Veteran Danish photographer Mike Jensen's extensive output has been used to promote Australia overseas through Qantas , in numerous illustrated feature articles about Australia and some are in the Australian National Maritime Museum . He recently began looking through his archive and is surprised by the contents , which includes many photos taken in and around Darwin , where he was once based with the Australian News and Information Bureau (ANIB) in the l970s.
By Peter Simon
My respect for Mike's photographic skills was such that I used to go through his wastepaper bin in the ANIB Darwin office and extract photographic copies or duplicates which he regarded as rejects , inferior. At the time , I was keen on photography, much of my output he dismissed as "happy snaps " ,his term for photos taken of people smiling for the camera .
One day in 1973 , while going through his reject bin , I also souvenired the typescript of a feature article written by ANIB reporter Colin Mann , pix by Jensen, headed AUSTRALIAN GHOST TOWN WON'T LIE DOWN , about the wild west town of Borroloola , in the Northern Territory Gulf Country , which once had a band of outlaws known as the Ragged Thirteen .
Colin , a former Sydney Morning Herald reporter , had obviously knocked out the nine-page yarn on ANIB letterhead writing paper , bits and pieces stapled to the text , and given it to the typist to produce a pristine copy , destined for overseas dissemination.
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In part , it read : If there is such a place as the Last Frontier , then Borroloola would be on the other side .
It went on to say that while authorities listed it as a ghost town , it did have some permanent residents , who could be spectres capable of much swearing . The best place to meet them was in the pub .
Of the many characters mentioned in the article one was "lotus eater " Bill Harney , who once had spent time in the Borroloola clink for cattle duffing .
There was supposed to be a well stocked Carnegie Library from New York in the Borroloola Police Station , much used by the locals and prisoners . Strangely , Karl Marx was crossed out in the list of works available in the library .
Continuing, it said that Harney (linked to Charters Towers, Queensland ) , later in charge of Ayers Rock (Uluru ) and an author , confessed he had read the Roman poet Horace (from the library ) in the dunny behind the Borroloola Pub , which helped develop his urge to write . For the benefit of overseas readers , a dunny was described , in brackets, as lavatory .
Young Mike Jensen rang me out of the blue from Canberra during the week to see if I was still alive , he being 78. I recognised his voice immediately , quickly informed him I had a new camera , and had been taking heaps of happy snaps.He groaned, then laughed.
His photographic files were turning up black and white shots going back to 1966. There were folders dealing with Darwin and beyond . He mentioned sailing from Broome to Kuri Bay to cover pearl culture. Assignments had included covering refugee boats arriving from South Vietnam .
