Special Collections Volunteer, Liz Downes, reviews a new addition to the North Queensland Collection in JCU Library's Special Collections - The colt with no regrets: hard copy, hot metal and the power of the written word; a memoir by Elliot Hannay, published by Wilkinson Press, 2020.
When Elliot Hannay came to the Townsville Bulletin (or Townsville Daily Bulletin, as it was then) in 1980, he became the youngest editor in the newspaper’s history – and a very long history it was, being one year away from its 100th birthday and still proudly and independently owned by the local North Queensland Newspaper Company.
But Hannay (nick-named The Colt), began his career at the tender age of sixteen in his home town of Bundaberg. A large part of this memoir, The Colt with No Regrets, is a hugely entertaining account of his initiation into the world of journalism in the times of “hot metal and hard copy” and when much of his learning was done, not through a University course, but at the local pub, conveniently located next door to the News Mail’s premises. It was here he learned such essentials as how to wear one’s tie when on the news rounds (tightened and straight) or in the pub (loosened and sightly askew); the importance of receiving and interpreting ‘the nod’, whether from one’s peers, the local cops or the local publican, and the editor’s endless quest to discover “who’s up who, and who’s paying the rent”.
Young Elliot’s teachers had learned their trade at life’s coalface and what a cast of characters they were – from the all-powerful editor, intimidating and encouraging by turns, to the larger-than-life English expatriate, Myles Carruthers – and never forgetting the ‘boys out the back’ who did the hard graft of manning the linotype machines to transform words into newsprint and ensure the paper was on Bundaberg’s doorsteps in time for breakfast.
The emergence of ‘Gonzo journalism’ in the USA might still have been a decade or more away, but the mere thought of such subjective reporting would have filled this paper’s newsroom with horror. The Colt was under instruction to banish adjectives and stick to the bare facts in his reporting. As was made clear to him, describing a sports victory as ‘outstanding’ or the rain as ‘heavy’ unnecessarily imposed the journalist’s opinion on the reader who should be the one to make such judgements based on the unadorned facts.
And he learned from experience that the greatest sin was to allow an error of fact to appear in print, requiring the paper to make a humiliating correction the next day. While the eccentric, alcoholic Carruthers may have marked Hannay out as one who would “right wrongs and expose injustice”, this noble work might just have to wait for another day.
But changes were on the way, and not just in reporting. While still with the News Mail the Colt witnessed the demise of hot-metal printing and the paper’s transition from broadsheet to tabloid and the anguish this could cause – though perhaps few foresaw the digital revolution which has since transformed every aspect of news reporting and publishing.
When the narrative moves on to Hannay’s years in Townsville, the ripping yarns atmosphere of the earlier chapters, the comedy and camaraderie of the News Mail’s staff, even practical jokes of the kind that saw Hannay arrested and bundled into a police van in front of a large race-day crowd, take a darker turn. It was not long before the young editor became aware of the injustice and violence of a racist culture that was rarely challenged and the sinister underbelly of crime and corruption that flourished in pre-Fitzgerald Queensland.
A visit from the local arm of the Ku Klux Klan and a $3m writ from the notorious Sydney crime figure, Abe Saffron, were unsettling to say the least. Even more alarming was a Mafia-style threat to one of his colleagues, while hostile tactics from local police suggested he could not rely on their protection. To his great credit Hannay held his nerve and stuck to his principles.
A more positive experience was his inclusion in the first group of Western journalists to visit Deng Xiaoping’s China. This not only signalled how highly regarded Hannay had become among his peers but gave him insights into China which are particularly pertinent in the current climate of mistrust and hostility between our two countries.
Sadly, I cannot end this review without reference to the extraordinary number of misprints that are so liberally sprinkled through its 300 odd pages. One or two might pass with little notice but when there are literally dozens of errors, scattered sometimes three to a page, the irritation mounts. Irritation both at the interruption made to one’s reading and at the disservice Wilkinson Press has done to its author – especially to one so well-schooled in the need for accuracy. But don’t let this be a reason for bypassing this engaging, hilarious and enlightening memoir of past times in the newspaper trade – the good, the bad and the deeply scary.
The Colt with No Regrets is held on the general shelves, but the North Queensland Collection copy will ensure these memories and events are preserved into the evolving future of the Fourth Estate.
Liz Downes
070.4092 HAN Hannay, Elliot The colt with no regrets: hard copy, hot metal and the power of the written word; a memoir Wilkinson Press, 2020.
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