Working this week on a memoir of 60-plus years of journalism in
south-east Queensland, I found myself recalling my first days as editor of the Nambour Chronicle.

Nambour was then one of the most prosperous towns in Queensland.

Sugar was king, but the district had many more strings to its bow.

The pineapple industry had brought hundreds of southerners to try their hand at the boom crop of the late ’40s and early ’50s but pines were only one of a huge variety of horticultural crops ranging form beans and strawberries to oranges and papaws, with macadamias and avocados just beginning to make their mark.

Ah yes, salad days.

The year was 1957 and I recall my amazement that the Chronicle’s telephone number was so easy to remember: Nambour 1.

Coincidentally, while mulling over this on Tuesday, I learned from Graham Morton, of the Nambour Museum, that this year marks the centenary of the first telephone call made on what is now the Sunshine Coast but was officially named the Near North Coast back then.

In 1908, Nambour became the first centre between Brisbane and Gympie to gain a telephone service, and there are no prizes for guessing the first caller.

Yes, it was the Nambour Chronicle, which made good use of the new facility and in the process won some serious bragging rights.

The state election had been held that day, and the Chronicle worked the phone right through until 11.30 pm, getting progress results from the tally room and posting them on the office windows, much to the excitement of the people in the street.

Thus did the Chronicle, which had been established only five years previously, get the jump on the Brisbane Courier, as the editor obviously enjoyed pointing out in his leading article.

Graham Morton tells me that the centenary of this major milestone in regional telecommunications will be fittingly marked by the Nambour Museum next month.

There’ll be a Centenary of the Telephone open week starting on November 15 with a special open day and continuing until November 22.

Plans include displays of telecommunications equipment from the 1908 period together with visual images of the town at that time, and Telstra will provide facilities for a commemorative videophone call using the latest technology.

If you’d like more details, give Graham a call on 54413121.
And another thing
I was saddened by the news this week that Golden Circle, Queensland’s once-great canning co-operative started by farmers back in 1947, is about to be gobbled up by the multinational Heinz.

We’re told the Golden Circle name will be retained, but for how long?

And let’s hope that when our growers’ current contracts run out, they don’t get the rough end of the pineapple, with us shoppers having our choices reduced and still more imported stuff foisted upon us.