Page 117 - Port Douglas Magazine 43

sense of

community...

an you improve on perfection? Port Douglas sure plays a the impact of drought on my family farm and called in on communities
good hand at it, says BRYAN LITTLELY, editor of local from Cape Jervis to Cape York - via Cloncurry just for fun - on a men’s
news media outlet Newsport, who we’ve caught up with to health motorbike trek.
talk about his move to Port Douglas from his coastal and I’d been to, and very much enjoyed Port before an advert caught my eye
Cfarming home in South Australia. proposing a job working as Editor of Newsport - a role where I could ply
Long white sandy beaches overshadowed by rugged and rolling hills my trade and put more than 30 years’ experience in journalism to good use
covered in natural bushland, waterfalls, wildlife and coupled with some - and grabbing a nice bite sized slice of living in paradise to see how I like it.
pretty decent weather for at least half the year. My fleeting visits had not done justice to the lifestyle and liveability of the
A bubbling tourist trade with the expected peaks and troughs, a forever region. I’d seen the cream… as part of Palm Cove wedding celebrations and
challenged farming sector and a close-knit community at the heart of a on a couple of day trips up to Port while on Cairns holidays, but I had not
transient population with a seemingly always on holiday (or retirement) considered the depth of community that lived here.
vibe. The chance to embed and invest in the stories of Port Douglas and the
It could just as well be Port Douglas… just replace the coconut palms with broader Shire sure have shone a light on a unique, resilient, entwined
Norfolk Island Pines and cut back on the number of days of great weather community that is rich in stories and secure in its identity.
and you have South Australia’s premier tourist town, and my hometown, It’s not just the scenery, the obvious luxury and the abundance of activity
Victor Harbor. in town (trust me… your quiet time is considerably busier than South
Not unlike Port, a famous Captain, Matthew Flinders, discovered Victor Australia’s premier tourist destination), I’ve been witness to something
Harbor just as he bumped into French sailor Nicolas Baudin… the pretty special since landing in Port… a genuine sense of community.
“encounter”, in 1802, is how it is the coastline wrapping around the place I I see it in the concern for the canegrowers, and not just from their own.
call home is called Encounter Bay. I can see the great work being done in the Neighbourhood Centre, along
I’m a washed-up footy player - Aussie Rules of course - a coach and the fabulous tourist drawcard of Four Mile Beach where lifeguards and surf
administrator for girl’s football. I love my community and get stuck into lifesaving volunteers work together for both safety and sport.
volunteering in sports, fundraising and advocating for those who can do I see it among the backpacker workforce which sticks together, smiles and
with a hand. I’ve even spent a term on the local council. does so much to support the vibrant hospitality sector here. They are a
I farm a couple hundred acres of beautiful hilly country in a little nook delight and knit together locals and visitors alike through intrigue at their
called Back Valley - beef cattle and rehabilitating, rehoming and retiring stories and interactions as they go about their work.
racehorses - with my wife and teenage daughter. And I saw that true sense of community recently in one of the last places
While the farm is something I was born onto and continue to help my I expected to find it… in the back of Paddy’s with Sunday Karaoke in full
surrounding family with across 1200 acres, it’s not what I’ve done all my life. swing.
And the toughest winter season on record has me seriously wondering how At least a few hundred people packed the pub, with a full house for the
much of the rest of my life I can continue to do it. regular karaoke night. It had everything and everyone in the mix, all adult
It all sounds pretty idyllic… right? Not unlike Port Douglas and surrounds. ages up to a cheery 80-year-old guy dancing the night away, newly arrived
And there lies the draw and certainly some of the inspiration for me to international backpackers, a buck’s show bunch of blokes, ladies on a luxury
live, work and play in tropical paradise for a while… and, perhaps, a more weekend away and a serve of locals.
permanent Port life one day. Of course, it helped that most of the acts could actually sing, but I have not
Working in the media in both regional and metropolitan daily newspapers seen such a positive pub culture in decades.
- yes, 15 years nestled in Rupert Murdoch’s ground zero of the Adelaide It’s not just Paddy’s either… feeling safe and having fun go hand-in-hand
Advertiser - in radio and even some special television appearances has when out and about in Port Douglas and that’s something to be proud of
definitely taken me places. and be fiercely protective of.
As a motoring editor, I’ve driven Monaco in a Maserati. As Investigations When there’s so many worthy places around the world, in the “backyard”
Editor, I quite nearly saw the inside of a Thai prison when mistakenly that is Australia even, fighting for that point of difference, Port Douglas’s
arrested while staking out a wanted man in the back blocks of Bangkok. point of difference, to me, looks very much like something built by its
And I’ve undoubtedly seen the best and worst bits of Australia. In the past people and not just bricks and mortar put in place in the hope it does the
year alone having edited a paper in troubled Alice Springs, led the coverage job of uniting community.
for multiple mastheads across South Australia, had to come to terms with And it is definitely not something any Cyclone can simply blow away either.