Earlier this year there was an extraordinary set of programmes (2 or 3) on a Sunday evening, showing the greening of Central Australia during 2010 and the inevitability of the Queensland floods. These programmes were shown on the ABC, and were created by a team that included three men who died last night, Lockyer, Bean, and Ticehurst. During these programmes, we came to know all three, and to be infected with their love of country. To be up in the air zooming in over the Diamantina or the Cooper and to see through their eyes, was a joy. Lockyer, being the reporter, was the public face. But he was the first to acknowledge that he was part of a team.
Long have I followed Lockyer's stories, and his reports for the news or The 7:30 Report. He was at his best walking lines of stubble with farmers, crumbling dry sods between his fingers. Travelling down the Darling, and explaining the salting and death of Lake Alexandrina. Less so interviewing Lockyer Valley survivors earlier this year: he was a master of the understatement, of letting the place tell the story.
I travelled in and around Lake Eyre in April 2008, camping out the back of the William Creek pub, eating my obligatory chocolate paddle-pop at the Maree Creek store, crunching the salt pan on Lake Eyre south.
Vale you three ...
