Black Saturday wraps
Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, is etched in the minds of every Victorian who was touched by the deaths of 173 people in Australia’s worst bushfire disaster.
The Geelong Advertiser’s special edition on Monday, February 9, was an extraordinary 30 pages – almost all reports written locally in an extraordinary news gathering exercise amid of mounting death tolls and destroyed communities.
With a limited number of staff rostered, I was called in to help design and lay out a total of 30 pages dedicated to the special edition, which contained full reports and photography.
Limited by time and resources, I called on family members caught up in the Gippsland fires. This contributed to four stories, illustrating the vast and widespread devastation.
In that maelstrom, the Geelong Advertiser launched the nation’s first Red Cross – sanctioned telethon – rallying the local community on Tuesday, February 10, using its classified phone room and website.
The appeal raised a staggering $136,885 by 9pm, including more than $3800 from Geelong Advertiser staff working that day. The appeal eventually topped $160,000.
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