Editor's Note (Foreword)

Barry Nancarrow entered television almost at its inception in Newcastle. Grounded in early studio operations, his steadfast aim was to become a news cameraman. Although studio cameras were essentially electronic, as were the videotape recording and editing machines, he already saw the paradox that television’s content - commercial, entertainment, and news - was acquired and played largely from celluloid film. And that medium, even as a high school student experimenting with 8mm gear, was his consuming passion. 

The mission of news gathering has not changed fifty years on, although its tools have evolved from electro-mechanical to the realm of science fiction. 

Barry left the industry at the very moment it was adopting electronic news gathering. And that is to our advantage, for his storytelling is undistracted by such unromantic technology, letting him get on with the job of describing the world - his world - of cinematography in celluloid.

[Although] 16mm cameras were considered amateurish... their relative economy and portability saw them unashamedly adopted as the primary news recording medium that reigned supreme well into the 1970's when lightweight video recording technology started to assert itself in the news domain.

By claiming that "The World is Only 16mm Big" I am simply suggesting (somewhat tongue in cheek) that people's view of the world as it was initially presented on television came from the frames of 16mm film and therefore the world was consequently only 16mm big.

Barry’s work is a valuable time capsule of Newcastle’s television news history. In this reportage he wields the language as a professional scribe yet speaks the generational vernacular of the time: those early days of motoring and adventuring that the youth of this parochial little Australian city so thoroughly enjoyed and revelled in. But none, according to these exploits, more than him. 

Although a minor historic document, it stands emblematic of an entire industry during its learning years.

As curator of the NBN Television articles on this website, reading Barry's book reminded me that although hundreds of reporters passed through NBN’s newsroom over sixty years, this might be the only account of the station’s newsgathering. Despite that considerable journalistic talent, it comes from the most capable pen of a (dare I say humble) news cameraman.

I would like to thank Barry for allowing Newcastle on Hunter to host his work. 

Several reasons led me to ask him for permission. His original might be lost should the book hosting company fail. His story deserves a higher profile, more easily found by searches for ‘NBNTV’ or similar. Finally, Barry’s narrative perfectly fits similar memoirs in Newcastle on Hunter’s NBN Television section.

If Internet has taught me anything, it’s that nothing is sacredly protected from loss, that nothing is forever. Though Barry’s book has been at its original site - Blurb.com - for the past fifteen years, the stroke of a corporate pen might erase the site and its contents in an instant, without explanation or reason.  

It is with considerable relief and immense gratitude to Barry for allowing his book a more accessible home. But if you can, do buy a copy from his Blurb.com page. If only to salve my guilt. 

~ The Editor