As part of the process of revamping my website, I’ve posted two new pieces of my early journalism, covering the social history of southern NSW.
They’re both profiles. One is of Miss Dorothy Ross, AM, for whom the adjective “indomitable” might have been invented. Most famous as the national head of the (Australian) Country Women’s Association (roughly the equivalent of the British Women’s Institute), she so terrified another journalist of my acquaintance that the journalist burst into tears at the thought of having to speak to her. (Although this was the local “Agoniser”, which liked to employ 17-year-olds.)
The other is the only male profile I’ve posted, of Curly Heckendorf, a Burma Railway survivor who came back and almost single-handedly built up his region – and reputedly never spoke about his experiences. This in some ways is the worst piece, in that you can see me struggling to get him to open up, but it has, I think, a certain raw truth about it.
Both are now sadly dead, and I’ve included links to obituaries.
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