A reminder of the extensive output of the late journalist and author , Keith Willey,
has come to light with the recent
acquisition of this 1982 volume, published by Sunshine Books , which covers the nation’s newspapers from 1881.
A winner of three
Walkley Awards , Willey
spent time in
Alice Springs and
Darwin where in the latter
he was news editor under Jim Bowditch . Edited by him,
it also contains
an informative , wide-ranging introduction in which
he said he had covered wars in South Vietnam, Cambodia and
Israel, racial strife in Cyprus and Malaysia, Australian natural disasters, including Cyclone Tracy .
With illustrated endpapers , the book includes pages from actual newspapers
in the National Library of
Australia . Items of particular interest to this reviewer
include : the 1935 Coogee Aquarium (Sydney ) Shark Arm Case which resulted
from a shark vomiting up the distinctive tattooed
arm of a murdered man ; disappearance of
Kingsford-Smith’s plane ;Victorian bushfires.
WW11...disappearance of HMAS Sydney with 645 aboard , ALP Prime Minister John Curtin’s address to the nation setting out the task ahead, the fall of Singapore , the atomic bomb and a page of photos , highlights of the Pacific War, in which the bombing of Darwin and the New Guinea operations are covered.
The atomic bomb tests at Monte Bello and Maralinga are there ; the 1956 Melbourne Olympics ; a 1958 Sydney Morning Herald article by British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge on the cult of the one armed bandit in Australia ; the rise and fall of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira , a front page article by Douglas Lockwood in the Melbourne Herald of October 8, 1958 ; the assassination of President Kennedy ; Voyager naval disaster off NSW ; resignation of PM Sir Robert Menzies , disappearance of PM Harold Holt ; the Moon landing ; the Poseidon share boom ; election of the Whitlam Government and the subsequent dismissal by Kerr ; the destruction of Darwin by Cyclone Tracy.
There are two items bearing the Keith Willey byline , one dealing with his investigation into a suggestion that there was a powerful , wild animal , possibly a Tasmanian Tiger or a Panther , roaming the New England district of NSW. Although Willey was present at the hanging in Pentridge of Ronald Ryan, the account by Sydney columnist , Ron Saw, is featured in the book . During the 1970s , the head of the NT Information and Public Relations section in Darwin , Dick Timperley, was attending his yacht in the harbour , when a voice was heard shout, “ Dick Timperley!-You old bastard , what are you doing here ?” It was Ron Saw on some yachting trip . Saw had known Timperley in Western Australia .
WW11...disappearance of HMAS Sydney with 645 aboard , ALP Prime Minister John Curtin’s address to the nation setting out the task ahead, the fall of Singapore , the atomic bomb and a page of photos , highlights of the Pacific War, in which the bombing of Darwin and the New Guinea operations are covered.
The atomic bomb tests at Monte Bello and Maralinga are there ; the 1956 Melbourne Olympics ; a 1958 Sydney Morning Herald article by British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge on the cult of the one armed bandit in Australia ; the rise and fall of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira , a front page article by Douglas Lockwood in the Melbourne Herald of October 8, 1958 ; the assassination of President Kennedy ; Voyager naval disaster off NSW ; resignation of PM Sir Robert Menzies , disappearance of PM Harold Holt ; the Moon landing ; the Poseidon share boom ; election of the Whitlam Government and the subsequent dismissal by Kerr ; the destruction of Darwin by Cyclone Tracy.
There are two items bearing the Keith Willey byline , one dealing with his investigation into a suggestion that there was a powerful , wild animal , possibly a Tasmanian Tiger or a Panther , roaming the New England district of NSW. Although Willey was present at the hanging in Pentridge of Ronald Ryan, the account by Sydney columnist , Ron Saw, is featured in the book . During the 1970s , the head of the NT Information and Public Relations section in Darwin , Dick Timperley, was attending his yacht in the harbour , when a voice was heard shout, “ Dick Timperley!-You old bastard , what are you doing here ?” It was Ron Saw on some yachting trip . Saw had known Timperley in Western Australia .
Other articles of note are about the death of thirsty journalist, Lennie Lower, writer of comedic
copy and books , Here’
Luck being a novel about the life of a man separated from his wife , going to parties with his stupid son, angry sessions with his mother-in-law who claims she is being robbed by the Lane Cove Council, a belief shared by her screeching pet parrot ; the Australian
stage and radio star , Roy Rene (stage name ) , a Jewish boy from
Adelaide , who was notorious for using risqué Australian slang in Mo McCackie
, of McCackie Mansions , whose noble
nose decorates the bottom right hand corner of the dust jacket .
