The move to Katherine!

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know that I’ve taken a job with the ABC in Katherine, in the Northern Territory.

I finished up at The North West Star on New Year’s Eve, and started driving on January 2.

I went to Google maps to see how far it would be between Mount Isa and Katherine - about 1200 kilometres. But the directions were pretty funny.

Head out of Mount Isa on the Barkly Highway, continue for 635 kilometres. Turn right onto the Stuart Highway, continue for 648 kilometres. Arrive Katherine.

So it was pretty unlikely I was going to get lost.

I head off a bit later on Sunday than I had hoped. I was house sitting for the photographer at the Star, Jane, and by the time I put the last few things in the car, vacuumed the house and did the dishes it was 10am.

Here’s the Queensland/NT border, just west of Camooweal. The only time I’ve “been” to the NT was when I went to Camooweal for their campdraft and drove 100 metres across the border.

Up until this point the car was going fine, loaded to the max as it was. But when I stopped for a loo break a bit later, there was something a bit weird going on, less power in the car.

But I meandered along, had lunch at Barkly Homestead, and then came to the one intersection of the trip where I actually turned left and drove into Tennant Creek.

This is what the Barkly Plain looks like, more or less for all 600 odd kilometres. Sometimes there were bushes. An info sign I stopped at said it hasn’t changed for the last 500 million years. That’s what it felt like.

Now, some back-story. On New Year’s Day I broke the door handle of my driver’s side door. Annoying, yes, but I figured it was just one of those things that happens. But being a public holiday, and the next day being Sunday, I figured I would just have to deal with it.

But when I stopped at the motel in Tennant Creek I shut the door on my seatbelt and couldn’t get the door open. At all. Luckily I had renewed my NRMA membership before I left, and I was able to call the NT version – the AANT. Unfortunately the bloke in Tennant Creek was on holidays and couldn’t come around until 8am the next morning.

So I went and had a few beers at the Tennant Creek Hotel and went to bed. After my late start on the first day I wanted to get on the road much earlier. But it was about 9am when the AANT guy arrived and opened the door with a bit of a jiggle of the door handle – very embarrassing.

But I asked him about the engine and started up the car for him.

He said he wouldn’t drive it, and the engine was missing pretty badly. I could give it a go and might make it, might not. He would drive it, he said, but he did point out that he was a mechanic.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not a mechanic. In fact I once had to take my bike to the bike shop after trying to tighten the brakes. But it was January 3, the New Year’s Day public holiday and there was nothing open in Tennant Creek.

The worst-case scenario would be breaking down in the middle of nowhere, which is describes pretty well all of the Stuart Highway.

So after a chat with Dad, I decided to see how the car would go from Tennant Creek to Three Ways roadhouse, 26 kilometres up the road. If that went well, I would see how it went to the next roadhouse, and so on.

The car sounded alarmingly like a lawnmower, but once it got going it seemed okay. So I continued on, holding my breath.

It was all going well until I stopped for petrol in Elliot, and, embarrassingly, shut my door on my seatbelt again!

I had seen the guy open it, and he said all I needed to do was open the door a bit harder. But I tried and tried and couldn’t get it open, and I didn’t want to break it. The guy at the servo directed me to the AANT guy’s house, and he was good enough to come and open it first try for me. I’m really going to have to learn that technique.

So up the Stuart Highway I went. The landscape for the first few hundred kilometres was quite outbacky, with a few hills and crests.

This was a memorial to Sir Charles Todd, the bloke who designed and oversaw the construction of the Overland Telegraph. For those of you playing at home, that was the telegraph line that linked the rest of Australia to the UK for the first time. Amongst other thing, this meant we could get the cricket score in the UK overnight, rather than in a few weeks. The memorial marks roughly where the line joined. It was built from the south and the north and met in the middle. Note the telegraph pole in the background. I’m not sure if this is legit or not, but it’s interesting!

I actually wish I had gone to the repeater station at Tennant Creek, but I was fretting about my car when I passed it and didn’t want to stop when it seemed to be going well. I also reckon I will be back down there for work at some point, so watch this space. Katherine also has a repeater station, which I will visit in due course.

The Stuart Highway has a lot of tourist signs advertising World War II historic sites. Again, I wanted to stop and have a look but the roads were dirt and wet, and given the mechanical dramas I figured it would be better to visit another day. But I’m pretty keen to have a look. After all, in terms of Australia in WWII, this was where the action was.

As I drove along under clear blue skies I eventually saw some clouds on the horizon. As I edged closer it became apparent it wasn’t just a few clouds. This was a monsoonal low! Excuse the dead bugs on my windscreen.

I hit some pretty serious rain, which was actually quite nice because it cooled things down a bit.

The landscape also changed and the country became greener. I suppose the further north you get the more rain falls. There were more trees as well. This photo is pretty blurry, but you get the idea.

So I was pretty well stuffed by the time I got here. The ABC is putting me up in a caravan park cabin for a few nights, and I have a couple of numbers to ring about a place to live.

I start work tomorrow. It’s a rural reporter position, which means I will be filing for the Australia’s longest running radio show, the Country Hour – not Hamish and Andy believe it or not. I’ll also be presenting a 15 minute rural news segment at 6.15am (that’s early!) three days out of every six. There’s also opportunities to file for national programs like Bush Telegraph on Radio National and the World Today.

Katherine seems like an interesting sort of town. It’s about 9000 people and has similar sort of services to Parkes. In fact the Woolies seems a lot nicer than Mount Isa’s, which is almost triple the size of Katherine!

The heat and humidity is pretty spectacular, but I’m told it’s worse in Darwin. But I’m feeling pretty optimistic about the whole thing and looking forward to my first day at work tomorrow.

I was thinking about my first few days in Mount Isa, and it’s definitely a better feeling to be here! Though I suppose a lot more had changed when I moved to Mount Isa.

I’m going to try to post blogs a bit more regularly. I well and truly dropped the ball in recent months, but with a new town, new job and plenty of travel for work I’m sure there will be plenty to write about!

Watch this space.

Birthday celebrations

It was my birthday yesterday!

It was a pretty good day. The people in Mount Isa remembered, and I got a lot of phone calls and text messages from people back home who remembered too. A good balance!

I must make special mention of Brad Thompson, who walked out still very much asleep, unable to open his eyes, and mumbled "happy birthday Steve." What a great effort to remember, he really dug deep.

I also got page one on my birthday. Okay, so the story isn't going to win me a Walkley Award, but a page one is a page one.

It was also really nice that the people at work remembered. We shared a cup cake and I even got a present!
So, Nicola and I have been having the occasional Disney movie night, much to the amusement of people in the office. So that was my present... And I loved it!

Last night was all about beer and pizza at the Isa Hotel. Work people and a few other friends came out and bought me drinks! It was a pretty good night.

Thanks to everyone who called and messaged. It was much appreciated.

And as promised, here's a picture credit for Brad Thompson. Thanks for taking the photos Brad.

Back in Mount Isa

Well, I'm back in Mount Isa where it's 34º with a UV rating of about four million. But at least it's a dry heat, which has the added bonus of drying my washing in ten minutes (that's not actually exaggerating).

Being back home was awesome, as was the training that I went to. The best part was getting a tour of The Sydney Morning Herald office, and getting to sit down with the editor for half an hour and ask questions. There was also a really good session on photography, and a lot of stuff on writing. Also, I learned the beginnings of shorthand and now have to practice a lot so I can try to get it up to speed.

The week after the training I went to Mum and Dad's at Moss Vale, and borrowed a car to go to Newcastle to see some people. I also went down to Kiama for a day, which was absolutely lovely. Then back to Sydney for a night, and I've flown back to Mount Isa via Brisbane today.

So here I am, absolutely exhausted, waiting for my washing to finish. There are a lot of mixed feelings about coming back. Part of me really didn't want to, but part of me was excited to come back and see my friends up here again.

But back I am, so I will just have to make the most of it. Actually, one of the things that I realised when I was back is that I actually have grown fond of the place, or at least some of the people. If I contrast that with how I was feeling in the first few weeks, it is a big, big change. I wouldn't say I love it or want to spend the rest of my life here, but I'm two months into a twelve month cadetship already, and I want to make the most of my time in the north west.

So it's back to The North West Star tomorrow, back to getting up early and ironing shirts. But there's also a lot to look forward to.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to catch up with me, I really appreciate it.

And finally, a day off

I haven't posted a blog for a while now for a few reasons. Number one is I'm still waiting for an internet connection at my house, and I've been too tired from work to go and scab free internet, or had stuff to do. And number two is because not an awful lot has been going on.

Well, that's not true. But I've been working a lot, and trying to find my line and length at The North West Star.

The job is going really well. Tahnée seems mostly happy with my writing. There's been a few stories where she's asked me to rethink my angle to make it a bit more localised, which is fair enough. But I haven't heard anything too bad, and I'm making my deadlines when possible, and giving her a heads up when I'm just waiting for someone to get back to me.

So yes, work is going well. I'm starting to generate some stories off my own back as I slowly meet more people in town. I will have a big story on page one on Monday which is exciting.

I'm also finding it interesting trying to take good photos for the paper. It's very easy for me to slip into just getting posed, smilely shots, which personally I find a bit boring when done all the time (but I do it when I can't think of anything else!). But again, occasionally I get told that a particular photo was pretty good, so it's good to get that feedback.

Since I've started work I've only had one day off, last Saturday. I have to work one Sunday in three, and when I do I get a three day weekend next time. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with my long weekend. Unfortunately I have to go and do those boring, grown-up things: pay rent, buy groceries, clean the toilet. But I've also got some stuff lined up for tonight and tomorrow night, so that's good.

I'm starting to meet people and make friends which is awesome! I've been training with a footy team (I'm very, very, unbelievably sore today) and it's been good to get some exercise and have something to do.

The people I'm working with are very nice too (I have to say that, as I know they're aware I keep a blog). It's really good to be working with people around my age or a little bit older, rather than, as Grandma put it "some old fogies." And most people's arms can usually be twisted into having a beer and a game of pool after work.

Oh and the weather is a bit cooler today - a very pleasant 31 degrees, which is a very welcome relief. We're getting a bit of rain from the outskirts of ex-tropical cyclone Olga, so it's nice to just cool down.

So yes, not an awful lot going on, but it's all going pretty well.

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto

Well I’ve been a working-class man for a week now. I’m pretty tired, but it’s been good so far.

I covered my first fatality on Thursday. But it was a probably a pretty easy one because it was all done from the office. By the time the police got back to me the search for the person had finished, so I didn’t have to go get a photo. It’s weird because it’s obviously pretty sad but it is a milestone in my career I guess.

Anyway, yesterday was a pretty good day but I did have a bit of “excitement.” I went out to take a few photos of a lookout that had been vandalised near Lake Moondarra. Except it was in this really isolated are where no one goes. But I found the place alright and took a few photos and it was nice to see the area. I headed back to the ute to drive back to the office and turned around, but as I put my foot down the wheels started spinning. And spinning, and spinning…

Bugger.

I was bogged. And I had flat tire. In the middle of nowhere. With no one around.

By some miracle I had phone service, so after a quick call to Tahnee the editor, I rang the RACQ (the Queensland version of the NRMA) and tried to explain where I was. But apparently it’s private land and they wouldn’t come to get me, and besides, they don’t think they could get their tow truck in there.

At this point, I’ll admit it, there was a bit of panic. But luckily Tahnee was able to call someone, pretty much a complete stranger, who had a four-wheel drive to come and pull me out in exchange for a case of beer. After that I changed the tire (thanks for teaching me how to do that when I got my L plates Dad – it’s the first time I’ve ever had to) and drove back to the office.

I had to go home to shower and change in my lunch break because I got so dirty crawling around under the ute!

So yes, a happy ending (apart from sunburn), but not a bad story.

Here’s a photo of the ute where it was stuck. If you didn’t know I was bogged I reckon it’s a promo shot for a Hilux if ever there was one.
And here are some photos of the view from the hill I had to clime to take the photos of the burnt platform. It was a pretty interesting landscape. Although you can see town in one of them, so I wasn’t too far away. You can click on the photos if you want a bigger version.
So yes, work is going pretty well and it’s helping me feel a bit better about being here. In fact, I’m mostly feeling pretty good about being here at the moment. Yes, there are still some anxieties about it, but I reckon that’s pretty normal.

The job is also a great way to meet people. I ran into person I interviewed during the week when I was getting some groceries and I got an invite out for drinks with some other people last night. So that was pretty nice.

We ended up watching a couple of episodes of Scrubs (that’s a TV show) at her place, which is just around the corner. Anyone who has lived with me in the last few years will know that is one of my favourite things to do, so it was a great night, and great to meet a few different people.

Today I hit the garage sales again and got a couch and TV! I wouldn’t say either of them are great or pristine but they will do the job and I can sell them again at a later date without too much emotional attachment. So, as you can see my flat is starting to look a little more furnished and lived in.
I’ve got something lined up for tonight to with Nicola from work. She’s doing something with her friends and invited me along, so it’s pretty good that I’m able to keep busy so far.

I finally got my landline hooked up, which is great. I dunno if it’s a good idea to put a phone number up on this blog, but if you email me at steven@peopleskills.net.au I can send you my phone number if that’s your thing.

First article on the website

Here's my first article that's been put on the website. I've had a bit of stuff in print, but I'm not sure if there are copywrite issues putting them up here! So here it is.

Hard news, as you can see.

Oh, I just found another one.

My first day

Firstly, a BIG thank you to the people who have called and emailed. I have really, really appreciated it. As you've probably picked up in my last couple of posts, the weekend was a time of high freakoutitude. And I was moving and cleaning and yeh, it just hit me pretty hard. So thank you again. It's nice to remember that there are people out there who I can lean on when it's rough.

Okay, too soppy.

Today was my first day at The North West Star! It was pretty good fun, and tomorrow I will get my first by line! To give you an early tip, it's about a conference that's happening in Mount Isa for teachers who are being posted to remote areas. And I mean remote, up in the Gulf and around Mount Isa. I dunno if it's gonna go on the web, put I will put a link up if it does.

So yes, that was a good story to do. I also did a couple of other bits and pieces and got out of the office. I'm brimming with story ideas at the moment (well, I've got two) and
I'm feeling pretty good about it.

I had been expecting to feel a bit better about everything once I started work. I know it's only been one day, but I definitely am feeling better this evening. I'm going out for tea tonight with Brad and Nicola from work, and yeh, I guess it was just good to get into work and to have people who are interested in hanging out. Rah and Iain, I definitely took you guys fore-granted. But as Joni Mitchell says, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Oooh, ba ba ba ba...

Here's my profile that was in the paper today. Every day they have a "Meet a Local" section, and today I was it. I also wrote the one for Tuesday and Wednesday, which involved going and hassling strangers. It's not what I'd call a great photo, but when I walked in to one of the cafes to get a coffee today, the woman said "Hey, weren't you in the paper today? You like vegie gardening, don't you." I've made the image a bit bigger, so if you want to read it you can click on the photo and hopefully you'll be able to read it if you're interested.
I'm now down to 2-4 working days to get my landline connected. Not that I'm counting... But it will be great. Y'all better watch out, there'll be a phone ringing near you.

Oh, and the temperature finally fell a degree today to 40. Tomorrow is predicted to be 37, almost jumper weather!

Finally, it looks like Brad from work will be moving in with me temporarily. His girlfriend is planning to come up in about a month and a bit, and so Brad will move in for a while. I think it'll be good to share with someone who's also new to town, and he seems pretty nice. So yeh, that'll be good.

Getting the band back together

I've decided to fire up the ole' blog because I'm moving to Mount Isa in Outback Queensland!

I've accepted a cadetship at the North West Star which is a Monday to Friday daily paper. There are three other journalists in the newsroom, so I'll definitely be thrown in the deep end. This is a good thing, though! It means I will have to cover a wide range of stuff, and I will get opportunities that I wouldn't get in a well resourced metro newsroom.

So, where is Mount Isa, I here you ask? In the middle of no where, as this map will show you!


View Larger Map

It's roughly the same latitude as Townsville, but something like a 10 hour drive inland. To put it another way, it take two hours to fly to Brisbane in a 737.

So right now I'm packing up my stuff in Carrington. I'm only taking one car load of stuff, so everything that doesn't fit is being sold, given away, thrown out or stored in Mum and Dad's shed in Moss Vale.

It's a pretty big change, and I'm both excited and nervous.

I'll try to update this once a week or so. I've worked out how to post from my mobile phone, so I might even try to post something from the road (if there's service!).