This will probably be my last article for the Oberon Review because I'll be leaving the paper after Christmas. The last eighteen months with the paper have presented an enjoyable challenge.
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Previously, my career in journalism had been almost exclusively writing opinion columns for various magazines. I wrote about science, health, business practices and things I've probably forgotten, and I ran my own online magazine for about twenty years, where I could rant about anything I liked.
Writing for a weekly newspaper in a small town was a totally new experience. Just before I started at the Review I was doing a creative writing course, and while the course content wasn't directly applicable to writing for a news outlet it gave me the opportunity to joke that it prepared me for being creative when writing headlines.
It wasn't just the process of writing for a weekly paper that was new, it was the sort of things I got to write about. I can't remember the last time I went to a chamber music concert or a rugby league match and I know I'd never been to a rodeo in my life, but there I was with my camera on the sidelines.
My reasons for leaving the paper are personal. I'll still be a journalist and my byline might appear in all sorts of places. I've been a freelancer before and I still remember how to do it.
I would like to thank the other members of my working group, Ben Palmer and Reidun Berntsen, for putting up with me as I learnt the ropes. I must also thank the residents of Oberon and surrounds for supporting what I was doing with the Review.
I'll still be around town in my colourful shirts and I'll still be going to the opening of envelopes. I might even have the camera with me sometimes.
