Talk of the Town: Looking back on 130 years of the Reggie

I'm sure it was just the other day that our editor Lucy Kinbacher and I had the pleasure of turning the pages of decades of copies of the Reggie, while we were researching its proud history, to bring you a special feature to celebrate the 130 years it has been in existence under the name of North Queensland Register.

There was so much that Reggie journos, and by extension, our readers had experienced, in the past 130 years, that we couldn't possibly cover it all in our mid-year celebration wrap.

I'm just looking back over some pages now - 'Etheridge prepares for boom' our January 10, 1981 headline says, as community leaders prepared to fly to Brisbane to talk about the proposed development of the former gold mining town of Kidston.

Beside that is a smaller story telling readers that Townsville meatworks operators were not committing themselves to any decisions in relation to the 1981 killing season, although widespread rain had fallen along the coast, saying more would be needed before they could forecast any plans.

History tells us that mining at Kidston continued from 1985 until the mine was again closed in 2001, but its massive open cut pits are now being repurposed into a pumped hydro energy storage scheme.

History also tells us that the season deteriorated through 1981 to become one of the most brutal droughts the state had records for, in 1982-3.

I randomly open at another front page, March 28, also 1981, to see that a cane farmer and grazier from Bloomsbury, south of Prosperpine, Bob O'Donnell paid a Queensland record $36,000 for a yearling filly at an Estates sale on the Gold Coast.

Russ Hinze was the state's Racing Minister at the time and paid $34,000 for a filly by Copper Kingdom. I don't have the means to check right now but I wonder how the ensuing years treated those two purchases.

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Then I flick over the headlines on page one of the November 13, 1981 issue, which tell readers that proposals to help young teachers adjust to working and living in isolated areas of north and north west Queensland have been received enthusiastically by Hughenden and Richmond Isolated Children's Parents' Association branch members.

ICPA was 10 years old at that stage but had managed to bring the issue to the attention of the-then Townsville College of Advanced Education.

The head of general studies there, Dr Henry Crowther said it was about time tertiary institutions stopped claiming they were preparing young teachers to cope in rural locations.

"All responsible for teacher education were concentrating their efforts on larger population centres and in reality teachers were really trained to teach in urban areas only," he said.

I ask myself, what's changed in 51 years?

The ICPA conferences I report on continually bring up the need for young teachers to be familiar with non-metro teaching and living, and branches raise money to give to prac teachers who come out west for experience, so they're not out of pocket by doing so.

I think these stories, and thousands of others that the North Queensland Register has brought to you in the past 130 years show just how important dedicated agricultural media outlets are in gathering news and pursuing issues on your behalf.

- Sally Gall, senior journalist, North Queensland Register

Talk of the North is a weekly opinion piece written by ACM journalists. The thoughts expressed are their own.