While working in Darwin, TV reporters tend to do a number of stories relating to the military and Australia’s defence forces.
The top end is home to significant Australian forces, and regularly hosts ‘war games’ with other countries such as the USA and Indonesia.
One particular training exercise gave me my first close encounter with the legendary B52 bomber, while on another I traveled in a plane refueling the B52.
In 1985 I covered the maiden voyage of the HMAS Darwin.
A guided missile frigate, the ship was built in the United States and on shake-down had undertaken its maiden voyage to Australia, its first landfall being the port of the same name, Darwin.
Along with a camera crew, I flew to Cairns and then onto Thursday Island. From here, with a lift from the local pilot, we caught the Darwin as it passed through the Torres Strait.
An early experience of Aboriginal land rights came when I went to Tennant Creek to cover the Warramungu land claim.
What I found was no firebrand politics and protests, but a system where all parties seemed to want to make sure the right thing was done.
This was one of the first stories I covered on arriving in Darwin in 1985.
In March 1985 a large crocodile was worrying workers building a bridge over the the Elizabeth River, south of Darwin. Conservation Commission rangers set a trap for the crocodile however the animal was found dead in the trap.
While the conflict between commercial and recreational fishing interests was significant in the Territory, so was the conflict between recreational fishing and conservation interests.
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Not long after I arrived in Darwin, the city received one of its more unusual military visitors, the USS Pogy, a nuclear submarine.
At the time it was standard policy from the US Navy to “neither confirm nor deny” they carried nuclear weapons when entering Australian ports.
With the more stringent conservation methods being applied in many national parks, 1985 saw conflicts arise between those who wanted to see National parks conserved entirely, and those who saw recreational pursuits such as fishing remain a credible part of that conservation.
Each Friday, The Tasmanian Country Hour crew was responsible for a 15 minute radio documentary called Friday Journal.
This piece combines some olde English farm lore with some olde English folk songs recorded at a folk festival.
Cyril Phillips is a former Sussex farmer with a very strong accent. Cyril also sings some of the songs. The result was nicknamed Rae’s revenge as half the audience complained they couldn’t understand a word he said.
Family farm days at Erriba, south of Ulverstone in Tasmania.
Alternatives ’85 was run by the Kentish Baha’i community.
[audio:https://www.raeallen.net/audio/alternatives-85.mp3]A seminar run by the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Farm Management Society, looking at the Tasmanian Taskforce into Agriculture.
Chairman of the task force was John Alright.
[audio:https://www.raeallen.net/audio/siezing-the-opportunities.mp3]
