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Shane O'Shea has plenty of memories from the half-century he's spent working at the Buloke Times, in the western Victorian town Donald, population 1,500.
But one in particular sticks in his mind.
It was the late 1970s and the paper still used a typesetting machine — a technology of the day that cast molten metal into lines with letters and words on them, which were then dipped in ink and printed on paper.
"If you had a new ad made up and you were short of a letter, you would go and pick [a letter] out of a standing ad and put it in," Mr O'Shea said.
"We had a Holden dealer in Donald, OA Shilton and Sons, and we had to take the L out of Shilton to use it [in a different ad], but next time the ad was printed it wasn't put back in.
"We had the owner, Ozzie Shilton come in, and he said he'd been called a lot of things in his time, but he'd never been … well, I'll leave it up to your imagination.
"People noticed his ad, no doubt about that."
Anecdotes like this reflect just how different life was — in news and in Australia — when 16-year-old Mr O'Shea began at the Buloke Times in January 1972, under then-editor Goff Letts Senior.
Now almost 68, Mr O'Shea retired on June 30, having done just about every job at the paper: from hand and machine compositor (page editor), to sports reporter and photographer.
Covering the Russell St bombers
Shane O'Shea's name is well-known across north central Victoria — and not just because it has an alliterative ring to it.
During his time at the paper, he covered many stories of importance to the surrounding community.
Buloke is the name of the council area the paper services, and both are named after Lake Buloke, just north of Donald.
It was here that Mr O'Shea covered one of his most unforgettable stories soon after starting.
"There was heavy rain and we had a waterfall out the back of the Times' office," he said.
"Lake Buloke filled up virtually overnight, and the duck shooting that followed that, I think there were about 10,000 duck shooters surrounding Lake Buloke, it was like a tent city there.
"Then in [1986], the Russell Street bombers were located up at Birchip [40 minutes north of Donald]."
The Russell Street bombing in March of that year destroyed a police complex in Melbourne, and killed Angela Rose Taylor, the first Australian policewoman to die in the line of duty.
Lake Buloke filled up again in 2022, as the Richardson River through Donald reached epic flood levels, like many others in Victoria at the time.
But this time, Mr O'Shea was not using typesetting to tell the story.
He's more than happy computers have replaced the analogue technology.
"We can cut and paste text into a software page, paste the photos in and make up a page in no time," he said.
"It used to take hours putting the pages together and then transferring them to the printing process. I can remember trying to work until 10pm trying to get pages done, and then distributing them to newsagents was another process."
A lucky snap
Mr O'Shea is also an award-winning photographer, with the Victorian Cricket Association recognising a particularly memorable snap of Charlton cricketer Tony McLean, taken during a local grand final.
"I just happened to take the snap when he was hit in that area you don't want to be hit as a cricketer, and the Kookaburra on the ball was visible," he said.
However, his "most memorable" moment as journalist was the opportunity to capture in words a mercurial moment of community joy, following the final siren of a local football grand final.
"Just seeing the euphoria on the faces of the football supporters, and then trying to incorporate that into my reports," he said.
"Local sport is very important … particularly [in] this part of the world.
"I grew up in Donald and it's my hometown. Back in the 70s you didn't move far — if you found a good job, you stuck with it. Then you get ties within the community and become part of the fabric, I think that's what kept me here."
Telling stories of community champions
Mr O'Shea said the the Buloke Times' mantra has always been to move with the times.
The office — which currently has seven employees — got its first computer in 1988, and added a website to its twice-a-week newspaper offering in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
But a bridge he hopes the paper never crosses is making content solely for social media.
"A lot of it's not for me — we are a good news newspaper that respects the individual you are writing about, and some of the things said on social media are just not worth looking at," he said.
"We report what's happening locally: the achievements of our residents, the stories impacting on their lives.
"I think that's what kept us going and made us viable. People want to see what their sons, daughters and grandchildren are doing … that's what people keep telling us.
"There are a whole lot of individuals working for the benefit of their communities, and we like to highlight that. It is history in the making."
Though staff are getting harder to come by, Mr O'Shea is optimistic about the paper's future.
"Over the past nine months, we were lucky enough to get a young girl in to take over my role — so I've been able to pass on a bit about what I know," he said.
"It's easy to stay there until you can't work any longer, but I wanted to get out before that happened to ensure the newspaper could continue by training up more staff."