Newspaper printers from Canberra mourning the death of Barrie Murphy had the consolation at the end of the day of a twin technical award recognising a quality culture he had worked for.
Delegates at the Single Width Users Group conference in Darwin were told this morning of Murphy’s death after a brief illness. Aged 59, he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease a year ago following a stroke. A funeral is being held on Friday.
In recent years, he had been a key member of the Fairfax media management team as printing and distribution product manager, despite an ongoing to commitment to the Canberra Times and to a quality culture he would have said “starts at the top”.
Barrie Murphy (right) entered the industry as an apprentice at the Star in Christchurch, New Zealand, and was later to be involved in the commissioning of Fairfax’s new printing plant there… as well as with its projects in Mandurah, Ballarat, Ormiston and Murray Bridge. So too was he for the installation of the Geoman press in Canberra, installed in 1996 during Kerry Stokes’ ownership but forever regarded as “the new press” and looked after accordingly.
The SWUG technical awards were presented on Sunday evening at the end of a two-day conference which had included a mix of technical, personal and inspirational presentations, along with a tour of the Northern Territory News plant.
The Fairfax Canberra print site won two of the three excellence awards presented in its double-width category, pipped for first place only by APN’s hybrid Yandina print site.
Canberra apprentice Ben Whittaker was also one of two named for this year’s apprentice of the year award, sharing the honour with Aaron Bayne from Rural Press North Richmond.
Five Fairfax sites won seven of the awards, with two APN Print sites taking another four and WAN winning one award. Winners were
Best overall print quality (Brissett Shield): winner– Fairfax Media Newcastle for Newcastle Herald (manroland Uniset 70); runner-up– APN Toowoomba for Review (Manugraph); highly commended– WAN Colourpress for Kalgoorlie Miner (KBA Comet).
Best coldset commercial publication (Flint Group Shield): winner– Fairfax Media Tamworth for Regional Council Tamworth (Goss Community); runner-up– Fairfax Media Tamworth for Moree Show; highly commended– APN Toowoomba for Tong Qld Korean Weekly.
Best overall print quality, double width (Norske Skog Shield): winner– APN Yandina for News-Mail (manroland Regioman); runner-up– Fairfax Media Canberra for Illawarra Mercury (manroland Geoman); highly commended– Fairfax Media Canberra for Goulburn Post.
Best newspaper on enhanced stock, over 50gsm: winner– Fairfax Media Mandurah for the Perth Voice (manroland Uniset 75); runner-up– APN Yandina for Noosa Today; highly commended– Fairfax Media Albury/Wodonga for Henly Machinery field Days (Goss Uniliner S).
Below: Peter Akers of Fairfax Print & Distribution Newcastle receives the Brissett Shield from Glenn Brissett
On our home page: With Norske Skog’s Tania Gordon (second left) are APN Yandina category winner Peter Broadfoot, and Canberra’s Bill Shortland and apprentice Ben Whittaker