Reporter reaches 50 not out
Master of spinning yarns

THUMBS UP: Navy News’ reporter Graham Davis celebrates 50 years in journalism.

By Alicia Miriklis

Intrepid reporter; fearless firefighter; devoted family man - Graham Davis is many things to many people and on February 15, 2005, the Navy News reporter celebrated 50 years in journalism.

Davis has had many career highlights, whether as a reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, or on deployment with Navy News to The Gulf and East Timor.

And, ever the reporter, Davis always has a yarn to tell about his interesting and often exciting life.

The son of a NSW policeman, Davis, 65, grew up in an atmosphere of intense action that created a curiosity and interest in news and his local community.

It was on February 15, 1955 that a 15- year-old Davis walked into the
Elizabeth Street Sydney office of The Sun newspaper and began his career in journalism.

Starting out as a copyboy, within 12 months Davis was granted a cadetship and began writing articles for the afternoon newspaper.

His career with The Sun spanned 34 years and included such major events as the Granville train disaster and the Hilton Hotel bombing.

Davis was one of the first reporters on the scene at Granville following the 1977 train crash, which claimed 83 lives.

Forever etched in his memory is the sight of a man wearing a brown business suit spattered with blood, his arm in a sling and sitting on what was left of the bridge, waiting for the next ambulance to take him to hospital.

At 2am on February 13, 1978, Davis was woken by his chief of staff ringing to tell him to get to George Street as soon as possible because a bomb had exploded outside the Hilton Hotel.

“I was confronted by the glare and hurriedly set-up floodlights, barriers across George Street at Town Hall and the images of black plastic on the roadway,” Davis said.

The black plastic was used to cover the remains of the victims of the bombing.

Two garbage collectors and a policeman died in the attack. The hotel at the time was hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and Davis spent many hours reporting, attending press conferences and filing copy on the incident.

Always the objective reporter, Davis would not be drawn on the controversy surrounding who was responsible for the bombing, suffice to say that in his mind “the jury is still out”.

While at The Sun, Davis also covered a TAA crash off Sydney Airport, the week-long Wally Mellish siege at Glenfield and the Azaria Chamberlain case.

Following the demise of The Sun, Davis landed a job as a reporter at the suburban newspaper The St George Leader, where he would become editorial chief of staff for eight years and win several community newspaper awards.

Davis, however, has a second career - as a volunteer bush fire fighter.

He was inspired to join his local Illawong Bush Fire Brigade (now the Illawong Rural Fire Brigade) after covering a story on a bushfire threatening homes in the Blue Mountains.

“As well as wanting to assist the community, joining the brigade was also partly self-preservation in that my home was next to the bush,” Davis said.

As a rural volunteer firefighter, Davis’s highlight was being appointed a trustee to an appeal fund set up for the family of a firefighter killed fighting a fire in the Royal National Park in 1989.

By 1996, Davis had left the Leader, believing that at aged 57 he should start thinking about retirement.

However, it was not long until the reporting bug bit back and, as Davis later conceded, “there’s only so many fence posts you can paint”.

After a short stint chasing ambulances at the Illawarra Mercury in Wollongong during the 5.30pm to 1am shift and working for a PR company, Davis was offered part-time work at Navy News “for about six weeks”.

He joined the Navy News base at the Royal Edward Victualling Yard (REVY) in Pyrmont where his part-time work eventually became full-time. Davis said working for Defence had provided many outstanding opportunities during the “twilight” of his journalistic career.

Two years ago Davis joined the then Maritime Commander Rear Admiral Raydon Gates on a visit to The Gulf and boarded HMA Ships Melbourne and Arunta.

The ships were in The Gulf to enforce the United Nations Sanctions against Iraq and the trip provided Davis with a bonanza of Navy News stories.

He described the visit as potentially dangerous, particularly when he had to Davis was one of the first reporters at the scene of the 1977 Granville train crash, which claimed 83 lives travel as part of a security convoy from the Doha base in Kuwait City to his hotel, when only a day earlier a US soldier had been killed in Kuwait.

In April a year earlier, Davis had travelled from Darwin to Dili for the first return voyage of HMAS Jervis Bay. “It was quite moving on the return voyage, with several hundred homeward bound troops, for the Commanding Officer of Jervis Bay to turn his ship into the rising sun and have the Army padre conduct a dawn Anzac service,” Davis said.

As a reporter for Navy News, Davis acknowledges the great support he receives every day from the editors, PR staff and the At 65, Davis shows no signs of slowing down and we could very well be celebrating his 60th year in the job soon many uniformed and civilian Defence members who have helped him with stories and images.

He also appreciates the support from his family, including wife Judith, son Brent, daughter Melanie, and grandchildren Mitchell, 8, and Ashleigh, 5.

When asked why he enjoyed being a journalist, Davis had yet another story to tell.

“There have been occasions when I have wondered why I have chosen this career - when I have had to stand at the door of a home where a three-year-old child has drowned in the backyard pool.”

“But when I get a telephone call from the mother of a missing child, saying that her daughter had read my article on her disappearance and was returning home and that the mother was indebted to me for life, I then realised my career was not so bad after all.”

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