Rural newspapers continue to be the cornerstone of country towns

Many local newspapers remain the lifeblood of their communities, and behind them are editors dedicated to keeping their readers informed.

THIS year, The Weekly Times celebrates its 150th birthday. Next year the internet turns 30.

While Facebook and its ilk have attracted much of the attention lately, newspapers have for centuries been — and continue to be — a go-to source for news.

This is particularly so in country towns where local knowledge can never be replicated.

In Hay, in the NSW Riverina, The Riverine Grazier has been running for more than 140 years, and is currently edited and partly owned by local sheep farmer Tertia Butcher.

“We get the paper printed in Shepparton and it’s sent up with the Melbourne papers on Wednesday morning and you can be sure at 7am people are lining up to get a copy,” Tertia says.

“I’ve seen the industry change. When I first started in journalism I used a typewriter, the paper was cut and pasted by hand and at one stage I was in charge of the dark room.

“Even with all the changes in technology, our business is very strong.”

Since taking over the helm of The Riverine Grazier in 1995, Tertia has blazed a trail, not only as the first female journalist and editor in Hay, but also single-handedly writing the 16-page paper each week, with a little help from her ad representative and office staff.

Before that, her claim to fame was being the oldest journalism cadet at the Deniliquin Pastoral Times at the age of 31, just after she arrived in Australia from South Africa — and English was her second language.

News hound: Tertia Butcher from The Riverine Grazier. Picture: Andy Rogers

She remembers with a blush of embarrassment her first job.

“I had to cover the BMX results and I went down to the track and took the photos and spoke to the kids and conscientiously wrote it up, only for the editor to tell me that’s not how sports reports are written,” Tertia says.

“He was a hard task master, but he taught me there’s never room for error.”

Tertia now lives on a Dorper sheep station at Booroorban with her
husband, Ken.

The property includes farm-stay accommodation in converted red-rattler railway carriages, caravans and camp sites.

But back as a cadet in 1984, she was so conscientious that when she became rural editor she completed a three-year wool-classing course.

“I had to write a 20-page Riverina Merino field days liftout and I didn’t know where to start. I spoke to a farmer who said ram and I thought he meant lamb,” Tertia says.

“I’ve never actually worked as a wool classer, but the course means I never had to ask dumb questions again. I understand how tough farming can be.”

The 68-year-old says the secret to a good country town paper is to strike a balance.

Tertia covers the Magistrates’ Court, both Balranald and Hay council meetings, profile stories and rural news, with the Murray-Darling Basin and the cotton harvest dominating recent headlines.

“Here, people can walk off the street and come straight to my desk and tell me what they think, but that doesn’t happen much,” she says.

“I always say I’m here to report the facts. We don’t hide anything that needs to be exposed, but we’re also sensitive that we live in a small town of 3000 people.”

An even smaller town is Donald, in the Wimmera, which has about 1500 people. That is where the main office of the Buloke Times is located.

The editor is 89-year-old Robin Letts, whose great-grandfather started the paper in 1875, and whose father ran it for 66 years.

“I’ve only been working here half that time,” jokes Robin, who was awarded an Order of Australia in 2003 for his work in journalism.

“My father wrote his last editorial in hospital and he didn’t come out of hospital, and I don’t see a time I’ll be retiring.”

Family legacy: Robin Letts from the Buloke Times. Picture: Shane O'Shae (Buloke Times)

The newspaper covers Birchip (where the business has another office), Charlton, Donald and Wycheproof and is published on site twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Robin’s son, David, oversees the printing.

Robin started at the paper at age 17 and has been editor since his father’s death in 1987.

He can recall covering an armed bank robbery as a youngster through to seven trips to France, where he wrote about the region’s war association with the town of Villers-Bretonneux.

“Around here they call me ‘Letts We Forget’,” he chuckles.

“We don’t get too many earthquakes or floods here, but we have covered every major event.”

Robin says in all the years the paper has been printed, circulation has remained steady.

“We are committed to our community in this part of the world and I believe newspapers have a big part to play to get the local news out,” he says.

“You’ve got other means of communication now, but the fact is those other means don’t give you four grades of football reports or six grades of netball reports.

“Whether it’s the CWA or cricket, we depend on the people of this town to tell us what’s happening and we do our best to get all that in the paper.”

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