General News
29 April, 2026
Friendship endures
THREE former apprentices of Western District Newspapers reunited recently to reflect on their time working for the newspaper, 60 years on from their first days.
Weerite’s Laurie Boyd, South Purrumbete’s Ian Sefton and Terang’s Ray Worland worked at what was previously the Chronicle office between 1966 and 1970, back when newspapers were created by-hand.
The trio reunited in Adelaide recently, enjoying a four-day trip which included a tour of the Barossa Valley.
Mr Boyd, who was a hand compositor, said Western District Newspapers published seven papers a week as well as a number of personal and business printing projects.
“Ian was a machinist – that means he worked the machines and did the printing,” he said.
“Ray was a lino type operator, which was a hot metal – he set the type for the paper and for the jobs.
“I was a hand compositor, meaning I put the type together and made up the letterheads and pages of the paper.
“We were buddies the whole time – we would support each other in the workplace.
“We’d go out together when we weren’t at the workplace – it got to the point where we went to each other’s weddings and were on each other’s best man lists.”
The trio have maintained their relationship over the past 60 years, including organising reunions for the past 10 years.
Mr Boyd said he had fond memories of being very busy with a variety of jobs to do.
“We did seven newspapers – we did the Western Plains Advertiser, we did Terang Express, Mortlake Dispatch, Cobden Times and more.
“We only had five days, so on one day we were putting out two papers.
“Managing deadlines was always the stress point in the organisation and being able to manage the machinery we had to work with is a bit different from today.
“We used to have hot metal around us a lot of the time while we were setting type, and we’d have crashes.”
In addition to the various printing jobs, the trio would attend the Melbourne School of Printing and Graphic Arts in four two-week blocks throughout the year.
Mr Boyd said the close connections were fostered by working closely with one another as well as other staff – including then managing director Neil Baglin and journalists Geoff Brown and Graeme Willingham.
“Western District Newspapers was not like this, but a lot of apprentices were at the bottom of the pecking order in the workplace and often get asked to do the not-so-good jobs and then they get better and better at their trade,” he said.
“Neil Baglin, who was the managing director at that state, was very good with apprentices and gave us lots of responsibilities from day one.
“Every day in the workplace, you’re working very closely to get the client’s request right.
“If I was setting the newspaper, the type operators would have to be constantly talking to us about how we aligned the pages – it was the same with the journalists.
“You do it today with digital means – we used to have to do it with hot metal.”
Today, Mr Boyd lives in Geelong, having pivoted into another career following his time at Western District Newspapers.
Meanwhile, Mr Sefton lives in Western Australia and established a printing business while Mr Worland founded Star Printing in Terang.
Despite the different journeys they have taken, Mr Boyd said the trio were proud to have worked at Western District Newspapers.
“Back in our day, the Chronicle office was an icon – it was considered a very important part of the communication of the community and a lot of interest was shown towards the journalists who had to collect the stories,” he said.
“A lot of the journalists would go to functions, go out at night – they would be at the football recording journalistic stories.
“The Camperdown Chronicle and other papers were a significant part of community communication.”