Keith is the last Lockwood in Australia working full-time in newspaper journalism, a family tradition that has spanned more than a century.

Keith is the son of founding editor Allan Lockwood and grandson of West Wimmera Mail proprietor Alfred Lockwood. He spoke with journalist SARAH SCULLY.

KEITH Lockwood was mustering cattle in western Queensland when he received the summons.

“Come home.”

Keith had ignored his father’s first telegram because of the busy mustering season, but he knew the second was more than a request.

After 10 years as a journalist at The Sun News-Pictorial, five months travelling in South America and a couple of random jobs in northern Australia, it was time to return to his roots.

“I was ready to come home,” Keith said.

“I’d had a good 10 years in Melbourne, but I was still a country boy.

“Even when I was in the city I was actively climbing, so I was going to the Grampians or Arapiles or Buffalo on weekends.

“It was always in the back of my mind to come back to what was then still a family paper, run by Dad as the editor and Uncle Frank as the manager.”

Despite growing up hearing about and seeing first-hand the demands of a country paper, Keith soon learnt life at the Wimmera Mail-Times was far removed from The Sun.

He said not only was life busier at the Mail-Times, he soon discovered journalists had to be far more accountable.

“In Melbourne you never heard again from the people you had interviewed,” he said.

But Keith found it was the close connection with his sources and the paper’s readership that made his work at the Mail-Times so rewarding.

“Here you write things about people and you meet them in the street the next day,” he said.

“What you are writing about their life and community is important to them.

“That was the big change. That’s why I’ve never hankered to go back to the big city lights.”

Despite his love of the country, Keith’s years in the city gave him a solid grounding in journalism.

“I had a terrific time down there,” he said.

“They put me through shorthand college, touch-typing school and university part-time.”

Cadet classes with senior journalists also proved fruitful.

“We were mixing with senior political writers, court reporters, fashion editors and so forth, so we learnt a lot,” he said.

“We were also moved around quite a bit to different departments, such as court reporting, police rounds and general news.

“Then I went to sub-editing sport results. It taught me to be accurate – because if you mucked up the TAB numbers you heard from half of Melbourne.”

In the mid-1970s, Keith spent five months in South America, including time with Chilean refugees in the wilds of Patagonia.

Upon arrival back in Australia he hitchhiked to Alice Springs to visit his brother Bruce, and spent some time working on Jindalee, an over-the-horizon radar system.

“After that I hitchhiked to Cairns and flew to Papua New Guinea where I visited another brother Greg in the highlands near Goroka,” Keith said.

“We spent some time trekking in the remote Jimi Valley, home to students in the seminary where Greg was a missionary.’’

Keith returned to Melbourne where he joined The Sun’s features department, editing the Young Sun column and covering State Parliament where a young Bernie Dunn from Warracknabeal was making his mark as a politician.

At the end of the 1970s Keith took off again, this time on his paper-round bicycle.

“I decided to ride up the Birdsville Track. Then I got to Birdsville and thought, ‘where am I now? I’m a long way from nowhere’.

“I spent a few days there recovering and fixing the bike and then started riding east. That’s when I got picked up by the cattle station, Cuddapan.”

With the mustering season over and home calling, Keith flew to Melbourne, packed up his things and returned home to Natimuk.

Keith admits he did not grow up with an ambition to be a journalist.

“Kids were feral in the 1950s. We rode our bikes and chased rabbits all day,’’ he said.

“We were outdoor kids.”

He dreamt of being an orchardist, a farmer or a forester, but after matriculation applied for a newspaper cadetship at the suggestion of his father.

“I was a bit unsure, but it didn’t take long to settle in,’’ he said.

Keith said a good journalist must be curious.

“You need to want to learn about things and want to share stories,” he said.

“That’s what I like about journalism – you get to tell all these wonderful stories that you otherwise wouldn’t experience or learn about.’’

Keith rates the Mail-Times’ series about the Wimmera River, North to Nowhere, as the most satisfying.

It won a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2002 and played a role in galvanising the political will to construct the massive Wimmera-Mallee Pipeline network.

“It was a real team effort under Danny Lannen as editor,’’ he said. 

“I was involved mainly as a sub-editor.

“Many people put their hand up as being ‘Mr Pipeline’ – politicians and others, but I think it was a real combined Wimmera effort and I would like to think the paper played some small role in promoting the cause, through the articles, the devastating pictures through the drought, through the petitions to Canberra and so on.”

Throughout his time as a sub-editor, Keith has mentored scores of up-and-coming journalists, many of whom have gone on to work on daily newspapers, television or in government departments.

“I think that’s part of the job as a senior journalist,” he said.

“You learn on the job and share it with your colleagues.”

After 45 years of full-time work, meeting deadlines three times a week, Keith announced his retirement in May.

“It’s time. I’m happy to step aside and try to have a healthier life,” he said.

“I’ve seen a lot of friends who have worked until they can’t work any more and then they don’t have any quality of life to enjoy.

“The newspaper industry is changing a lot. I grew up in the world of hot metal and typewriters.

"Computers and online journalism are somewhat foreign to me.’’

Keith plans to spend time in his garden overlooking Mt Arapiles, and renovating his family’s Natimuk homestead ‘Wahroonga’. 

Retirement will also allow more time for climbing and doting on his grandchildren Hamish, 2, and Oscar, seven weeks.

His wife Sally is looking forward to having her husband at home more often, but said Friday was bittersweet.

“Keith’s father made the Mail-Times and he is the last Lockwood there,” she said.

“I’m very proud of his work. He’s trained so many journalists. It’s hard to see them up and go, but you can’t hold them back. They move on and you need to too.

“The Mail-Times will keep going without him, it will just be different.

“For me, it’s a bit sad, but I want to see him leave on a high, doing what he loves.”

The Wimmera Mail-Times team would like to acknowledge Keith for his dedication to the paper and its staff over the past 35 years.

Mail-Times editor Georgia Bailey said Keith had helped mentor generations of journalists in his time.

“His knowledge of the Wimmera is incredible and his passion for our community has always shone through,” she said. 

“He has the utmost respect of all staff and his legacy will continue through them.

“We wish him all the best for retirement and thank him for all he has given to the Wimmera Mail-Times.”