*Inside The Star newsroom, reporter Sue Williams provides a raspberry for the photographer, Barry Ledwidge . She later worked on The Bulletin magazine, Sydney. Editor Neil Dibbs is at the back,left, with Rex Clark on the phone, right . Garry Dembon, the other reporter, recently lobbed back in Darwin on a visit from Asia .
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Out of the blue, as they say in the movies, Kerry Byrnes received a message to call and see a Mr Scott in Darwin . Not realising it was the South Australian self made trucking and media mogul , Allan Scott , of Ascott Transport, he went to a depot.
There was a small advertisement in The Star for Malanda Milk, which Ascott distributed in the Territory, so Kerry thought it was in connection with that advert. An Ascott receptionist said Mr Scott was coming , and a small man in multi coloured woollen pants and a bright striped shirt appeared. They walked out of the shed and Scott leaned up against the front of a large prime mover which had a huge bullbar. Throughout their discussion, Scott tried to cock a leg on the bumper bar, but he was too short and it kept on slipping off .
Asked what he wanted to discuss, Scott surprised by saying he wanted to buy the paper. By this stage, more street- wise in dealings with millionaires, Kerry said it was not for sale. Nevertheless, Scott persisted , asked questions about the paper, and said he would bring his accountant around the following day and discuss the matter further. “I nearly fell into the nearby truck service pit,” said Byrnes.
Sure enough,Scott did materialise , and within two weeks the place was sold. For a quarter of a million , he bought the newspaper’s title, not the building. The Byrneses bought 10 percent of the shares for $29,000 and agreed to build an extension to the premises so that Scott could install a $400,000 Goss web offset press .
Based in Mount Gambier ,South Australia, where he was known as the Uncrowned King, Scott owned the town’s newspaper ,The Border Watch, as well as the television station, SES-8. His wife ran an antique shop in the town . Scott had interests in several other media organisations .
In 1980 he bought the Darwin Star and an Alice Springs paper of the same name , owned by a separate company . Obviously in a buying frenzy, he also offered to buy the Alice commercial radio station ,8HA, and build a television station there . His attempt to buy NTD-8,Darwin was repulsed. Scott expressed a desire to buy the Adelaide Advertiser, had a bundle of shares in the Bank of Adelaide , and spoke of forming a consortium with Robert Holmes a Court to buy TAA, the government airline . He made no secret of his dislike of the Ansett Airlines CEO, Sir Peter Abeles. Scott would never fly in one of Ansett planes, in which Rupert Murdoch had half share.
This then was the cashed up truckie who bought The Star. Out of the money they received , Sandra and Kerry paid off debts of more than $100,000. They were kept on to run the paper , Kerry made a director of the company, Northern Publishing and Broadcasting Pty Ltd The 1980 Christmas issue of the paper declared The Darwin Star would shine in 1981 and become a regular biweekly.
Prior to Scott taking over the paper, secondhand cars, a Gemini and two Renaults, were used by the reporters and photographers ,the only decent vehicle being a Dodge ute which needed to be reliable because it delivered newspapers. Much to their surprise , they discovered the Dodge had been used to jump start cars at drag races and promptly put an end to this. After doing a newspaper pick up run in the Dodge, Kerry was involved in a strange event one evening. A wildlife ranger , wrongly mistaking him for another man , chased the car and tried to get him to stop. Kerry , puzzled by the antics of the person, stepped on the gas and sped into the Darwin Airport and told Commonwealth Police that there was a madman chasing him . It was then revealed that his pursuer , later a politician, had been after a man he suspected had a ute load of crocodile skins. Not only did the ranger have the wrong man, the croc skins were bundles of newspapers. Kerry had contemplated pummelling the ranger into a set of travel luggage if the airport gendarmes had not been handy.
After having been used to running about in old cars, it was something of a surprise when Scott bought new Ford sedans and a van . The monthly overheads in the old days had been in the order of $ 3150 ; with mounting concern, Kerry noticed this climbed to more than $15,000 . An accountant told him not to voice his concerns as this was the corporate way. Several people subsequently experienced Scott’s largesse when he designated four people who should receive cars. Scott’s brave ambitions for the paper did not eventuate.
A free weekly newspaper, The Sun, claiming to be an independent, published by Provincial Press Pty Ltd, was produced on the News premises, first appearing in March 1981 and was a home delivered giveaway with a circulation of about 17,000.{ It was the start of a whole chain of free Sun newspapers throughout Australia in the Murdoch stable,several in Darwin, a move which made it hard for any independent publication }. News Corp’s report for that year claimed the NT News (1981 profit $492,000 ) had effectively slowed the challenger in Darwin . Yet another newspaper ,the Advertiser, in which businessman Cedric Chin was a key player also hit the streets, giving Darwin no less than four papers. Chin had worked for The Star until his services were no longer required , a foolish move as he was well connected with the Chinese community. The Advertiser was printed at the News cash in hand before the presses rolled for $800-$1000 a week.
When it was decided to produce The Star three times a week ,Sandra,who attended board meetings, firmly stated it would be a retrograde step, that the News would really retaliate and it would be better to put more effort into magazines and job printing . After that forthright statement ,she was not invited to attend a board meeting , held the following day; Kerry resigned. Reluctantly, they departed the paper which had been an unusual experience,demanding and exciting .
The paper went to full tabloid size on becoming a triweekly, said to be the first paper produced on a web offset press in Darwin . Scott was quoted as saying he planned to turn the paper into a daily . In doing so, he really threw down the gauntlet to Murdoch . Reporters were lured from various enterprises with promises of bigger pay and bright futures.
One of those was Neil Dibbs , in Sydney at the time on the Australian Associated Press . He had searched for old Roman and British coins, buckles, medals and Jack the Ripper’s scalpel along the banks of the River Thames with an early metal detector , dug up old bottles at Pine Creek when he was stationed in Darwin with AAP for two years , and was asked to come back north as assistant editor in 1980 to replace Peter Murphy .
Dibbs , who worked hard to make the paper a success ,often putting in 14 hour days , went in big on photographs. He plucked Andy Bruyn out of the Education Department and made him the sports editor. Word came through that the NT News editor, John Hogan, was furious with Dibbs and his innovations which caught the daily flatfooted. Despite all the mighty efforts on behalf of the staff, things went wrong. Adelaide accountant Glen Raphael, a close friend of the SA Premier , Don Dunstan , was sent up to run the ship in late 1981. Rob Wesley Smith’s regular column got the chop for some unknown reason
The paper reverted to a biweekly after the News applied the screws , slashing advertising rates . With falling revenue due to the savage competition , The Star lost its shine. An unusual episode took place at the paper when staff were instructed not to run any more stories about an Adelaide woman who wanted to open an escort agency in Darwin, said to be pressured by police. Six members of staff, including editor Dibbs , resigned . A smart operator, Dibbs became Marshall Perron’s press secretary.
A reporter , Alec Martin, who had been brought in as deputy editor from the NT News, moved up as editor after the departure of Dibbs , but did not last long. On February 18 , 1982, Australian Business Weekly ran a story MURDOCH SENDS A KING INTO EXILE which covered Darwin’s all-out newspaper war. The News, it said, celebrated its 30th birthday that month and before the year was out it could have the Star’s scalp hanging from its belt. And so it did . The only person left standing, it seems, was the scary green frog in the ladies loo who refused to give up his kingdom.
* Today Sandra and Kerry Byrnes run the Arnhem Nursery at Humpty Doo . Sandra is a keen potter, has her own kiln, and each year the Rural Potters’ Association holds a fair on Mother’s Day and another Christmas Fair in November at the nursery. Kerry is often heard on the ABC radio Saturday morning gardening program. He has extensive botanical and other arcane knowledge which is helpful for Territory gardeners. For instance, he was able to reassure one listener that Guineas Pig poo will not make your Basil droop. He and Sandra have well connected gardening expert friends overseas and interstate. An internationally known tropical gardening author came and stayed at the nursery and exchanged notes . Both Sandra and Kerry are still interested in the local media *
