Adventurous topless Kiwi reporters Ross Annabell (left) and Hugh Mabbett , snapped at Fannie Bay beach , Darwin , in l954. Ross, who not only kicked off the Mount Isa Mail, Queensland , was editor of the Northern Territory News in Darwin until the difficult owners of the paper in Sydney, political operatives Eric White and Don Whitington, gave him the chop .
Mabbett was made the replacement editor . However , some time later, a letter from Sydney , " accidently steamed open", revealed he was going to be sacked and Annabell was to be asked to come back .
Mabbett conveyed this " secret information " , to Ross , who was freelancing and also doing work for the ABC. Asked to do a Nellie Melba, Ross declined and took up running the union operated Northern Standard newspaper.
In the above photo Ross appears to have a camera slung over his shoulder as he was also a keen photo-journalist who wrote feature articles for newspapers and magazines . This blog reported that Ross had covered the dramatic arrival at the Darwin airport from Sydney of Mrs Petrov , accompanied by Russian guards , who was given political asylum and whisked away from the Russian heavies, one of whom was put in a choke hold by a police officer when he appeared to go for a gun .
In the case of Hugh Mabbett , after leaving Darwin , he went to the Singapore Straits Times and also wrote books about the Balinese , Kuta and the Taj Mahal .
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It is doubtful if many modern day journalists could recognise this jovial personality , another Kiwi , who not only built up the Ampol Oil Company into a major business but continues to influence reporting in Australia . He was W.G. Walkley , later knighted, after whom the Walkley Awards for Journalism are named .The drawing of him appeared in a now unfortunately non- existent magazine , The Bulletin , in the l960s.
Walkley not only took on major international oil companies who tried to crush him , but he also backed his belief that there was oil in Australia . When oil was first struck in Western Australia , later more oil and gas , he wore a red sombrero down Pitt Street , Sydney , for the Press. He got on so well with reporters that several of them joined his company in key positions .
