Ron Banks’ accident of birth meant he was destined to live most of his life in Western Australia, where he became a journalist on The West Australian.

newsroom

After several years as a general reporter Ron gravitated towards the arts, and wrote about the cultural life of Perth, the city of his birth for more than two decades. His decision to revisit his early life as a journalist was motivated by a perceived decline in newspaper popularity and a desire to document the history of The West Australian in its glory days as a newspaper of record. He fears the print version of The West Australian may one day be gone, but hopes that is not the case. 

 

In his book Ron describes his journey into the arts as he works his way out of the tobacco smoke to carve out a reputation as a perceptive reviewer and profiler of the famous, not-so-famous and now forgotten artists who visited Perth as it evolved into a sophisticated city with a thriving arts scene. 

As an art critic he was fearless and on more than one occasion earned the ire of the readership and the celebrities he reviewed. Perhaps the most famous was his unfavourable review of Paul McCartney way back when. The flak came thick and fast. On the other hand his most favourable review was of Billy Connolly in his hey day. 

Ron gave us some other insights when he reflected upon a time when Perth had a morning paper (The West Australian) and an afternoon paper (The Daily News) and a would-be competitor, the Western Mail, launched by Robert Holmes a' Court to which he (Ron) and many other journalist defected, only for them all to return to the West Australian, the Daily News or go interstate a couple of years later when Western Mail failed. He spoke of the various changes of ownership and how both the West and Daily News were ultimately produced out of the same office with the journalists from each sharing typewriters chained to a trolley. If you wanted your own, you bought it. Much prized were the typewriters which could produce a legible letter "e", the most used of all the vowels. Everything was produced in quadruplicate using sheets of carbon between the copy paper.

Ron lamented the near demise of straight reporting and investigative journalism; and the rise and rise of opinion pieces. While print and digital media co-exist right now he fears that print may eventually succumb.  He was however more optimistic about the job opportunities for journalists, more so in PR and as flak catchers rather than in television, radio or print.