Historian Howard Jones looks back at The Border Mail people

On the day the Governor came to town, I told my sidekick reporter to wear a nice suit because everyone would dress posh for a rare vice-regal visit.

Young Cameron Thompson duly turned up looking dapper in his dad's suit.

"We are going to a civic reception tonight, so work hard and between us we should get at least half-a-dozen stories," I said.

"I'll handle the serious stuff like the boring speeches - you try and get something different."

Cameron, a champion golfer, eventually sidled up to Dr Davis McCaughey and got around to asking him how His Excellency practised his golf.

"Well, the corridors in Government House are long and always quiet," the Governor whispered.

What a scoop! Cameron didn't stop there: between us we collected 14 stories in a couple of hours mingling with guests at the reception.

All this happened about 30 years ago when we comprised the Wodonga editorial team when The Border Mail headquarters was still in Albury.

Cameron eventually left for metropolitan papers but returned as chief of staff and then was my boss - the editor - until his death in 2008, aged 38.

I treasure the last cheery note he texted from hospital recalling our Wodonga days and saying "I think we were a pretty good team - still are."

When the present editorial team asked me to write something for the 120th anniversary I thought I'd try, like Cameron Thompson, to seek out the different and unusual memories of the best job I had for 32 years.

Most readers might know the Mail was the Mott family's baby but they employed hundreds of staff as journalists, photographers, artists, advertising and accounts people, cleaners and the people who distributed the paper.

They comprised the wider Border Mail family and there were several romances between staff members, some ending in marriage. Occasionally children of staff were taken on, including my son Rob, who worked under legendary press manager, "Boxer" Ward in the 1990s.

Mott descendants were exclusive owners until they sold to the John Fairfax group in 2006, while as an independent company, Australian Community Media has owned it since 2019.

The Motts in my time left editorial policy to editors, though when I arrived in 1982, director Tennyson Mott often popped in to question an error or omission.

A brave news editor once told him: "Ah, well, Mr Mott, we all make mistakes." Tenny looked at him long and hard and said: "Not when I was news editor."

Accuracy came before everything.

THE BORDER MAIL 1903-2023:

Under editor Bob Cronin, intros (first paragraphs) were limited to 20 words and the story had to be in clear language an average 14-year-old could understand.

Cliches such as "brainchild" and "broad daylight" were banned, and so was bad language. Names were required for accident reports unless absolutely unavoidable.

Clif Mott, editor in 1963, listed the four purposes of newspapers: to inform, to guide, to entertain and, naturally, to make a profit.

The board, chaired by Melbourne Mott from 1973 and later by his son, Robert, invariably ploughed profits into improvements, the last big splash being a $30 million French press in 2003.

The Motts were grateful staff took immense great pride in the paper, a factor that resulted in it winning numerous national awards from 1973 and into the 21st century, plus many accolades for individuals.

The paper's reputation was built, of course, on columns of news from a legion of journalists sustained by a steady flow of advertising and sales cash.

Consider an inspirational journo like Robert Coleman, lying sick in Albury hospital in 1940 when an injured RAAF lad was placed in the next bed. Coleman asked him what happened, realised he had whopping news, then got a nurse to phone the paper.

The result was the Mail's greatest scoop to date: two planes locked together in the air had crashed near Brocklesby and Tenny Mott got there to photograph them and interview witnesses.

Coleman attended a staff reunion organised by Rob Toleman in 1989 and caught up with Tenny and Clif as well as Keith Welsh, last survivor of the Albury Daily News, which the Mail took over in 1924.

Des Zwar, later a Fleet Street reporter, survived the fatal Barnawartha bushfire of 1952 when bullets from a store exploded in the main street, proving that nothing can beat an eyewitness account.

By the 1980s and 1990s, intrepid reporters trod new ground thanks to editor James Thomson largely allowing them a free hand.

Maria Galinovic was the first to interview local prostitutes about "the game" and Gerard Wright the first to report directly from overseas (the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984).

Tony Wright toured the Riverina to produce a brilliant series on Aboriginal people, and David Carter won prizes for separate series on mental health and homelessness.

Terry McGoverne chronicled the "wool barons", converting the series to a book illustrated by Frank Connell, a fine photographer, a chief sub-editor and creator of the first Mail website in 1998.

Connell was once sent to photograph the family of a murdered girl. He had to ask them politely not to smile at the camera as people are wont to do.

Rod Hardinge was chief photographer when I arrived. He once told a colleague to ask the new office secretary - on her first day - if she had a bikini and would she be photographed down at Noreuil Park?

The photographer declined such cheek, so Hardinge asked the young lady himself and her picture was on Page Three the next day.

Even back in 1937 the Mail had featured female swimmers. "Girlie pictures" were among the first taken by Rex Stivey when the Motts bought a photographic engraver enabling it to print pictures for use in next day's paper.

Peter Merkesteyn was the most daring photographer I encountered. At Corowa I saw him climb on the parapet on the old iron bridge to photograph the rowing club guys gliding underneath.

What worried me was that he had our company car keys in his pocket, so how was I going to get home?

At first the Mail was very "male", but a teenage Haidée Mott became a reporter about 1920, followed by Anne Ringwood, who covered the Liberal Party foundation conference in Albury in 1944 with distinction.

Mary McDonnell, a reporter of the 1960s and 1970s, was the first female chief of staff, Colleen Thomson the first female chief sub-editor in the 1980s and Di Thomas the first female editor in 2012, with Julie Coe editor in 2021.

Chiefs of staff and sports editors have to choose who covers what, and sometimes it isn't easy.

When the first legal brothel opened in Albury, an editorial inspection was invited but who would go? The most larrikin reporter of his day (not me!) was chosen and was forever after quizzed about alleged freebies, though he returned with pictures of empty beds!

A bright open-minded woman reporter did get a free ticket to review the show Puppetry of the Penis, and thought it cute.

Until the 1970s, the Mail paid part-time "village" correspondents like Henry Tafft (for 35 years) and generally engaged specialist writers such as historians Des Martin and Cliff Chamberlain and veterinary officer Max Barry.

Stan Jackling doubled as the company's lawyer and classical music critic, a man of many parts including aircraft pilot, choral conductor and church organist.

He personally knew the likes of Joan Sutherland and was irate the ABC once booked Don Burrows for Albury. Jackling crept out early to write a scathing piece about the jazz king, signing off as usual as SWRJ.

Another man of many parts was Gordon Dowling, general manager from 1962 to 1983 but previously a wrapper boy, photographer, sports reporter, advertising salesman and debt collector, and also a champion swimmer, diver and rugby player, sports commentator, charity fundraiser, Rotarian, and family man.

Enough of nostalgia!

Just because I was part of The Border Mail for a long time, some people still delight in telling me "the paper is not what it used to be".

Of course they don't realise this great newspaper has survived by adapting frequently to changing circumstances while publishing over 37,200 issues in 120 years.

A landmark change was made in July 2015, when the newspaper progressed to a "digital-first" publishing model, while retaining the old printed product.

Thousands of readers were already accessing news on their home computers, tablets or mobile phones and through social media.

The digital revolution in newspapers was global and saw advertising revenue collapse, causing them to shrink or even shut down.

Wisely, the Mail strikes a clever balance between printed and digital, and delivers news online at speeds the old fellas would only dream about, often "as it happens".

An elderly woman reader from Beechworth told me recently: "I hope I live long enough not to see the end of newspapers, as they have always been part of my life."

She admitted her children and grandchildren were hooked on digital and were bemused when she did her "Grandma thing" of reading the "real" paper.

It would be a brave reader who predicts the future for newspapers, but I hope to tell you more when The Border Mail turns 125 years in 2028.

Albury-Wodonga historian Howard Jones was a Border Mail reporter between 1982 and 2014.

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: