WELCOME HOME Welcome home to Cooma town
This weekend’s back to Cooma reunion has seen more than 500 people register through the BacktoCooma website, and both the Friday night Big Party in the Park and Sunday’s gala dinner have sold out. The ticket sales for all the events have amounted to 850, with 380 attending the Friday night party and more than 240 attending Sunday night’s dinner. The weekend kicks off on Friday with registrations in Centennial Park from 12 noon. At 2pm, the new coffee table book ’Monaro’ will be launched. There will also be music and a cake stall in the park during the afternoon.
At 6pm, the doors open for the Big Party. This is being catered for by Roses’ Restaurant, with a floorshow provided by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. They will be performing some of the songs they wrote for last year’s stage show ‘Ghosts in the Scheme’. On Saturday, the Cooma Leos will conduct a Fun Run from Nijong Oval and there are various sports groups holding special back to Cooma competitions. The main event on Saturday is the street parade, starting at 3pm. This parade will be led by piper Cathy Henderson, with town crier Andrew Dawes making sure everyone knows it’s on.
There are more than 50 floats entered in the street parade which is expected to take about an hour to travel along Sharp Street. Peter Longhurst will provide the commentary for the parade. At about 4pm, the special Easter rodeo will start at Cooma Showground. Later, the 50s and 60s Rock and Roll dance will be held at the Cooma ExServices Club, while at the Cooma Bowling Club, the Cooma ambulance personnel will hold a reunion celebrating 75 years of service to the community. On Sunday night, the gala dinner will kick off at 6pm. On this special night, the Cooma Hall
Holger Brockmann
Steve Liebmann One of Cooma’s favourite sons, Steve Liebmann will speak at the Back to Cooma reunion gala dinner on Sunday night. Born in Cooma, Steve was a student at Monaro High School and became a journalist in Cooma on Radio 2XL while still in high school. He hosted “Teen Scene” from 5:30 pm to 6:00pm week daily playing the latest recordings. His sign off at the end of the show was “Bye, bye and you keep smiling”. He moved to Canberra in 1962 and worked at 2CA, before moving to Sydney in 1967 to take up a position with Channel Seven’s Sydney bureau as news editor and onair presenter. The following year he became a senior journalist at Radio 2UE, and presented an afternoon news and public affairs program on the station which became the top show in its timeslot. He eventually became Director of News and Public Affairs at the station. In 1976, he left to join 2SM and also became the host of Seven’s 11AM program and anchored the station’s Sydney evening news. He hosted the
of Fame will be launched, with several ‘icons’ being inducted. Two of Cooma’s favourite sons, Steve Liebmann and Holger Brockmann will be in attendance. Unfortunately actress sisters Carmen and Paula Duncan have had to cancel their attendance due to acting commitments overseas. Cr Rogan Corbett’s big secret will also be unveiled on Sunday night and this should be a wonderful surprise for all and sundry. Monday morning has been reserved for a farewell breakfast in Centennial Park, cooked by the Salvation Army, with all proceeds going to the Salvos.
Willesee program on several occasions and wrote articles for The Bulletin and Men In Vogue. In late 1981 he joined the Nine Network as the original co-host of the national Today alongside Sue Kellaway, staying with that program until 1987, when he joined the Ten Network to anchor TEN-10 Sydney’s Eyewitness News alongside Geraldine Doogue. He rejoined the Today program in 1990 and remained at the Nine Network presenting the program across Australia five days a week until January 2005. In 2002–2003, Liebmann appeared on television advertisements for a counterterrorism advertising campaign on behalf of the Federal Government He presented Ten Weekend News bulletin in Sydney during 2006, and more recently has hosted Foxtel’s Crime Investigation Australia
show focusing on infamous Australian crimes. He also has a contract with 2UE and does some corporate work and public speaking. He is the recipient of several journalistic awards, including the “News Presenter of the Year” from the Australian Commercial Radio Industry and the Penguin Award- for Special Recognition for Contribution to News
Holger Brockmann is another of Cooma’s favourite sons to make a name in radio. Like Steve Liebmann, Holger is a former student of Monaro High School. He began his career in commercial radio in the 1960s and worked for several years in the early 1970s at 2SM, then Australia’s top-rating pop music station. In line with the prevailing practice in commercial radio at that time, Brockman was obliged to adopt the anglophone pseudonym “Bill Drake” while working at 2SM. Brockmann is best known in Australia for being the first presenter on air on January 19, 1975, when the ABC’s new rock music station Double Jay commenced broadcasting, at which time he reverted to using his real name. According to the liner notes for the album Rodriguez Alive, Brockmann was instrumental in popularising the music of cult singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez in Australia after he
purchased a copy of Rodriguez’s debut album Cold Fact and began playing the song “Sugar Man” on his 2SM evening shift in 1972. After his move to Double Jay in 1975 Brockmann regularly played songs from the entire Rodriguez oeuvre. Brockmann is currently a presenter with ABC News Radio.
Monaro High School was started in 1954 to accommodate the growing number of Snowy Scheme teenagers. Over its 62 year history, MHS has seen many of its graduates excel in many fields, including medicine, sport, journalism and the arts. Pictured, MHS in 1959 and in 2016.
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