I have plenty of memories from old home of our Daily News

LOOK back on some of our happy times in our Albion St digs.

The Warwick Daily News office on Albion St has been the proud home of a dedicated team who are passionate about their local community. We're sad to say goodbye to our old building, but we're excited for a change of location. Picture: Marian Faa

AFTER almost 28 years at the Daily News, I faced the biggest shift of my career when our office was moved to the Warwick Print Centre in Kenilworth Street at the weekend.

I am old enough to remember when the Daily News office was in Palmerin Street.

A press was set up down on Albion Street in 1971 and the new office opened in May 1980.

I have plenty of memories at the Daily News and people lobbing in to book a classified, drop off sports notes, buy a photo or a paper or in the case of some, find a excuse to call in for a yarn.

Many different people have worked on the Bush Tele from Warwick and Stanthorpe offices and now we are closer to the saleyards.

The reality is I only became a sports reporter after I had written Warwick cricket notes for four or five years.

I wrote previews before the weekend and then came in on a Sunday night to write up reviews of games from the scoresheets submitted.

In 1991, then editor Donna Fraser asked me to apply for a sports reporter role.

The rest is history.

There were a few shifts around the building. After the company stopped selling stationery, the editorial section moved to the southern side of the building for six or eight years, the area now occupied by Burson Auto Parts.

The editorial office was on the northern side of the building when I started and was there again recently.

I remember taking a photo of a man who ran across the street and down the back of the Daily News before being apprehended by police. In the end, the photo wasn't used for legal reasons.

There was the day I was taking a photo of a dam full of hail and the property owner at Junabee was standing on the hail when I slipped down in chest high water holding the camera above my head.

I once took a photo of Grant Miller riding a horse over showjumps on the southern outskirts of town and dropping the camera after I touched an electric fence.

The number of people calling in at the newspaper office has dropped over the years, classifieds are primarily done over the phone now and most sports notes and letters to the editor are submitted by email.

The biggest change for me while at Albion St was the new editorial systems and I would admit it took me longer than most to get a hang of at least four new systems, probably more.

With the Daily News and Warwick Print Centre now at the same site, there are 90 employees between the two businesses. You can call in at our office on the way to the dump, saleyards, Killarney or Wildash and don't have to drive out into traffic on a national highway.