TV, except the ABC. After 15 years in commercial radio – and, believe it or not, several years as a disco deejay on the side – I have a massive music collection, which is broad but not exotic. Around the mid-late 1990s the household playlist was taken over by my children and I lost interest to some extent. So I live now in my musical past.
Is Melbourne your favourite place you’ve lived? Is there a random place you’ve lived people don’t know about?
I don’t think there could be any more random place than Guildford Junction, which my father used to describe as “37 miles over hawk-infested mountains”. In an ideal world I would retire to Tasmania but my wife likes heat and I like cold. Melbourne is a good trade-off (though doubtless there’s no agreement north of the border). And family will keep us here, especially grandbaby Raphael, born 30 January.
What is one piece of wisdom you’d like to share that you learned over the course of the years?
Time for a few clichés. If you can get paid to do something you love, it’s not just a job: my hobby became my career. The greatest quality a journalist can have is unending curiosity. And whatever knowledge you accumulate, share it.
This article appeared in the October | November edition of DCN Magazine
