At the time (I’m going back 60 years here), in addition to my paid job at the Australian Broadcasting Commission, I was writing on athletics for the same newspaper.

And in 1968, Richard and I had the distinct honour of reporting on the second South Pacific Games which was being held in Moresby: Richard writing on boxing; me on athletics.

Richard Ellis Jones trained as a teacher at the Australian School of Pacific Administration in 1962-63 and between 1964 and 1970 he taught and head mastered primary schools at Aroma, Hagara, Sogeri, Kila Kila, Boera, Murray Barracks, Magarida (Amazon Bay) and Bavaroko.

Those of you who have expertise in Papua New Guinea geography will have noticed that these postings were all in or close to Moresby. “I liked the Moresby postings,” Richard says. “As an urban aficionado I was not interested in rural settings.”

Richard then spent five years in the Department of Labour and Commerce where he became the Chief Industrial Training Officer.

And in most of those years he was a sports stringer (correspondent) for the national daily South Pacific Post, which later became the PNG Post-Courier. In all he spent 13 years in PNG, marrying his wife Judyth there in 1971.

Back in Australia he returned to his youthful haunt at Bendigo and worked his way up the ladder to become business editor of the Bendigo Advertiser, first published 1853 and the oldest newspaper on the Australian goldfields.

Richard also diversified his media roles, broadcasting for Bendigo radio and Channel Ten Victoria for Australian Rules, athletics, cycling and racing.

This week Richard became the first to respond to Philip Fitzpatrick’s challenge to PNG Attitude readers to write a piece on ageing – what’s it like to grow old or, if you’re younger, what do you think it’ll be like to grow old.

Both Phil and Richard also had inspirational words about their lives, with Phil making a point I’ve often teased myself with – that we’ve had the good fortune to be around when the world has been a relatively benign place.

“Ours was a simpler time with broad horizons and liberal opportunities,” Phil wrote. “It only lasted for a few decades….” Eight to be precise since the end of World War II when a bloke called Trump came along to stuff things up.

Richard said he’d been extremely fortunate to have been in hospital only twice in his lifetime.

“The first was when, as a 16-year-old, I had to have a hernia operation,” Richard wrote. “Then as a 77-year-old in 2017 I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation of the heart. Four days in a hospital bed with the heart specialist visiting twice a day.

“The day of release from the hospital came on a Saturday morning. So I grabbed my notebook, a Bendigo Footy Record [newspaper], and a pen or two and headed out to a local football ground to take notes so I could write my allocated 500 words on a Bendigo Football League match.”

Richard said he finished his paid reporting days about 20 years ago but he still reports on most matches in the season, compiles a Look Back in History column for the Footy Record and co-hosts a midweek tips and selections program on community radio.

“In 13 years in PNG I never forgot to take my anti-malaria tablets,” he said. “Some were as big as 50 cent coins and had to be broken in half to swallow.”

Richard is unsure about whether 2025 will be his last year working in the local footy industry, “but the end of September is still a fair way off so I'll wait till that date arrives.”