Vale legendary Post reporter Duncan

LEGENDARY storyteller of the Far North and former Cairns Post reporter Duncan Paterson peacefully died on July 2 aged 80.

As someone who told the Far North’s stories for decades, his own is one that shouldn’t be forgotten.

As a child he was forced to flee his home in Malaysia with his mother Ena and sister Margaret, after his father Duncan Snr was held as a prisoner of war in Singapore.

The trio arrived in Melbourne while Duncan Snr toughed out three difficult years. However, once the family reunited, they decided to settle close to Sydney’s harbour where Mr Paterson found his lifelong passion for fishing.

That passion continued when his father moved to Papua New Guinea, allowing the youngster make the most of the local creeks in wooden rafts.

However, he also had a passion for writing and journalism but the closest university for him – University of Queensland – didn’t offer a journalism degree. So he started law with French and geology, and resided at Kings College.

He got his start in media by working in the communications section of a government department. He never lost the connection to agriculture as he eventually transitioned into a news role, reporting on rural matters for a Shepparton newspaper in 1971. He went on to work for many regional Victorian outlets before making the move to Innisfail in 1978 to be closer to family.

Mr Paterson and his family arrived in the Far North in an old Melbourne tram converted into a bus.

He retired from news in 2005, after spending decades covering rural areas between Cardwell and Babinda for the Innisfail Advocate and Cairns Post. He received many awards, but a notable one included a prize for his feature on local legend – Tarzan (AKA Michael Fomenko)– in 2002.