From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 28 February

The Bendigo Times is a new weekly, free newspaper, which, in these troubled times, is cause for great celebration. It requires an enormous leap-of-faith to undertake such a venture. For many, these are fiscally testing times.

THE proliferation of social media, which is as pernicious as it is unbridled, has created havoc for newsprint outlets, particularly in country Victoria. The proposed Facebook news sharing restrictions are problematic. Without local newspapers and radio stations, regional Victorians are left voiceless. It is crucial for communities to support their local publications and news services. They provide the most vital facilities to hold politicians and elected officials to account.

Australia’s earliest newspaper, the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, were published in 1803. Described as “moral to the point of priggishness, patriotic to the point of servility”, it was the only publication in the colony in a time of stringent government censorship.

William Wentworth launched The Australian in 1824. Australia’s longest running newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, was first published as the Sydney Herald in 1831. Victoria’s first paper was The Melbourne Advertiser in 1838.

The print media has played a major part in my life.

Of my childhood, I recall, my later father, Ginger, who, aged 17, came to Australia from Tuscany in 1926 and spent the rest of his life in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, reading the bi-weekly Italian newspapers, La Fiamma, which was Sydney based, and Il Globo, which was published in Melbourne. It was the 1950s. With such a large Italian population in Gwalia the papers were shared between the men, at the end of which most of them ended-up in the backyard-corner lavatory!

The Kalgoorlie Miner, and the Perth Daily News, which arrived twice weekly by train, were the preferred papers of the Anglo population, which formed only 10 per cent of the town. The remaining 90 per cent was European.

For nigh on five years, my father bought me the weekly, English children’s comics, Jack and Jill, and Playhour. They were my introduction to some of the classic children’s stories, including, Children of the New Forest, and Black Beauty. Regrettably, my late mother, Beria, in her peripatetic existence, chose to dispose of my pristine collection.

Over the years, I have written hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. My exclusive interview with Brent ‘Tiger’ Croswell, who single-handedly turned-the-tide of a Carlton AFL Grand Final, was nominated for The Sun News-Pictorial sport’s writer of the year.

Now we have the launch of the Bendigo Times community newspaper. Its success depends entirely on the good-will and support of you, its local readers. It is your newspaper. It belongs to you. It is an outlet to share your stories; to air your grievances; to vent your spleen; to advertise your wares; to celebrate your successes, and to keep-in-touch with what is happening in your city. Hopefully, it will grow to become a weekly almanac of Bendigo’s happenings.

I am delighted to be contributing a wide-ranging column, weekly column. Undoubtedly, there will be those occasions when we will have to agree to disagree, but I hope it will not prove an impediment to a happy and fruitful association. With a liberal degree of civility, and my email address is provided, it is an opportunity to share viewpoints, however divergent; and to provide comment for serious rumination. Occasionally, we might even change each other’s minds!

All joy to the Bendigo Times as we set sail under the editorship of Alistair Finlay, and his team!

Welcome, and enjoy!

Roland can be contacted via [email protected] and welcomes your correspondence.