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The L ocal Paper - Wednesday, February 17, 2016 - Page 25
130 Years of Local Press
Re-introducing ourselves, 22 years on ■ A real temptation is to start this page with the words: “As we were saying before we were so rudely interrupted.” After years of public urging, the Long Family is returning to the YeaKinglake-Whittlesea area to produce an old-fashioned, traditional-style weekly local newspaper. You are holding the first issue. It is called The Local Paper. We hope you like it, and we hope that you look forward to reading every issue. Older district families already know us well. Editor, Ash Long, was a local contributor for the Whittlesea Post in 1973-74, as a teenager. His mother-in-law, Isobell Tunzi, was similarly a Post correspondent through the 1960s. By the early 1980s, Ash was Regional Manager of eight of the Leader group newspapers that covered Whittlesea, Diamond Valley, Doncaster-Templestowe, Heidelberg, Brunswick, Coburg, Northcote and Preston. He was one of the company’s representatives at the time on the Victorian Country Press Association. In April 1984, Ash was Managing Director of Victorian Media Corporation, which bought the masthead and goodwill of The Yea Chronicle from Tom Dignam, who had worked on the newspaper since being a 12year-old ‘printer’s devil’ in 1927. Tom Dignam and his brother Eddie purchased the business in 1936, with the partnership lasting until Eddie’s untimely death in 1968. Tom carried on the business until his retirement. It was a hard act to follow ... Tom had an encyclopaedic knowledge of most local families, a practised memory of district history, and a great love for the community. Indeed, the sale of the business was postponed for several months as Tom did not wish to retire from the role so soon after being named Yea Shire Citizen of the Year.
● NOW: Ash and Fleur Long (standing at back, left), with Paul and Kristi Bryant (standing at right, back), are joined by Sarah Long, Madison, Matilda, Father Christmas, Emma and Jack. Editor notes: Santa Claus did not live with us; he visits once a year. In 1989, Tom Dignam was From its inception in 1885 as The named in the Queen’s Birthday Yea Telegraph, the newspaper had Honours for his service to the com- been presented as a four-page broadmunity. sheet, printed on a giant Wharfedale In the decade to follow with the press that shook the premises at 36 Yea newspaper under the Long fam- High St (now the Yea Sweet Comily proprietorship, Tom Dignam con- pany). tinued to be its Yea Football Club From April 1984, the newspaper correspondent. converted to tabloid-size, and inIn 1994, Ash Long assisted Tom creased in size, with as many as 80 in the compilation of the Tigers’ his- pages for the Centenary Issue in tory, and they travelled together on a October 1985. number of occasions from Yea to the Ash Long and his family became State Library of Victoria, Mel- vitally in local community bourne, to trawl through century-old events.involved He was a Charter Member copies of the newspaper. of the Rotary Club of Yea in 1986, and became one of its Presidents, becoming a Paul Harris Fellow. His energetic reporting saw him named as statewide winner of the Westpac Award for ‘Best Local Reporting’. He was involved in the Yea and District Memorial Hospital appeal to fund a new Accident and Emergency Department. Long campaigned vigorously for the helipad in Station St, opposite the Yea Hospital. He was awarded a shield from members of Yea Police for the paper’s energetic co-operation and community service over a decade. Long, a Freemason for close to 40 years, was a regular visitor to the Yea’s Duke of Clarence Lodge prior to it returning its warrant in 2014.
● Winning the statewide ‘Best Local Reporter of the Year’ Westpac Award in 1986 following our reports about the Yea Council. Fleur and Ash Long, with James and Kristi.
● With Howard Purcell at the Duke of Clarence Lodge, Yea, in October 2014.
● Ash, Fleur, Kristi and James Long pictured in 1985, 31 years ago, at Caveat Bush Reserve on the Molesworth-Dropmore Rd, north of Molesworth. Fleur was a Brownie/Girl Guides leader in Yea, as well as a full-time nurse at the Rosebank Extended Care Centre/Yea and District Memorial Hospital for 10 years. These days she continues at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne, where she trained more than 40 years ago. The Longs continued with the Yea newspaper business until 1993, selling it to Geoff Heyes and Jenny Smith of Alexandra Newspapers. The Kinglake Chronicle and Whittlesea Chronicle had commenced in 1988. Whilst at Yea, the Longs expanded the business to include newspapers at Nagambie and Seymour, which later continued as The Advertiser for 20 years under the independent proprietorship of Keith Pepkar. Publications at Kilmore and ● Sgt James Long, CSM, then Yarra Glen were tried with less sucaged 30, was named in the cess. Later, The Yea Advertiser was Queen’s Birthday Honours as also trialled. recipient of the Conspicuous Ash Long worked briefly as EdiService Medal. tor of the Upper Yarra Mail at Yarra Ash Long continues as a Free- Junction-Warburton, before taking mason, and is Honorary Secretary on an assignment as Publisher of of the Ivanhoe Grammarians The Canberra Weekly. He became the Producer of the Lodge, which has a strong link with Yea, dating back to the school’s nightly Mansfield’s Melbourne TV evacuation to Beaufort Manor in program, which spawned sister shows in Sydney, Brisbane and 1942, during World War II. Long is a former School Captain Adelaide on Optus and Channel 31. The program was associated with (1974). Daughter Kristi was the School’s first female student, travel- Melbourne radio station 3AW, and ling from Yea each day to the then- Long helped produce a series of new campus at Mernda (‘Plenty’). Nightline programs from the BBC Kristi went on to marry Paul in England. Bryant, of Eildon, a former School In 2002, Ash Long reCaptain of Alexandra High School. commened the Melbourne Observer They both work in outdoor edu- newspaper, at which he had been a cation at the country centre of St paperboy in 1969. Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, The Observer is a weekly newsNSW. They have a son, Jack, and paper, available statewide in print daughter, Matilda. and online. It has 55,000 readers, and James Long, like his sister, was is usually more than 80 pages each a Yea Primary School student, going issue. on to Ivanhoe Grammar. He joined In 2009, in response to the Black the Australian Army at age 18, and Saturday fires that hit this region, is a Sergeant, after a number of over- the Longs published The Phoenix as seas tours of duty. a free weekly special project newsHe and wife Sarah settled in paper for the survivors. Its aim was Townsville, with their daughters to give free ad-vertising to small Emma and Madison, and are cur- business people, to get back on their rently on assignment in country New feet. More than $1.3 million of adSouth Wales. vertising was donated by the Long Both Kristi and James were ac- family over 18 months. tive members of the Yea Tigers The Longs describe themselves Swimming Club, where Fleur was a as “exceedingly excited” about the coach. launch of The Local Paper.