Mark Twain remarked that reports of his death were premature . In the case of historian Glenville Pike , his reaction to the Cairns Post report of his actual death on May 4 can well be imagined. The paper said the noted Mareeba writer had written about the northern territories (sic) and North Queensland .
Pike, with a laugh , liked recalling the response he received when he rang the Cairns Post to tell them about what he thought was a good follow up story – an important development in the mystery disappearance in 1848 of German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt which supported his research and writing on the subject . The reporter had no idea who this explorer bloke was and asked if he had been a local. When Pike said no, the reporter emphatically responded by saying the paper was not interested . Pike’s extensive photographic collection of the NT and North Queensland is held by the Cairns Historical Society .
When Pike received an Order of Australia for his contribution to the history of Australia, he rang the NT News from Queensland , thinking the paper would be interested that he , a former Territory resident , who had frequent dealings with the newspaper in the tin bank days , had received a gong . Glenville who ? After explaining who he was , he was told that as he was now not a resident of the NT , it was not an item of interest for the local newspaper. Commercial parochialism is everywhere in this united commonwealth .
Pike, with a laugh , liked recalling the response he received when he rang the Cairns Post to tell them about what he thought was a good follow up story – an important development in the mystery disappearance in 1848 of German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt which supported his research and writing on the subject . The reporter had no idea who this explorer bloke was and asked if he had been a local. When Pike said no, the reporter emphatically responded by saying the paper was not interested . Pike’s extensive photographic collection of the NT and North Queensland is held by the Cairns Historical Society .
When Pike received an Order of Australia for his contribution to the history of Australia, he rang the NT News from Queensland , thinking the paper would be interested that he , a former Territory resident , who had frequent dealings with the newspaper in the tin bank days , had received a gong . Glenville who ? After explaining who he was , he was told that as he was now not a resident of the NT , it was not an item of interest for the local newspaper. Commercial parochialism is everywhere in this united commonwealth .
