After 90 years of serving the community, ABC Gippsland remains tuned in to help

As ABC Gippsland celebrates its 90th birthday, those behind the microphones have shared their key memories — from the heartwarming to the heartbreaking.

When the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires blazed across East Gippsland, breakfast radio host Mim Hook was among those called in to duty.

It was the beginning of an almost seven-hour-long stint of emergency broadcasting and one of the most intense experiences of her life.

What listeners may not know is in between airing messages from people in danger, Ms Hook was also scrambling to make sure her own children were protected.

It is an example of the countless events covered by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gippsland bureau, in its role as the official emergency broadcaster.

Personal and professional 

The now-iconic images of thousands of people on the East Gippsland coastline at Mallacoota fleeing to the beach under a bright red sky are etched in many people's minds.

In those moments, the role of the ABC, Ms Hook said, was not only to inform the listeners, but to engage with them and offer them a calm companion amid the chaos.

"Because I'm from East Gippsland, I have friends and family who were evacuating, who didn't know if their houses were still standing," Ms Hook said.

"So it was personal, as well as trying to be as professional as possible.

"I remember a farmer calling in on his truck radio, to try and get the message out that he and his family were OK.

"I had one woman sending me voice memos through Facebook and then I would play that voice memo on the radio."

'It's a serious thing'

During the Black Summer fires, Jonathan Kendall and his family were evacuated via navy helicopter from Gabo Island near Mallacoota, as the blaze took hold.

But it was not his first close call with disaster.

Mr Kendall started his tenure at ABC Gippsland in early 2014, in the fallout of the Hazelwood mine fire.

Burning for a month and blanketing the Latrobe Valley in smoke, the Hazelwood mine fire triggered a government inquiry and affected the health of locals for years to come. 

The fire burned inside the mine for 45 days and shrouded Morwell and surrounding towns in acrid smoke and ash.

"I was covering the immediate aftermath, then all the studies that went on for about 10 years after the fire," Mr Kendall said.

"There was a lot of anger in the community after that, and people wanted to know how something like that could happen, and how it's going to be stopped in the future. And fair enough, it was a pretty big asset in the community that had just been on fire for 45 days."

Beyond the drought and rain 

Former Bundalaguah resident and radio historian, John Schroeder, grew up listening to the ABC news in the family home, building his own crystal set radio receiver at 11 years old.

ABC Gippsland — originally known as 3GI — was one of the first ABC stations to construct a transmitter site.

Mr Schroeder said that the ABC became part of life in Gippsland and became one of the very first stations in the ABC to broadcast a rural program in the "dead time" of the early morning.

"What it did was it got the farmers to listen to the station in the morning, and as a result many farmers put radio receivers in their dairies, so that they could hear what was going on when they were milking. So it was a pioneering effort," he said.

The Black Friday fires of 1939 gave rise to the ABC's role during emergencies, and the ABC would also become synonymous with the tradition of listening to coverage of the cricket.

"They broadcast a lot of classical music and at lunchtime we had a serial on called Blue Hills. Blue Hills more or less depicted country life as it was, and everyone could listen in and imagine themselves in that situation," Mr Schroeder said. 

"It had an enormous following and was one of the longest-running radio serials in the world, running for 27 years."

Strong past, strong future

As the longest-serving current member of the ABC Gippsland team, Kellie Lazzaro proudly provides a roll call of colleagues who have served the region over the past 25 years.

"At the risk of singling out a few, Samantha Donovan, who presents ABC Radio's PM program, started here as our Gippsland rural reporter," Ms Lazzaro said.

"Rachael Brown, who has become one of Australia's most acclaimed crime and court reporters, bringing us the award-winning Trace podcast, and the Mushroom Case Daily podcast, came to Sale as a new cadet to work with us."

And in a nod to his contribution to ABC Gippsland over many years, a plaque for Mark DeBono will be unveiled on one of the ABC studio doors at the York Street site.

"Before his retirement in 2020, Mark was the voice of ABC Gippsland news, steering listeners through countless fires, floods and storms," Ms Lazzaro said.

"It's an honour to recognise his service in this way."

Ms Lazzaro said ABC Gippsland held a fond place in the hearts of many of her former colleagues who still referred to it as the best place they had ever worked, due to the positive team culture that had been developed over many years.

"We take pride in knowing our patch, and bringing stories that matter to Gippsland, even when they are difficult to tell," she said.

"And don't worry — our audience holds us to account if we don't get it right."