Next month, it will be 25 years since I was offered a journalism cadetship at the Bendigo Advertiser. A 17-year-old from Elmore, with a love of story-telling, current affairs and a naive desire to change the world.
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It never occurred to me that some day, I would be the editor of this paper - yet, last week, I clocked over four years in the role.
The two milestones have caused me to pause and reflect on a career that has been, and continues to be, a privilege every day.
It is an honour to write history. An individual's history, that of an organisation or importantly, the city's.
To write the story for those who love someone, or something. To drive social change, to get action, to fight on behalf of central Victoria.
Every one of those stories - those realities - stays with me, and people often ask if any stand out. Some do stay with you in different ways to others, because journalists are human.
But generally, my response is that whether seeking the truth, fairness or accountability, or sharing love, joy or pain, every story matters most to those involved in whatever story we are writing about at the time. And it's our job to treat their story with the respect it deserves.
So today, I want to acknowledge the strength of every person who has ever shared their story with me - and thank you for trusting me to report your truth.
And these are just a few of many who are among those:
To Casey, James and Michelle - you taught me so much about life when you lost your beautiful baby, Zayden. Sitting in court every day with you, and your beautiful families, during the trial of his killer is something that will stay with me forever.
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To Mary, and many other women, who have shared the impact of violence on their lives to help raise community awareness about an issue that is a national crisis. Thank you for your strength and desire to help others.
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To Helen, who first made contact with me 10 years ago, but waited until recently to share her story, in the hope of finding her biological father after being abandoned on the porch of an Eaglehawk house 50 years ago. Your insight into the events that resulted in your story is extraordinary - we all have much to learn from you.
To Carol, Mick and Jill and the Bendigo and Redesdale families affected by Black Saturday - a day forever etched in our memories, out of which we saw raw, vulnerable people find courage and strength. In your most difficult days, you showed compassion and acceptance to journalists who also needed to record such a significant event in our region. A special group of people.
To the many, many in the emergency services in our region - and others where I have worked - you continue to leave me in awe. Too few understand your varied roles and what you are exposed to.
Thank you for supporting journalists to do our job, though we often meet in horrific circumstances.
Like most of you, journalists never forget the first fatal road smash they attend, or any actually. I recall standing by a dam in the state's north-east waiting for a toddler to be retrieved from the bottom of the dirty, smelly water - and on another occasion while working in Alice Springs, flying to a remote community where a newborn was killed in a house fire. We are all doing our jobs, but share an understanding of just how hard that is some days. And on many of those occasions, being there with many of you in the emergency services has made it that little bit easier.
To those who worked with a small group of Bendigo journalists to put the pressure on for a new Bendigo hospital, this took not only vision but guts - and we should all be so proud of what has since been achieved.
To those who lobbied for funding for a new women's refuge in Bendigo, thank you for what you have done for women and children fleeing violence.
To those who said yes to marriage equality, who gave the green light to a new place of worship, who fought for better women's facilities at sporting grounds - thank you for trusting us to work with you.
And to those who trusted me to break stories of corruption and wrong-doing - you are the unnamed, but among the strongest. Our country needs people like you.
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And to those who along the way, have offered feedback - sometimes, not-so-great. I recall that in the first or second year of my cadetship, I published a story which had a word wrong. I received an anonymous letter from someone who said they were an English teacher, telling me they expected better and would use my story as an example for students. I tried to work out the surname from the signature and phoned every secondary school in the region trying to work out who they were - so thank you, because that was a lesson for me.
And thank you for your humour along the way. Many years ago, I wrote a front page story which included quotes from a local police sergeant - whose surname started with B. A sub editor, late at night, hit spell check - and instead of ignore, they hit the replace button. Well... that story went to press with the police officer quoted as Sergeant Banana who had talked about some rather funny street names throughout the story. I'm told B1 and B2 jokes were popular at the station, that day.
And ... a cameraman at WIN TV once had a good laugh at my expense when I climbed over a fence to do a piece to camera, and landed in a very large lump of cow excrement.
It's been a whole lot of fun.
To end, and most importantly, thank you to the Bendigo Addy team - those past and present. You are an exceptional group of people. And if you click here, or on the front page below, you will see a collection of some of my favourite front pages from our team during the past four years. What a journey we have been on, with our community.
Thanks for trusting us.
Nicole Ferrie, editor
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