Tag Archives: Jock Macneish

50 years of Warrandyte Diary

AS THE DIARY celebrates its 50th birthday, we spoke with those who were there at the beginning.
Founding Editor Cliff Green, former Chief of Staff Jan Tindale (along with her late husband Lee), and Jock Macneish all had an immense contribution to the establishment of our community’s voice.
Earlier this year we had the opportunity to speak with Cliff and his wife Judy Green and then more recently with Jan and Jock.

Inception

Cliff was already a celebrated screenwriter and author, so we asked why he felt the need to start a newspaper.
“God knows why!” said Cliff.
“You would not believe it, it was because I wanted something to do here in Warrandyte.
“I could not understand why there was not [a paper] here and if there was going to be one, it had to be special.
“It had to be different because this was a special place.”
Judy reminded Cliff that it all started with the Youth Club.
Cliff said he volunteered on the Youth Club committee, because he had worked as a teacher and wanted to continue to work with young people.
Although, he said he had an ulterior motive.
“I wanted to start a newspaper, I did not tell anybody, I took on publicity officer for the Youth Club and started to report their material.
“We had to pay for it with something, so we decided to take advertising, so we started knocking on doors.”
Judy said Cliff first went to Peter McDougal’s office.
“He asked Peter if he would advertise and then Ron Day came up, and Tom Kirkov,” said Judy.
“And suddenly we had the nucleus of a start,” added Cliff.
Cliff was approached by Peter Lovett, a Herald Sun sub-editor and sportswriter.
“He said ‘I will give you a hand with this paper’, so he came on as Sports Editor, and we were away.”
Cliff said the background to most of the early people who worked on the Diary was journalism.
“We had a lot of professional journalists coming and going on the paper.”
But Cliff also wanted an illustrator to join the team.
“I found out who this guy was that was doing these cartoons for the kinder, and it was Jock Macneish, and I went in and knocked on the door and told him what I wanted, and he said ‘alright I will be in that’, and away we went.
“Once I had Jock, I knew we had got ourselves one of the best press artists there was”.
Cliff said the first edition was 12 pages and they wanted to print 2,000 copies.
“I had been a printer, where I served my apprenticeship, he had started a little printery and I went to him; we had the typeset at Dudley King, which was the best typesetting found in Melbourne really good typesetters.
“The first issues looked really good, because they were designed by people who knew their business.”
Cliff said because the Diary was initially a fundraiser for the Youth Club, the kids were expected to letterbox.
“They folded it — to try and save money we did not get the printer to fold it, we took it flat, and the kids —after an issue or two, I started to see bundles of newspapers going down the Yarra, the kids were chucking them in the river, some of the kids were, so somebody said ‘oh you don’t need to distribute them, you put piles of them on shop counters, people will pick them up’ and they did, it worked beautifully”.
Jock said he was in awe of Cliff for his courage, in taking on the venture of producing a newspaper.
“I learnt a very important lesson from him, which was, if you have a bold dream and you are able to express it eloquently and passionately, whatever support you need sort of materialises out of the ether and he was able to recruit an absolutely huge number of volunteers that would do absolutely anything that he asked them to,” said Jock.

Many hands

Soon Cliff was joined by Lee Tindale, who worked as an associate editor of Truth newspaper.
“Truth was the biggest ratbag newspaper in Australia and Lee was the biggest ratbag journalist,” said Cliff.
Jan said when Cliff needed to step away from the Diary for other commitments, Lee was reluctant to take over any more work on the Diary.
“We had a meeting at the White House, which was a building next to the old football ground.
“I can remember Peter Lovett insisting on driving Lee home [from the city] that night because he did not want anything to do with the Diary, he said he had far too much to do as it was.
“They had many stops on the way home, Peter had to visit the Kew Cricket Club, where he was a member and have a few refreshment, I think the meeting started about 8pm, and Lee, until he died, said Peter held his hand up when they were looking for a new Editor.”
Jan and Lee ran the Diary for several years together, with Jan often doing a lot of the leg work.
“Any stories Lee would send me out to cover I had to do the ‘What Where Why’ questions and take a photo and Lee would write the story from that.
“Even with cricket and football, sport was his passion, he could write a cricket match from the scores and the time, all you had to do was write down the player’s name, the time he went out and what he made, and Lee would make the story.
“Much the same with football, most of the time he was there.
“Most of the time our stories were created from me doing that – and also Smokey Joe, we would sit down at night as a family, and the kids and he would ask what happened today, and you would find an awful lot of them were to do with the High School,” said Jan.
Cliff recalled Lee’s literary alter ego, Smokey Joe, fondly, however his column did tread a fine line sometimes.
“A brilliant creation but we had difficulty keeping us out of the courts and so on, but it was great stuff”.
“Smokey Joe, was keeping people honest, always very light-hearted,” said Jan.
Jock said the journalists loved volunteering at the Diary.
“They loved the Diary, they loved it with a passion, because it was absolute freedom.
“Cliff was a wonderful editor, trusted people endlessly, so the journalists just flocked to the newspaper.
“That was an interesting dynamic because there were professional journalists working with the Diary, they were able to help train the cadets in the subtle skills of journalists which are difficult to acquire in any other way, in those days you certainly could not go to journalism school.”
There were many volunteers, both professional and amateur, who emerged over the years to help out in the newsroom, many taking on the role of Editor for a time.
Sandy Burgoyne, Val Polley, Stephen Reynolds, Scott Podmore, Bob and Trish Millington, Ken Virtue, Jan Vagg and Judy McDonald have all played pivotal roles.
“David Wyman was a very good municipal affairs reporter,” recalls Cliff.
“You could thank David Wyman largely for what this place is now like, why it is zoned, why you cannot put up blocks of flats here and so on,” he said.
Jock said the Diary embraced the people of Warrandyte’s concern for their environment, in a major way.
“Those who saw the Diary as a propaganda machine for the green revolution totally misunderstood the fact that the Diary was representing the views of the people who read it, not pushing its views onto its people.
“That in a way meant that the Diary had the support of just about everybody in town, there was never any question as to whether the Diary was going to survive or not survive or be taken over by somebody else.
“I think the success of the Diary is measured in the conversations, I have had many times, with people of Warrandyte saying ‘do you know what they should put in the Diary, they should put this particular story in the Diary’, and it is the fact the people of Warrandyte have a right to say what is in the Diary; they do not phone up Mr Murdoch and say, this is what you should be putting in your paper – it is their paper, the Warrandyte Diary – it is Warrandyte’s paper.
“It is that sense of ownership that is fantastic,” said Jock.
He said in the early days there was a lot of discomfort felt by the local politicians.
“There were Council and State politicians who were horrified to find this ‘Roneo newsletter’ held such power, politically, in terms of people’s opinions.
“The major thrust in the early days was to either shut the thing down or to get some sort of measure of control over it: ‘Who is financing this operation?’
“When they discovered that no one was financing it, and there was no way they could get any influence over it whatsoever, over a period of over ten years they started to change their tack and be a bit more open and considerate and courted the Diary, in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways to get the idea across that they were wonderful people doing a great job for the community, which was not always the case,” said Jock.
Young bloods
Cadet journalists, these days called “Junior Reporters”, have always been an important part of the Diary, with Cliff taking many early cadets under his wing.
Jock recalls: “Cliff had a passion, not so much for the world as it was, but what he could foresee coming into being, so his focus was always on the future, how the village could be improved, how the lives of the people could be enhanced, and how the skills the young cadets could learn and contribute and watching the young cadets grow from basically school children into mature capable journalists was just a joy”.
Some of the stand-out cadets who have been through the Diary’s newsroom are remembered fondly by Cliff:
“Clinton Grybas, he was fabulous – at 14 he was doing the sports pages, brilliantly.
“Rachel Baker became an ABC Cadet and succeeded and became the ABC representative in Adelaide.
“She was typical of the young people who came through,” said Cliff.

Spirit of community

The Diary has changed its appearance, it has changed its size, it has changed from black and white to colour.
But Jock Macneish said despite the outward change, what has not changed is that it is still the voice of Warrandyte.
“It still concerns itself with the lives and the business of the people that live in Warrandyte and it reflects and shows the people of Warrandyte who they are — who they are to one another and who they are to the world,” said Jock.
Cliff said he was proud of the fact that the Diary exists.
“That it survived, and it did well, and it caught the heart of the community.”
His advice to the current team at the Diary, and one that the current editors take to heart, is the importance of keeping the paper close to the community: “Not having a them and us, but very much an us”.

Thank you to Warrandyte for your support of the Diary for 50 years.
We look forward to entertaining and engaging you for the next 50 years – Eds.

An Ode to JC’s Birthday

Paddling through the Yarra

In a holey old canoe

Hitting rocks below

Whilst fighting off a ‘roo

~~~~~

Tiger snake swims by

Hissing Christmas songs

It’s time for summer holidays

And I’m in my boardies n’ thongs

~~~~~

Oh! Jingle bells, my red bin smells

It wasn’t picked up last week

It’s Christmas time in Warrandyte

40 degrees and my goon-bag’s sprung a leak, hey

~~~~~

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Christmas time is grouse

Oh what fun it is to ride

‘cross the bridge to Nanna’s house

~~~~~

Asphalt’s getting hot

Melts the soles of shoes

An echidna’s getting prickly

He deserves a chilled beer too

~~~~~

All the clan is there

Sitting by the river

Christmas Day the Wazza way

Even Wombats are ruining their liver.

~~~~~

Oh! Jingle bells, my compost smells

The outdoor table is set

It’s Christmas in Warrandyte

And the rain’s on its way I bet, hey

~~~~~

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Kookaburras stole the goose

A dozen ales and a few chilled wines

And Granny’s getting loose

~~~~~

Come the afternoon

The adults have a doze

The prawn heads start going off

And burn the hairs of my nose

~~~~~

The snoring has slowed down

It’s finally time to go

Except Auntie Pain-in-the-arse

Decides we need the annual photo

~~~~~

Oh! Jingle bells, recycling bin smells

The kids have spat the dummy

It’s Christmas in Warrandyte

The ham’s given us an upset tummy, hey

~~~~~

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Christmas time is ace

Oh what fun it is to stagger home

Completely off your face.

~~~~~

Internet’s back on-line

And the bridge is working fine

Despite Santa losing his sleigh

On the round about

~~~~~

It’s the Warrandyte community way

To help the poor fella out

Use my old tin bath for his sleigh

And wrangle a flock of cockies for the flight

~~~~~

Oh! Jingle bells, my septic tank smells

I should have connected the sewer

It’s Christmas night in the ‘Dyte

Where the sunset’s a ripper sight, hey

~~~~~

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Christmas time is worth the fuss

Oh what fun it is to ride

On an uncrowded 906 bus

500 reasons to love our Diary

This edition marks No.500 for our much loved Warrandyte Diary, a newspaper keeping us informed on all community matters for almost 46 years. We ask some of the team to share their thoughts on what makes our paper so special.

Cliff Green

Founder, former editor and Diary godfather

Is the Diary a great little paper because it has been created in Warrandyte, which is a great little place? Or is Warrandyte a great little place because it has the Diary? Both answers are correct.

The quarto-sized 12 pager was only a few issues old when Peter Lovett knocked on our front door: “Want a hand with that little paper you’ve started?”

Did I ever! “We’ll hunt up some real news and chuck the type around a bit,” he said. So began a seemingly endless stream of co-editors, associate editors, standby editors, replacement editors. Most of them professional journalists, all of them local stalwarts: Lee Tindale, Bob Millington, Mark Davis, Robert White; plus a huge army of volunteer writers, cartoonists, photographers and artists and especially our young cadets, who have learned the trade with us.

Warrandyte is rich with talented people; many of them have donated their skills to this paper.

Across the 500 issues, and almost 46 years, this community has created something special.

Current editor Scott Podmore is expanding this legacy, developing a new frontier into the digital age and better integrating our financially essential advertisers into the community news pages.

Here’s to our next 500 issues!

Briony Bottarelli

Office manager and Diary gatekeeper

About 10 years ago I met Jan Tindale, wife of the infamous Lee Tindale, sports editor and voice behind “Smokey Joe”.

Lee had passed away, but I became friends with Jan. Rae Danks’ health was failing and she retired, so Jan suggested I might like to take on her position of handling administration and advertising at the Diary. The paper was struggling financially at the time and a great deal of satisfaction came with me being able to lift the coffers somewhat.

Having grown up in Warrandyte. I love the open spaces, the river I grew up with and learnt to swim in, the tall trees, the birds, nature itself – and of course, the community.

Working at the Diary has enabled me to become even more involved in the community and meeting more locals I hadn’t known before. I commenced working with Cliff Green who probably stayed longer than he may have wished, but was determined to keep this wonderful paper going. He was relieved when Scott Podmore came along and offered to take the job on. Scott has opened the paper up to a wider and younger part of the community with modern technology hitting the Diary (and me) big time. I work in the best office in Melbourne. I love what I do and I hope the Diary, the longest running tabloid in Australia, keeps running for a long time to come.

Jock Macneish

Cartoonist, Diary’s “Gandalf”

Do you keep a diary?

Does it describe what you’ve been doing, record your private thoughts, and chronicle your opinions on anything and every- thing?

I’ve been keeping a diary for the past 46 years. It’s called the Warrandyte Diary.

It’s not exactly private, but it does document the things I’ve been thinking about since December 1970.

In 4000 illustrations, spread over 500 editions, the Diary has published a guide of my somewhat oddball way of thinking about Warrandyte. It’s meant doing a lot of drawing, and a lot of thinking. But it’s a wonderful privilege to be able to share my story with Warrandyte people.

And as many Warrandyte people know, I’m a compulsive show-off, despite not having very much to show.

The Warrandyte Diary means that I have a great excuse to strut my stuff in front of the Diary readers, whether they like it or not. So far, nobody has yet demanded that I stop drawing cartoons about our town and it’s long-suffering citizens. I take it as a sign of grudging tolerance, if not actual acceptance.

Can’t wait to put it in my Dairy. Look out for it.

Scott Podmore

Diary chief and current flag bearer

“The essence of community, its heart and soul, is the non-monetary exchange of value; things we do and share because we care for others, and for the good of the place.”

They’re the wise words of Dee Hock, the same man who founded VISA credit card and a major in influencer on constructing thought-experiments about the nature of organisational management. It makes me think of the Diary, an important non-profit community newspaper with a big impact on its readers. Everyone cares about it. I took over this magical publication as editor when Cliff Green passed me the baton three years ago this month. Managing it has been, and is, challenging but rewarding. I think we keep most people happy and everyone looks forward to it coming out each month.

The Diary works so well because it’s a classic case of being produced by the people for the people. It provides us with a community heartbeat and unites our people, clubs, schools, businesses and service groups not only as a platform to bring you news, photographs, funnies, advice and much more by way of newspaper format, but also as a powerful voice when we need it.

What makes it really special is its people. The people care about the newspaper. The newspaper cares about its people. Long live the Diary.

Stephen Reynolds

Diary photographer and stalwart

Having spent the last 15 years photographing every aspect of Warrandyte for the Diary, whether it be the festival, monthly market, theatre productions, community forums, celebrated artists, ANZAC Day, the changing seasons, personalities, sport or just our cherished environment of the river and Australian bush, there is one thing that continually stands out to me as quite unique in a metropolis of four and a half million people.

While outsiders might classify us as “fringe suburbia” that one unique quality that both Warrandyte and the Diary espouse and re ect is “community”.

In our fast paced, ever changing world Warrandyte still retains a notably distinct, rural charm with a country feel that embraces our community organisations and diverse social fabric, be it
schools, sport, the CFA, churches or service clubs.

As one who attends, observes and photographs many of Warrandyte’s functions the enthusiasm, involvement and commitment of her community parallels that of the Diary where each month a band of dedicated contributors including journalists, artists, poets, cartoonists and photographers produce content that reinforces that very quality and have done since the first issue rolled off the press in 1970.

It is that contribution that reinforces the old saying “you only get out of something what you put into it” that for me makes the Warrandyte Diary an integral part of, and mirrors that very community. Congratulations to our Diary team and most importantly Warrandyte for supporting us for 500 monthly editions.

Val Polley

History writer, Diary legend

What the Diary means to me is its truly local news, views and issues – the stuff that binds a community together. There is little doubt in my mind that Warrandyte would not be, or look, the way it is without the Diary. It has provided ongoing support for events (think of the festival), campaigns (such as One Warrandyte, Be Ready Warrandyte), sports (those great pages in every issue) and people (too numerous to identify individually).

It has provided encouragement and opportunity to locals to find their voice through writing, photography and poetry.

Not only that; it’s been notable for mentoring new talent and journalistic skills among young aspiring journalists. It is also a wonderful example of volunteerism. Without many volunteers giving their time over the decades the Diary would not exist. We owe them all a debt of gratitude.

Finally history, the Diary has provided 500 issues and over 40 years worth of documented Warrandyte history thus far – priceless.

Thank you Diary for the 500 issues that have been part of my life, I cannot imagine a Warrandyte without you. Congratulations on a wonderful achievement.

Jock and Steve the toast of the town

WARRANDYTE’S Jock Macneish and Steve Pascoe have been recognised for their great services to the community by each receiving an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

Announced on Australia Day, Jock, our much loved Diary cartoonist and master of many talents, was recognised for his service to the visual arts and to the community of Warrandyte. Steve, a legendary figure at the Warrandyte Cricket Club, was recognised for his service to cricket.

Both popped into the Diary this morning for a photo shoot and you can read all about it in the February edition of your CNAV Newspaper of the Year (back to back) Monday week.

Too funny for words

DIARY cartoonist Jock Macneish is a gifted artist.

His Warrandyte Festival logos, superbly drawn to capture the iconic presence of the Yarra River within each theme’s graphic, have been a hallmark here for almost 40 years. He also paints an exquisite watercolour.

However, it was Jock’s brilliance as a cartoonist that lit up audi- ence members at a presentation by Warrandyte Historical Society last month.

Illustrated by just 30 of almost 2000 cartoons he has drawn for the Diary since it’s first edition, Jock’s talk covered the local paper, the community, the role of Warrandyte Historical Society “and a bunch of other stuff”.

His keen impressions of “this wonderful community” filled the hall at North Warrandyte with laughter and earned a nod from many who recognised themselves in more than one cartoon. While his observations carried with them a thought-provoking message about care and identity, two concepts Jock believes make Warrandyte a great place to live.

“Communities are the things we do and the things we share because we care for people and for the good of the place,” Jock said. “Warrandyte is a fortunate location, populated by a fortunate people who have what is known as a ‘care surplus’.

“Although we think of Warrandyte as the ‘home of the artist’, in fact it would be more accurate to describe the Warrandyte house as the ‘unfinished symphony’,” he joked. “Probably a result of homeowners spending far too much time at community working bees.”

About identity, Jock said:

“Warrandyte Historical Society does an excellent job of letting us know who we were and Warrandyte Diary is, and has been, an ideal way of finding out who we are. As to who we are becoming…”

“Tomorrow belongs to that happy band of mumbling, awkward, slightly smelly bunch of teenagers you’ll find slouching about in school play- grounds and skate parks,” he said. “I can’t understand much of what they are saying, but I do know that by growing up in Warrandyte they are acquiring an identity, which will serve them well throughout their lives. And they’re absorbing a capacity to care for people and place which is second to none.”

Although he’s “never really thought of himself as a cartoonist” because he “does so many other things” (like being an architect, author, artist and illustrator who spent 20 years working in media broadcasting and another 20 years as an independent communications consultant), Jock told the Diary he has “drawn cartoons for a living.” From 1969-70, Jock was the daily pocket cartoonist at short-lived Melbourne evening newspaper Newsday, alongside feature cartoonist Michael Leunig of today’s Age.

He was also the cartoonist for Papua New Guinea’s national newspaper the Post Courier, from 1973-75.

Outwardly, cartoons about Warrandyte, about anything, might look easy to create, but are they? I asked Jock to draw me a picture.

“The powerful thing about cartoons is that visually they are all about recognition, but cognitively they are about revelation. Cartoonists try to reveal aspects of the human condition and express those in a form of visual shorthand – a cartoon,” he explained.

“They ‘see’ what’s going on in the slightly more obscure world of human behaviour, the subtle inter-relationships between people and place that make up, say, the Warrandyte community.”

“Anyone living here can recognise Warrandyte at a glance, but actually ‘seeing’ is much more difficult. Seeing Warrandyte’s shapes and textures, its colours and its shadows is what artists do.”

(No, Jock. Seriously. I meant draw me a picture.)

While visual communication is undoubtedly Jock’s strong suit, the talented artist’s parting words were equally insightful.

“It’s been a privilege, having been part of recording ‘what happened’ to Warrandyte over the past 46 years,” he said. “It’s taught me how to better care for people and for the good of the place. It’s shaped my identity.”