ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collections

HMSS 0555 Graham Downie Scrapbooks

Originally from Tarcutta in New South Wales, Graham Downie began working with the Canberra Times in July 1968, when he accepted a position as a male telephonist. Having completed a short course in counselling, Downie’s interest in journalism was quickly roused by a column called Voters’ Voice, which was established to deal with consumer complaints from Canberra residents. As a result of his training, Downie discovered that he could supply the answer to Canberrans’ queries directly, or was able to research it and pass the information on to the journalist in charge.

In 1972, after being refused a position as a cadet journalist, Downie took time away from Canberra to work as the public relations officer for the Guide Dog Association in Victoria. Within a year, however, he reapplied to the Canberra Times. This time he was successful, and Downie took over Voters’ Voice from December 1973 until his retirement in 2012. The article was renamed Consumer Voice in 1992. Downie wrote his final column for Consumer Voice in October 2012, making it probably the longest-running column by an individual in an Australian metropolitan newspaper. It is estimated that he had dealt with 14,600 enquiries.

This collection of scrapbooks contains every article written by Gram Downie during his 40 years as a journalist with the Canberra Times. The scrapbooks were donated to the ACT Heritage Library by Graham Downie in April 2019.

For more information see:

Graham Downie: Canberra Citizen of the Year, 1990