‘DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING,’ SAID DEATH. ‘JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.’ – TERRY PRATCHETT
The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 39 #18 • October 9, 2024 • www.echo.net.au
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cho co-founder, author and avid chess player, David Lovejoy, died with dignity and on his own terms last Wednesday, at his home in Mullumbimby. His children held his hands as he slipped peacefully – and willingly – into unconsciousness. He was 80, and had been suffering from throat cancer that had recurred over many years. He called the tumour ‘Donald’. Born March 23, 1944 in war-ravaged England, David was the first of three children to Ivy and Charlie Lovejoy. His younger sisters are Sally and Pam. Their mother Ivy had fought bravely as a firefighter during German bombing raids over London, while Charlie navigated large Lancaster bomber planes over Germany. David developed a ferocious reading habit from a young age, and he also later developed a keen passion for poetry. Chess was also a passion for David throughout his life, he won many tournaments and was at one point Queensland champion.
The birth of The Echo
Diving into life
Illustration ‘The Gold Watch’ by Stephen Axelsen, with thanks to David Lovejoy, ĶſȞ¨ĕſſƷ ſëĈIJĕƐƐ ëŕĎ !ëżƐëĶŕ ÈĶŔĕƆ şĪ ¨IJĕ ŕŊIJȒlşſżşſŊ !ĶƐƷ ÉëƐĈIJȂ
In the swinging ’60s, David attended Oxford University on an Arts scholarship, yet admitted that he didn’t take it all that seriously. He ‘played too much bridge’ and boozed up with his friends while hooning around in fast Jaguars. He then discovered LSD through connections via Aldous Huxley’s nephew, Francis. David said in his autobiography that LSD was the ‘gateway to the long voyage of self-discovery, propelled by meditation and eastern mysticism’. After being taught the meditation techniques of Maharaji, David and his friends embarked on a journey by bus
across several continents to arrive in India in 1970, to be at the feet of a 13-year-old guru named Maharaji (now known as Prem Rawat). David continued alone onto Australia with virtually no funds. Upon arrival in Darwin, his first encounter was with a budding young trade unionist and future PM, Bob Hawke, who handed beers out randomly on the beach where he was sleeping. ‘This is the country for me’, David wrote in his autobiography. After settling into a Sydney ashram devoted to meditation and the teachings of Maharaji, he met artist and musician Wendy
The Greens vs Labour stoush ▶ p8,10
The value of staying home ▶ p11
National Circus Festival in pictures ▶ p14
Avery, and the two fell in love. They had two children together, Hans and Claire. David eventually became responsible for Maharaji’s Divine Light Mission (DLM), an organisation which expanded to Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. ‘In just over two years Maharaji’s knowledge had spread widely in Australia and New Zealand. We had about 5,000 members with centres in every state capital’, he wrote. By 1976, David’s connection to DLM waned, yet he always remained connected to fellow disciples of Maharaji, and the practice of mediation.
Julian Assange speaks of his ordeal ▶ p16
Showing Byron some love ▶ p17
David and Wendy ran a small typesetting and commercial art company in Brisbane, before moving to Wilsons Creek, behind Mullumbimby, in 1985. From there, David met the enigmatic Nicholas Shand, who was in need of a typesetter and production manager for his fledgling new newspaper. With both men being similar in age, intellect, humour and being British-born, they soon became inseparable. From David’s autobiography, ‘[Nicholas’s] motivation for starting a newspaper was the behaviour of the police when they searched the valleys for marijuana crops. In the early ’80s, there had been many blatant civil rights abuses committed by the police during these raids, but Nicholas found it impossible to get the local media to report them’. Three thousand A4 black and white copies of the first Brunswick Valley Echo were printed by local printer Andrew Bradley on June 11, 1986. From the very beginning, the paper was committed to unflinching political reporting and published libertarian free speech views, which upset conservatives. David wrote, ‘Over the years, I was responsible for more litigation against the paper than Nicholas. Partly this was because he was wiser than I, and partly because I was more pugnacious and less diplomatic than he.’ David found a voice as Edward Herring, a fictional journalist thrust into a parallel universe of Byron Shire, and the instalments were beautifully illustrated by Stephen Axelsen. David also added humour to the paper with a fake TV guide synopsis. The Echo soon gained traction as ▶ Continued on page 2
Get the scoop on great local biz ▶ p20
Radical kindness ▶ p22
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