David Dowsett
David Dowsett presents the Breakfast program on ABC Wide Bay.
David describes himself as a "Nomadic Englishman". Now settled in Australia with his family, David has presented Breakfast, Drive and Sport shows in England, Denmark and Spain, interviewing an array of stars along the way; from Boy George to Sir David Attenborough!
David has been a part of the ABC Wide Bay team since 2004, previously presenting the morning show, then switching to breakfast in 2016.
"The Wide Bay Burnett is a beautiful part of the planet," David said.
"My program looks to celebrate those wonders while at the same time highlighting the important issues to the area."
When he's not on the air you may well find David on court swinging a tennis racquet.
Before discovering microphones he played the satellite tennis circuit in Europe. When it became apparent that the guy on the other side of the net was hitting the ball inside the lines more than he was and that the umpire would not change his call (no matter how much he politely enquired!), David became LTA-qualified and coached tennis instead.
As well as tennis, David enjoys horse riding and cycling.
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Ghost towns that were once bustling gold mining, farming, railway hubs
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Gold was found in the 1850s and, after a gold-bearing reef was uncovered in 1887, it become a boom town. However, the gold soon dried up and by 1912 Jubilee was completely abandoned. Old Tallangatta's path to ghost-hood was anything but a gradual decline. When the Hume Dam's height was raised 9 metres it eventually flooded the town, previously named Tallangatta. The town's population famously moved about 8 kilometres west to Bolga where a new town (renamed Tallangatta) was built. The flooded town posthumously became known as Old Tallangatta. The town's remains can be seen when the Hume Weir dips to half-full, with a handful of occupied houses remaining above the dam's high-water mark. It's not the only ghost town on Australian maps. Cook, in far western South Australia, was a railway town that serviced the Trans-Australian Railway and once boasted a hospital and school. But the introduction of more reliable trains and railway lines meant Cook's role was eventually rendered redundant. Its population dwindled to next to nothing and it is now little more than a stopover point for passengers on the Indian Pacific train. It's now widely regarded as a ghost town, despite an official population of 71, according to the 2021 census. Dr Waldron said any town that once boasted a large population but had declined to the point where practically all businesses and services had been wound up could be classified as ghost towns. "If you look at the famous ghost town of Linda in western Tasmania, there are still some people who live there, who are hanging on," he said. "Sometimes they try and set up tourism, which is the case [in] … Linda, being quite a strange gothic spectacle of a place." Dr Waldron said other locations like Steiglitz in Victoria had become heritage sites. "It's no longer about the industry that once led to the town being significant," he said. Gold and other precious metals aren't always found in the most convenient places. 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"Ghost towns are gaining in popularity and a lot of people are coming out from Melbourne as well as internationally to explore them," he said. "With the tourists, and of course the tourists' money, comes new industries, new development and new opportunities. "That's certainly happened in old gold mining towns in central Victoria such as Maldon and Castlemaine, which have redeveloped as cultural tourism centres."
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