One of the region’s greatest journalist’s looks back and where he’s come from, and where he’s going.
ALAN Erskine’s career as a journalist spanned about 50 years, beginning at the Sunraysia Daily as a cadet, where as he said he had great teachers, including the late editor, George Tilley.
“George, in the simplest of terms, explained to me that what you needed to do as a journalist was to tell a story that people wanted to read, making it interesting, factual, educational, informative, and above all entertaining,” he said.
Erskine put that advice to good use, ending up as editor of, first the Sunraysia Daily, and later the Mildura Weekly, along the way receiving written accolades from three judges, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Late Sir Henry Winneke.
“As a teenager I started to get into a little bit of trouble, nothing major mind you, but enough that a local policeman told me that I was going to apply for a job as a journalist at the Sunraysia Daily. It seemed a strange idea to me at the time, considering I struggled to spell journalist, never mind the idea that I might be one!” Erskine said.
“I was very lucky that I had some great teachers, and added to that, I was determined to succeed.”
And succeed Erskine did.
Of course, when your parents and family have instilled in you a great work ethic, with the example they set, it becomes easier to understand why Erskine became a journalist of note.
He’s the third son of Alan and Dvora Erskine and was five years old when the Erskine family migrated to Australia in 1952, under what was colloquially known then as “The Ten-Pound Pom” scheme.
They sailed on the migrant ship The New Australia.
Erskine’s father was a Scot’s Guard at Buckingham Palace, before leaving to come to Australia.
“My father had an interesting story that he would tell us about his Guard days,” Erskine said.
“Quite often two young girls, aged about 11 and seven, would walk from the Palace to the front gates, and either ankle-tap the Guardsmen, or make them salute.
“The girls were Princess Margaret, and her older sister, Princess Elizabeth, later to be Queen.
“I was only five, but I can recall passing through the Suez Canal.
“I can still see the locals in boats using ropes and baskets to supply fresh fruit to boat passengers. They would dive for the coins thrown to them.
“I have a prized photograph of me dressed in tweed knickerbockers, holding a flying fish that landed on the deck of the ship, which was several storeys off the ocean.”
It wasn’t until much later in life that Erskine found out he also had a half-brother, Benjamin, to Dvora’s first husband in her home town of Hebron, Israel.
The Erskine family sailed first to Perth, then around to the East coast, finally disembarking to settle inland from Mackay, Queensland, where Erskine’s father worked as a cane cutter, and also a mechanic.
“After a few years, our family packed up their old Austin A40 and headed south, with brief stops in Sarina and Lennox Head, before we eventually settled at the Buronga Caravan Park,” Erskine said.
“That was in 1956, during the great flood.
“Along with my brothers Brian and Ian, I learned to swim in the flooded Murray River.
“These days I do less swimming and more fishing in the river.”
The family then moved to the Victorian side of the river into a home Erskine’s father had helped build.
“Our house was close to Chaffey House, which was an adventure playground for my brothers and me,” Erskine said.
“It was at this time we learned about the secret tunnels of Chaffey House. We lived at number 12 Heron Ave. Great memories!”
“We all attended Mildura West Primary and later, Mildura Tech School. As brothers we became part of what we called the “Heron Street Gang”.
“We had so much fun. My brother Brian and I both feature in a children’s book Red and the Heron Street Gang written by Kerry Kenihan, mother of Quentin, who featured many times on the Mike Willesee Show.
The Erskine family, who worked exceptional hard, like other immigrant families, eventually were able to swap their family home for the Roxy Café at Merbein.
Erskine started his footy career with Merbein Football Club when he moved there.
It was a career that saw him play around 150 games.
“My biggest regret in football was being ruled out injured when the Magpies won the 1975 SFL grand final,” Erskine said.
In 1976 and well established into his journalistic career Erskine was honoured by being one of only eight journalists in the world to be awarded a six-month post graduate scholarship to the United Kingdom.
Many years later, in 2012, he received the Victor Chang Award for excellence in cardiovascular journalism.
“That same year I received the Victor Chang Award I took up the challenge of walking the Kokoda Track as part of the MASP mentoring group,” Erskine said.
“It was one of the hardest things I have undertaken.
“I was at that time suffering some effects from the debilitating muscle disease PMR – Poly-myalgia Rheumatica.
“Completing the walk is something that I’m extremely proud of.”
When asked what he considers was the best story he has ever written Erskine without hesitation says’’The Possum.”
“David James Jones, the last of the great Aussie swagmen, who roamed the river country between Renmark and Wentworth for more than half-a-century,” Erskine said.
As chief-of-staff of Sunraysia Daily, in 1982 when The Possum died, Erskine started an appeal that raised more than $1200 so that the bush legend could be buried with dignity.
The Possum now lies in a private cemetery on Wangumma Station, between Wentworth and the South Australian border.
“He’s buried in the bush he loved so much, exactly where he would love being buried,” Erskine said.
“I have a treasured life-size wooden statue of The Possum, carved from red gum with a chain saw, overlooking the Murray River on my Colignan property.”
Erskine was career journalist, although he did extend his abilities to other fields over the years, including major events organising, running a shop, post office and later a caravan park.
“I even for a period of time where I worked as an executive assistant to mate Craig Bildstien, during part of his term as the Member for Mildura in the Kennett Government, and joining the first wave of private speed camera operators in Victoria,” Erskine said.
A lifetime goal on Erskine’s bucket list was achieved in 2009, when he bought six acres on the Murray River at Colignan.
He spent a large portion of his spare time over the next few years to planting trees, building bird nesting boxes, making improvements and enjoying the ambience of his Nangiloc-Colignan property.
It was at Nangiloc-Colignan that Erskine got back into lawn bowls, becoming club singles champion on five occasions, serving a few years as club president, and was selected on several occasions to represent Bowls Sunraysia.
Erskine has also won firstly the Sunraysia, and then the regional Over 60s Victorian Singles Championship.
He’s also played several times in the Australian bowls championships on the Gold Coast, an event that attracted around 3000 competitors from across the world, twice making the knockouts and finishing 128th in the singles championships, and making the last 32 teams in the fours.
Playing on the Gold Coast has the added bonus of allowing Erskine to catch up with his eldest brother Ian at Broadbeach.
Just to add to his list of achievements Erskine has run a marathon in three hours 19 minutes, his best time over 50 metres in the pool was a shade more than 30 seconds, he represented the Mildura Working Man’s Club in snooker and billiards, played darts and table tennis at a reasonable level, played cricket with Nichols Point where he won the batting average in his first year, played tennis with the former Buronga club, was off a handicap of 12 in golf, had a hole-in-one to his name, spent many years as a basketball player, referee and later as on-court announcer for the Mildura Mavericks.
He even had a crack at car racing at Timmis Raceway – winning his first – and only – event.
These days Erskine has a special love of travel, both in Australia and overseas, and has been fortunate enough to visit many colourful places, including Israel to see his mother’s family, the Philippines, Egypt, England, Scotland and Wales, Singapore, New Zealand, Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, Africa, Thailand, China and Bali.
Erskine said he’s also wanting to spend more time with his three children Simone, Shannon and Naomi, and eight grandchildren.
They are the reason he’s made the decision, along with a desire to do more travelling, to put his very special property at Colignan on the market.
“Time for me to be a little closer to family,” he said.
