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22 May, 2026
CHARLTON TRIBUNE 150: Jewel of a journalist
"I NEVER planned to become a journalist. To be honest, almost nothing in my life has been planned."
By IAN D RICHARDSON
I NEVER planned to become a journalist. To be honest, almost nothing in my life has been planned.
I had an after-school and Saturday-morning job with John Woods who was then Charlton’s jeweller and watchmaker. John, a lovely and amusing man, let me do the simple alarm clock repairs while he did the clever stuff with watches and jewellery.
I was to become John’s apprentice, but my father, John S Richardson, had terminal testicular cancer and I was needed to help him run the Charlton Tribune newspaper and job printing business. So, at the age of 16, I left the Charlton Higher Elementary School and became an apprentice printer.
After Dad died on April 9 1954 – his 18th wedding anniversary -- my mother, Rena, bravely took over the business and expanded it to launch the Wycheproof News and to buy two other newspapers, the Quambatook Times and the Manangatang Courier. In 1960, she married a local farmer, William “Bill” Wood and soon after sold the business to Ian and Coral Cameron of Wedderburn.
I loved writing and this progressively took over my professional life. In 1961, I was offered a job as a journalist in the Radio 3BO Bendigo newsroom under the wonderful editorship of David G Horsfall. While in Bendigo I met Rosemary Batson – my future wife - at the Carlos and Rosita Ballroom.
I moved to Melbourne late in 1963 to join the Radio Melbourne 3AW newsroom as a reporter. This was very exciting, but in 1968 I felt in need of a change and Rosemary and I set out for London.
We expected to be there for just a few months, but I was offered a temporary job with the BBC World Service that lasted 27 years, while Rosemary set up an accommodation business, London Home-to-Home.
Buying the Quambatook Times and Manangatang Courier was a madness by my mother. She had not considered how the two newspapers might be run as the sellers were leaving for another town. Hence, at a few days’ notice and just as I turned 20, I found that I was elevated to editor and just about everything else with these two publications. It was a tremendous challenge, but on reflection it was a wonderful experience. The front office was run by Nancy Bibby, later to marry Ian McNaughton, and much of the writing was done by a local grocer, Tom Hogan.
As I worked on the newspapers, I listened to the ABC on my transistor radio. I particularly enjoyed the ABC relaying of the BBC’s Radio Newsreel, not for one moment considering the possibility that decades later I would be in London and one of the editors of that program.
Nor could I have possibly known that I would spend a period in charge of the 200 plus World Service correspondents or that I would be a founding edito of BBC World Television.
Sadly, I’m no longer well enough – aged 88 – to visit Australia, but I did grow up loving
Charlton and enjoyed returning there. I am proud to report that I am still friends with Ken Wright, the Yeungroon farmer, and Ron Winsall, now a retired policeman.
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