FORMER agricultural scientist and journalist and now local author and historian Laurelle Pacey has lived in Narooma area for many years.
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Her interest in becoming a journalist was sparked when she was at Sydney University studying to be an agricultural scientist. She met an agricultural journalist through one of her course supervisors.
After working in the Department of Agriculture, she travelled overland from South East Asia, India, Nepal through Afghanistan and Iran to Turkey for nine months.
She then completed her journalism cadetship in London, eventually writing for three years for the major farming magazine British Farmer and Stock Breeder.
On that magazine, Laurelle specialised in farm mechanisation and at that time was the only woman in Europe writing about farm machinery.
This almost caused a major advertiser to pull out of the magazine because he thought that being a woman, the job was beyond her. She proved herself and he soon increased his advertising.
When she moved back to Australia, she worked with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as a radio rural reporter for the Hunter Valley and Central Coast for five years. She also established a breakfast program for the Upper Hunter.
Laurelle then worked as the national reporter in Canberra for the ABC’s Countryhour.
In April 1989, she and her husband moved to Narooma from Khancoban with her husband’s work.
Laurelle continued her career as a journalist, initially with Narooma News on a casual basis in the mid-1990s.
She soon established her own company Pacey Media and began freelance work including for the Koori Mail, Canberra Times, Illawarra Mercury, Australian Meat News and local radio station 2EC, as well as working as a media consultant.
She has a lifelong passion for history. “I was always curious as to why towns were where they were and what made them tick,” she said. “So I was very interested in the history of this area.”
She does extensive research before writing her local history books on Narooma, Montague Island, Bodalla and Tilba. This includes collecting primary source material from the State Library, ANU Business Archives, private collections and old newspapers.
“Writing history is like a giant jigsaw,” she explains. “You don’t know how much is left or what is missing.”
Her books are popular in our area. She also provided the information for the interpretive signs that line the coast from Narooma to Dalmeny.
Laurelle still does some freelance work and is currently revising one of her books to add to the area’s local history collection.
