Two recent editions of The Waterline News were published from Roger Clark’s hospital bed. He credits the magazine with keeping him sane in difficult times.
By Roger Clark
I ALWAYS wanted to be a writer. From the age of 12, after my mother’s death, I mowed lawns on weekends until I had enough money to buy my first typewriter, from the old tin shed in Dandenong. I wasn’t allowed to take typing lessons at high school – that was just for the girls – but I used to type all my homework, which only got me into trouble, because they said I hadn’t written it.
By Roger Clark
I ALWAYS wanted to be a writer. From the age of 12, after my mother’s death, I mowed lawns on weekends until I had enough money to buy my first typewriter, from the old tin shed in Dandenong. I wasn’t allowed to take typing lessons at high school – that was just for the girls – but I used to type all my homework, which only got me into trouble, because they said I hadn’t written it.
I saved enough to buy an old ink duplicator, again from the tin shed, started printing greyhound form guides and sold them outside the track for a few weeks until I was banished. My lifetime interest in greyhounds had started as a toddler. My mother’s brother, Uncle Jack Baines, was a legendary coursing trainer, and I used to crawl around his farm between the greyhounds’ legs.
Expelled from Dandenong High School midway through third form, I started my first job the next day at a shoe shop near the Springvale Railway Station. This lasted for six months until I was sacked for taking a week off work when my father died. Off to the CES (Commonwealth Employment Service), now known as Centrelink, who got me an extra two weeks’ pay from the shoe shop owner and found me another job in a wholesale grocery warehouse in Dandenong. I worked there for almost five years, becoming store manager at the age of 19.
This was the start of a 50-year career in sales, marketing, management and logistics, which took me into my own business in the 1980s. From the grocery warehouse, I moved on to manage three record shops in the CBD, which led to involvements with record companies and bands, which fuelled another lifetime passion: jazz music.
In 1973, aged 24 and married (for the first time) I got a call from a new greyhound paper in Melbourne, asking me to write a story for their first edition. This was the start of a weekly column that is still running today, 43 years later, having outlasted a number of papers that came and went, the last of which closed down earlier this year. Talking Breeding with Roger Clark is still available online.
Over the ensuing 30 years, I produced a variety of small newsletters, including for the Coastal Business and Tourism group at Tarwin Lower, where I headed for a sea change in 1998, starting a small mini nursery and gardening business.
In 2004, my second marriage ended, for whatever reason, but a new life began when I met my wife Vicki. In 2009, when Vicki was diagnosed with a serious lung disease, she said she had always wanted to live by the sea. And so we came to live at Grantville, where we are now firmly established.
A couple of months before the move, I was diagnosed with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. It was so bad I couldn’t even open a door, and I had trouble dressing myself. Within a month I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and had the first operation to remove it.
My mother died when I was 12 and my father when I was 14. Looking back, I suppose my mother’s death was due to cancer. I know my father died from an inoperable brain tumour, probably caused by exposure to all the chemicals he used in the market garden business he ran for many years in the 1950s.
I found my own initial diagnosis of cancer and operation confronting but I coped well until the first check-up revealed another tumour had grown and had to be removed.
There was one bit of positive news. In 2010 I was invited to join the trial of a radical new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. I made a remarkable recovery, and within three months could do some work and started another small gardening business.
Just as the arthritis was starting to improve another bladder tumour appeared, and that has been the pattern. I have now had more than a dozen operations to remove cancer, with another scheduled for October. The last year has been very difficult, punctuated by a spell in hospital with shingles and a gall bladder operation which led to pneumonia and two partially collapsed lungs, during which time they found an irregular heart beat.
Through all of this, The Waterline News has helped to keep me ‘sane’.
It all started when Vicki saw an ad in the Bass Valley News for a volunteer to increase the community focus on the Bass Valley Centre’s activities and write a few feature articles. I think I was the only applicant.
Creative writing is so different from my weekly greyhound column. Informative writing can become repetitive and slightly boring, although the challenge is always there to find new ways to provide basically the same information.
Not long afterwards, I was asked to take over as editor. Did I want to do it? Not really! I had always wanted to start my own magazine, fully independent, but they were in trouble. I was charged with the responsibility not only of taking over as editor but also of stemming the losses and returning to profit.
I did a crash course in ‘Publisher’ and I soon had the magazine on the way back. Within 12 months, the Bass Valley News was again contributing to the running costs of the centre. However, a period of uncertainty followed. My position on the committee and as editor of the Bass Valley News becoming untenable and I left both positions, disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish what I had started.
But my dream of starting a magazine was still at the back of my mind. After a few months of talking to people, most of whom were against the idea, I decided to put my 50 years of sales and marketing experience, together with 40 years as a journalist, albeit in an informative and restricted field, to good use.
And so The Waterline News was born. It wasn’t set up in opposition to The Bass Valley News. Prospective advertisers were asked either to advertise in both magazines, or if they had been with the Bass Valley News and could only afford one, to stay with them.
In two years we have gone from 12 pages to 32 pages. We started by distributing 800 hard copies to around 70 shops, community centres, and other outlets. We now deliver 1500 copies to 110 outlets, from Tooradin, through Koo Wee Rup, Lang Lang, Nyora, Loch, Kernot, Grantville, Corinella, Coronet Bay, Bass, San Remo, Newhaven, Phillip Island, Cowes and French Island. Since the French Island Pinnacle ceased publication last year, the Island now has its own section in the middle of the magazine.
We also send out almost 400 e-copies and we have a terrific website, set up and maintained by Gordon Chase, from Chase Computers in Grantville. When I say “we”, “us” or “our”, it is a very small team, which includes my wife Vicki, our two proof readers, who wish to remain anonymous, and a small band of contributors. As one edition hits the streets, work on the next begins.
Two recent editions were published from my temporary office at Casey Hospital, and two editions were delivered entirely by the help of three volunteer/friends.
The battle with arthritis and cancer goes on, rearing its ugly head at some stage almost every day. But I am thankful that I am still here to tell the story and that I can continue the dream that started more than 50 years ago.
COMMENTS
September 13, 2016
That article about Roger Clark is just so inspirational. His courage is awesome. How come that perfectly healthy people with nothing to complain of are peevish and unhappy and yet someone with legitimate grouches against fate can still be balanced human being?
I am just so impressed.
Margaret Pearce
Another great BCP; I was particularly moved by the Roger Clarke piece. His achievements are great on their own merit but within the context of ongoing hospitalisations, astounding. The Waterline News does a brilliant job keeping all those communities engaged and in touch with each other; each edition packed with updates and local news and history pieces.
Keep at it Roger; Like the BCP, essential reading for Bass Coasters.
Geoff Ellis, Wattle Bank
September 11, 2016
Roger, you haven’t had the easiest of lives and you write it up matter-of-factly in a very readable and positive way. I’m sorry health problems currently complicate your life. But, as usual, you steamroll through difficulties others would consider insurmountable. I do hope you can soon get on top of your cancer and other health issues. You have to be strong physically and psychologically to cope with 12 ops in six years the way you have and now there’s another one to come. You are a true professional who is committed to getting out your magazine each month, no matter what.
Congratulations on your baby, The Waterline News, a fine magazine which, in two years, has grown to be a significant asset to the community.
May there be many more issues!
Meryl Tobin, Grantville
September 10, 2016
Well done to Bass Coast Post for publishing this article and congratulations to Roger Clark for soldiering on.
Reading the article I can't help but think how lucky we are, firstly the kids of today. Imagine if they had a job and then, if they were sacked because they took a week off because a parent passed away. It's probably written law they would be entitled that in personal leave and the employer had no alternative than to allow the time off.
Roger has certainly seen more than his share of adversity in his life. Most of us would only experience a tiny portion of this in our lives and would complain, shout for compensation - someone to blame, but what does Roger do? He writes. Not only for his own sanity but to bring joy, knowledge, information, mateship and a sense of belonging to our community.
Roger is a good bloke, I wish there were more like him not only in our patch of South Gippsland but the nation and, in fact, the world. My thoughts are with Roger in his continuing battle and my wishes go to him for the best outcome possible. Keep up the good work.
Shelley Applebee
I read with interest Roger's article about his life. Roger has done gardening for us in the past,and boy, did he work hard. We also enjoy the Waterline News, and wanted to wish Roger all the best in future health, for him and his wife.
Michelle and Brian
Expelled from Dandenong High School midway through third form, I started my first job the next day at a shoe shop near the Springvale Railway Station. This lasted for six months until I was sacked for taking a week off work when my father died. Off to the CES (Commonwealth Employment Service), now known as Centrelink, who got me an extra two weeks’ pay from the shoe shop owner and found me another job in a wholesale grocery warehouse in Dandenong. I worked there for almost five years, becoming store manager at the age of 19.
This was the start of a 50-year career in sales, marketing, management and logistics, which took me into my own business in the 1980s. From the grocery warehouse, I moved on to manage three record shops in the CBD, which led to involvements with record companies and bands, which fuelled another lifetime passion: jazz music.
In 1973, aged 24 and married (for the first time) I got a call from a new greyhound paper in Melbourne, asking me to write a story for their first edition. This was the start of a weekly column that is still running today, 43 years later, having outlasted a number of papers that came and went, the last of which closed down earlier this year. Talking Breeding with Roger Clark is still available online.
Over the ensuing 30 years, I produced a variety of small newsletters, including for the Coastal Business and Tourism group at Tarwin Lower, where I headed for a sea change in 1998, starting a small mini nursery and gardening business.
In 2004, my second marriage ended, for whatever reason, but a new life began when I met my wife Vicki. In 2009, when Vicki was diagnosed with a serious lung disease, she said she had always wanted to live by the sea. And so we came to live at Grantville, where we are now firmly established.
A couple of months before the move, I was diagnosed with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. It was so bad I couldn’t even open a door, and I had trouble dressing myself. Within a month I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and had the first operation to remove it.
My mother died when I was 12 and my father when I was 14. Looking back, I suppose my mother’s death was due to cancer. I know my father died from an inoperable brain tumour, probably caused by exposure to all the chemicals he used in the market garden business he ran for many years in the 1950s.
I found my own initial diagnosis of cancer and operation confronting but I coped well until the first check-up revealed another tumour had grown and had to be removed.
There was one bit of positive news. In 2010 I was invited to join the trial of a radical new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. I made a remarkable recovery, and within three months could do some work and started another small gardening business.
Just as the arthritis was starting to improve another bladder tumour appeared, and that has been the pattern. I have now had more than a dozen operations to remove cancer, with another scheduled for October. The last year has been very difficult, punctuated by a spell in hospital with shingles and a gall bladder operation which led to pneumonia and two partially collapsed lungs, during which time they found an irregular heart beat.
Through all of this, The Waterline News has helped to keep me ‘sane’.
It all started when Vicki saw an ad in the Bass Valley News for a volunteer to increase the community focus on the Bass Valley Centre’s activities and write a few feature articles. I think I was the only applicant.
Creative writing is so different from my weekly greyhound column. Informative writing can become repetitive and slightly boring, although the challenge is always there to find new ways to provide basically the same information.
Not long afterwards, I was asked to take over as editor. Did I want to do it? Not really! I had always wanted to start my own magazine, fully independent, but they were in trouble. I was charged with the responsibility not only of taking over as editor but also of stemming the losses and returning to profit.
I did a crash course in ‘Publisher’ and I soon had the magazine on the way back. Within 12 months, the Bass Valley News was again contributing to the running costs of the centre. However, a period of uncertainty followed. My position on the committee and as editor of the Bass Valley News becoming untenable and I left both positions, disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish what I had started.
But my dream of starting a magazine was still at the back of my mind. After a few months of talking to people, most of whom were against the idea, I decided to put my 50 years of sales and marketing experience, together with 40 years as a journalist, albeit in an informative and restricted field, to good use.
And so The Waterline News was born. It wasn’t set up in opposition to The Bass Valley News. Prospective advertisers were asked either to advertise in both magazines, or if they had been with the Bass Valley News and could only afford one, to stay with them.
In two years we have gone from 12 pages to 32 pages. We started by distributing 800 hard copies to around 70 shops, community centres, and other outlets. We now deliver 1500 copies to 110 outlets, from Tooradin, through Koo Wee Rup, Lang Lang, Nyora, Loch, Kernot, Grantville, Corinella, Coronet Bay, Bass, San Remo, Newhaven, Phillip Island, Cowes and French Island. Since the French Island Pinnacle ceased publication last year, the Island now has its own section in the middle of the magazine.
We also send out almost 400 e-copies and we have a terrific website, set up and maintained by Gordon Chase, from Chase Computers in Grantville. When I say “we”, “us” or “our”, it is a very small team, which includes my wife Vicki, our two proof readers, who wish to remain anonymous, and a small band of contributors. As one edition hits the streets, work on the next begins.
Two recent editions were published from my temporary office at Casey Hospital, and two editions were delivered entirely by the help of three volunteer/friends.
The battle with arthritis and cancer goes on, rearing its ugly head at some stage almost every day. But I am thankful that I am still here to tell the story and that I can continue the dream that started more than 50 years ago.
COMMENTS
September 13, 2016
That article about Roger Clark is just so inspirational. His courage is awesome. How come that perfectly healthy people with nothing to complain of are peevish and unhappy and yet someone with legitimate grouches against fate can still be balanced human being?
I am just so impressed.
Margaret Pearce
Another great BCP; I was particularly moved by the Roger Clarke piece. His achievements are great on their own merit but within the context of ongoing hospitalisations, astounding. The Waterline News does a brilliant job keeping all those communities engaged and in touch with each other; each edition packed with updates and local news and history pieces.
Keep at it Roger; Like the BCP, essential reading for Bass Coasters.
Geoff Ellis, Wattle Bank
September 11, 2016
Roger, you haven’t had the easiest of lives and you write it up matter-of-factly in a very readable and positive way. I’m sorry health problems currently complicate your life. But, as usual, you steamroll through difficulties others would consider insurmountable. I do hope you can soon get on top of your cancer and other health issues. You have to be strong physically and psychologically to cope with 12 ops in six years the way you have and now there’s another one to come. You are a true professional who is committed to getting out your magazine each month, no matter what.
Congratulations on your baby, The Waterline News, a fine magazine which, in two years, has grown to be a significant asset to the community.
May there be many more issues!
Meryl Tobin, Grantville
September 10, 2016
Well done to Bass Coast Post for publishing this article and congratulations to Roger Clark for soldiering on.
Reading the article I can't help but think how lucky we are, firstly the kids of today. Imagine if they had a job and then, if they were sacked because they took a week off because a parent passed away. It's probably written law they would be entitled that in personal leave and the employer had no alternative than to allow the time off.
Roger has certainly seen more than his share of adversity in his life. Most of us would only experience a tiny portion of this in our lives and would complain, shout for compensation - someone to blame, but what does Roger do? He writes. Not only for his own sanity but to bring joy, knowledge, information, mateship and a sense of belonging to our community.
Roger is a good bloke, I wish there were more like him not only in our patch of South Gippsland but the nation and, in fact, the world. My thoughts are with Roger in his continuing battle and my wishes go to him for the best outcome possible. Keep up the good work.
Shelley Applebee
I read with interest Roger's article about his life. Roger has done gardening for us in the past,and boy, did he work hard. We also enjoy the Waterline News, and wanted to wish Roger all the best in future health, for him and his wife.
Michelle and Brian