By Warren Nunn
The first week of July 1972 is deeply etched into my memory mostly because that is when I started in newspaper journalism at the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin.
July 1 was a Saturday and I was groomsman at my sister Denise‘s wedding to Mel Morgan at John Knox Presbyterian Church at Wandal. We Nunn siblings all went to Sunday School there.
The paper’s front page that Saturday reported that the Ampol oil refinery in Brisbane was about to shut down because it had exhausted its crude oil supplies.
Amoco refinery was expected to run out soon as well and a critical State-wide petrol shortage was forecast by month’s end.
An eccentric local
There was a long court report of an assault charge against a real estate agent Brian Tone Dillon, 49, of Park Avenue.
Dillon was an eccentric individual who often visited the paper’s offices in Quay St and, on more than one occasion, ended up in a shouting match with staff.
There was no security in those days and anyone could walk in off the street.
Dillon, a real estate agent, was often before the courts on various minor matters and was very vocal, to put it mildly. We were all very scared of him. Born in 1922, he died in June 1993.
The front page of the paper on Monday 3 July 1971 — my first day as a newspaper cadet journalist — featured a report that the French were about to conclude a series of controversial nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll
There was a report on page three about the opening of the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now the Central Queensland University).

The first article I had published in a newspaper.
My first day, as I recall, consisted of typing out hand-written notes from various contributors that were sent to the composing room to be set into type.
On Tuesday, 4 July, the paper reported on hopes for peace between India and Pakistan after an agreement was reached between Pakistan’s President, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and India’s Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
Chilly winter
It was a chilly 39 degrees Fahrenheit in Rocky that morning but, at Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt, the grass temperature dropped to 8 deg (-13 Celsius).
There was a report about a Mr George Hyde of Denham St who had designed an alternative method of railway track joints.
The paper also had a progress photograph of a reservoir being constructed at Kawana opposite the CIAE.
There was also a hopeful report of a plan to reunite South Korea and North Korea. That didn’t happen, of course.
I went out with one of the photographers (Bob Stanton or Mick Cunningham) and conducted my first interview for the paper.
My handful of paragraphs and a photo of a retiring city council ratcatcher named Neil O’Mara appeared on Page 16 of the paper on Wednesday, 5 July, 1972.
My newspaper journey had begun.
The cold continued and it was 33.2 deg (5C) on Wednesday morning when I went to work.
Thursday’s paper reported on the latest in the Vietnam war; protesters aboard a Greenpeace vessel who said the watched a nuclear blast near Mururoa Atoll several days previously; Kakuei Tanaka was elected Japan’s Prime Minister; and tenders were called for the third stage of a breakwater at Rosslyn Bay boat harbour on the Capricorn Coast.
Communists
On Friday, 7 July, Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, said his government had sent Communist students to Australian universities as well as to Canada and New Zealand.
Federal Treasurer Billy Snedden reported a deficit of $187m for the year; and FBI agents in San Francisco thwarted the attempted hijack of a plane. Two terrorists and a passenger died.
Locally, the threat of petrol shortages eased; and a city council mechanic was killed in a tractor accident.
On Saturday, 8 July, local government delegates announced that Central Queensland should be the site of the State’s next super power station.
The possibility of petrol shortages was still being discussed; and Evonne Goolagong lost the singles final at Wimbledon to Billie-Jean King.
One of the paper’s most respected printers, Bill Shuttlewood, retired after 50 years.
That was a brief overview of my first week in newspapers.
I was to have many more weeks over the following 40 years, 27 of which were spent at Queensland’s major newspaper The Courier-Mail.
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