"Perhaps there are a few old printers about that miss the smell of ink and the chatter of linotypes,” says Rod Walker, owner of WA's 100-year-old Gnowangerap Star newspaper and its museum-like collection of hot metal presses.
“My late mother's wish was that it would not be sold off piecemeal,” says Walker, who’s seeking a buyer for the historic newspaper building and its contents.
“The Star was established in August 1915 by my grandfather and remained one of the very last hot metal newspaper shops in Australia until nine years ago when my brother Bill and my mother closed the doors,” says Walker. “Both my mother and brother, who were residing in Gnowangerup, died two years ago, leaving me as a sole beneficiary of the Gnowangerup Star.”
The paper had an unusual editorial policy of trying to report only good news. “We didn’t have court reporting or anything like that because one day it could be your mate up on a drunk driving charge and they wouldn’t be very happy to see their name all over the paper," says Walker. "It was a typical small town - kick one person and 50 fall over.”
Walker’s mother Margaret wrote some of the newspaper copy and also helped her sons to hand deliver about 800 copies of the paper once a week. Walker completed his five-year apprenticeship at the Star with his father Zic Walker and says he has been reluctant to walk away from the building.
“But it has come to pass that as I am no longer living in Gnowangerup – I’m 130 kilometres away in Albany - and I’m now approaching 70 years of age so the Star has become too much for me to handle," he says. "My mother's wish was that it would not be sold off piece by piece so I’m hoping to find a home for the Star office and buildings at a reasonable sale price. Walk in, walk out. A two-bedroom house and the office and machinery, all in working order, would be on offer.”
For more details, Rod Walker can be contacted at gnostar@wn.com.au
The town of Gnowangerup, population 2000, is about 400kms south of Perth.
Photos courtesy of Andy Graham at dalinean.