*Front page of the dummy Darwin independent newspaper
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Drugged and in a confused , painful state due to burns sustained during an explosion following Cyclone Tracy , a woman in Darwin Hospital signed two documents which would have a dramatic impact on the Northern Territory political and media scene . One increased a mortgage to finance the start of an independent newspaper and the other was an application to register its name, The Darwin Star, strangely inspired by a blood and guts publication in Hong Kong .
The women whose signature made this daring venture possible was accountant , Sandra "Sandy " Byrnes ,wife of a former travelling salesman, taxi driver and oil driller , Kerry.
Wearing a bikini, Sandra was engulfed in flames when a fault in a washing machine ignited fumes from petrol being used to remove the adhesive from laundry rubber floor tiles that had lifted as a result of the cyclone. The door into the laundry slammed shut, the fumes built up and as the washing machine changed cycle , there was a spark and a loud explosion.
Her husband forced the door open, walked through flames, and directed Sandra, shocked and in pain , to the shower . She was also doused in iced water . Kerry then walked/ carried her to their car and sped to the hospital, his blistered feet sticking to the pedals along the way . The bikini had to be cut from her at the hospital. Placed in a saline bath and heavily dosed with morphine,she was in hospital for five months.
During that stressful period , The Star was born and performed more like a fiery comet than a faint glimmer of light in a distant galaxy as it took on Rupert Murdoch’s Northern Territory News in what became a battle to the bitter end .The cast of characters in this gripping yarn ,which includes a touchy feely green frog, reads like the Guys and Dolls of Damon Runyon's great short stories about Broadway .
Prior to the cyclone, Sandra and Kerry were involved in a small printing business, Graphic Systems, on the Stuart Highway, Stuart Park, with a partner, Dudley Hollands , who had worked for the Packers in NSW. As the business expanded , it was moved to new premises in Bishop Street, Winnellie and attracted a growing number of journalists, printers , photographers and graphic artists for boisterous after hours sessions .
Two journalists who regularly came to Graphic Systems were Jim Bowditch ,former editor of the NT News , and Peter Blake , member of a dynastic family of journalists . Blake had been involved with two other brothers and the notorious Jim Ramsay, called the Evil One and on a Murdoch "leper list" , in production of Sydney’s massively successful , audacious and irreverent King’s Cross Whisper . On the premises Blake and Bowditch produced North News , a newsletter of business, political and economic news sold on subscription to southern business interests . They also collaborated in the production of a government rural magazine .
Blake, now probably this very day doing his last shift as a sub editor on the New York Post, ending 60 years of journalism, had been chief sub editor on the Hong Kong paper, The Star, which was mainly staffed by colourful Australian journalists . News editor at the time was the dashing, handsome Steve Dunleavy, who went on to become a living legend in America , even the subject of a cult movie ; his old Sydney police rounds foot in the door style of reporting during the Son of Sam Murders in New York made him a national identity.
He visited the Boston Strangler in prison and wrote a book about him . Elvis Presley’s drug taking was revealed in another book. Through TV reporting in the US , Dunleavy became known as "Mr Blood and Guts". Steve also wrote a novel about the first female US president and a Big Apple watering hole much frequented by him etched his noble head in a glass panel. Yvonne Dunleavy co-authored the best selling memoirs of New York madam ,Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker .
Dunleavy, showing signs of journalistic wear and tear , walking with the aid of stick , his hair white (jet black and swept back like Elvis in younger days in Sydney), retired from the New York Post in October 2008. At the farewell bash , Rupert Murdoch recounted how he had once written a $US30,000 bonus cheque for Steve ,who promptly went to a nightspot and lost it. Rupert wrote out a replacement cheque , but gave it to Steve’s partner, who put it down as a deposit on a house.
During drinking sessions at Graphic Systems , outrageous and colourful anecdotes about Hong Kong journos , the colony's extraordinary characters ( who was Nipples Nancy and what part of her anatomy stood out like cigar butts ?), the mysterious death in a nightclub and the disappearance of a quantity of gold were recounted. Peter Blake recently told Little Darwin the Hong Kong Star had been “a spritely tabloid much given to stories of bloody mayhem and students hurling themselves to their death after failing college entrance exams .” A banker who jumped from a tall building was splashed across the front page in more ways than one.
A former NT News sports editor, Dennis"Doggy" Booth , was another who worked on the colonial paper when Blake was there ; he devised a horse betting system which at first looked as if it would make all the reporters Hong Kong dollar millionaires , until they, inevitably , ended up losing their cheap tailor made shirts.
As a result of Cyclone Tracy and the early stages of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission , there was an influx of journalists from south , some dealing with Graphic Systems, where they produced community information newspapers . One of them was Peter Steedman, dubbed the Black Knight because of the way he dressed, who drove about Melbourne in a Jaguar which bore a message, something like STUFF MALCOLM FRASER . His transport nowadays is a Bentley. A former fiery editor of the Melbourne university papers, Farrago and Lot’s Wife, during the hectic Vietnam War period, he was involved in verbal and physical clashes with ASIO operatives, the right wing National Civic Council and conservative politicians who tried to both blacken his name and optics.
In London, he had been involved in a number of successful campaigns , including one which prevented a new TV channel being given to commercial interests, and ran the controversial Oz magazine office for a time while key players were fronting the Old Bailey. He and a mate, Jonathan Ball, also a political activist, who played a large part in reviving the Ballarat Chinese Joss House , were involved turning out various publications for the Darwin Reconstruction Commission,providing people evacuated south with information . The indomitable Steedman also drew up a report on how to deal with the community needs of natural disasters anywhere in the nation, which seems to have disappeared .
Then there was journalist Roger East, later killed by the Indonesians in East Timor, who had arrived with Sir Leslie Thiess , head of the Interim Darwin Reconstruction Commission.East , a longtime friend of Peter Blake’s, had also worked in Hong Kong, and often came to the printery to help Blake and Bowditch.
During production of various publications Kerry Byrnes was often instructed by the thirsty crew that as he was a rising media mogul with bundles of dough, he should make himself useful , go and get grog and something to eat, garlic bread and garlic prawns very much in favour. From time to time , it was strongly put that Graphic Systems should consider bringing out a badly needed , really good newspaper to take on the Northern Territory News .
Gravel voiced Steedman pointed out the printery was chock- a -block with crazed newspaper journalists , looked and sounded like a disorganised newspaper office , so it should launch a newspaper and it would have more helpers than Santa had elves. {Steedman will be the subject of a separate in depth report in this series .}
This wild idea grew wings , and Sandy and Kerry decided to give it a go. Peter Blake suggested the paper should be named after the Hong Kong paper. He even designed the logo for the proposed paper along the lines of the one in Honkers . Then the terrible explosion.
From Sydney came a bug -eyed journalist, one Ken MacAulay, intense, short of cash and transport, nicotine-stained, long suffering back pain, to be the first editor , with Bookie Blake ( he fielded at Fannie Bay), contributing anonymously from the wings .
In the dummy paper designed to show potential advertisers what it would look like , gardening notes were facetiously attributed to Sydney reporter Bob Staines, better known as “Big Betting Bob”, who had worked at the ABC Darwin in the early 1960s, a close friend of renowned turf writer, Max Presnell, nicknamed "Society Max", now of the Sydney Morning Herald , recently heard on the ABC giving tips for the Melbourne Cup.
Staines and Blake had run two fishing magazines in Sydney and they were often heard giving live radio reports on the best fishing spots in the Emerald City .
A racy political column in the mock up speculated about who would be the next NT Administrator to replace Jock Nelson who had resigned to contest the 1975 Federal election , describing Government House as one of the more salubrious and gracious pads in Darwin town. Darwin Navy chief, Captain Eric Johnston, a man of worth and girth, had been sounded out for the position, it continued , but the Navy had not been keen on the idea of losing a sea-going commander to the giddy social whirl of Darwin.
NEXT EDITION- Enter Santamaria,Nugan Hand Bank and CIA .
