Denis Gregory
From The Orange Wiki
The day after Denis Gregory left Orange High School he cycled to the offices of the Central Western Daily newspaper and requested a job as a journalist. Manager Doug McGregor replied that there were no cadetships currently available but took down Denis’ telephone number for future reference. Obviously impressed by the youngster’s initiative, Doug phoned Denis the following day and offered him a printer’s apprenticeship. Denis happily accepted and before long was contributing regular articles for the motoring column. And so began a journalistic career that would span more than sixty years.
Upon completing his apprenticeship Denis joined the editorial staff of the [[Central Western Daily]], initially covering the police rounds and local government. In the 1960s he founded the [[Orange News Pictorial]] and became its editor until he sold it to Western Newspapers Pty Ltd in the early 1970s. Known for his commitment and integrity, Denis worked his way through the ranks at the [[Central Western Daily]] to fill the most senior positions. Always leading by example, Denis was an inspiration to those he mentored.
A student of Political Studies and Marketing, Denis served as an Orange councillor from 1972 to 1974.
In 1988 Mr Gregory left Western Newspapers and joined Fairfax as the country correspondent for the Sun Herald and the Sydney Morning Herald. He remained at Fairfax for 12 years, during which time he also wrote contributions for the Australian Woman's Weekly, Country Style and the Australasian Post.
During the 1990s Denis was as a media adviser to the Deputy President of the Senate Sue West. In 1992 he was commissioned by the NSW Department of Agriculture to write a book about Camden Park. This was the first of nine books he authored or co-authored.
Denis Charles Gregory was born on 21 July 1938, the son of Rowland Gregory, a music teacher and long-time conductor of the Orpheus Male Choir (later the Rowland Gregory Orpheus Singers). When Denis married Valma Joyce Bush in March 1964 Rowland Gregory conducted the Orpheus Male Choir and played the organ during the ceremony.
A dedicated guardian of the rural community, Denis campaigned against the loss of services such as health, policing and banking, He was the recipient of seven awards for journalism, two of them national. In 1992 he won the MBF award for Excellence in Journalism on Health and Wellbeing for a series of stories on rural doctor shortages. And in 1994 he won the Dalgety award for Excellence in Rural Journalism for a series of feature articles on the lack of effective measures to free farms of toxic waste. Both sets of stories resulted in government action to address these situations.
In 2004 he received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “for service to the rural community of NSW, particularly as a journalist.”
Denis was also an award-winning photographer. A selection of his photographs of country life featured in the Australian Bicentennial Exhibition that toured Australia in 1988.
Denis’ life-long passion was motor racing. In the 1950s he founded the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club which continues to feature an annual classic motor show at Sir Jack Brabham Park. Denis was president and life member of the club and raced at five Gnoo Blas meetings. He also raced at Mount Panorama, Warwick Farm, Lowood, Albury and on dirt tracks at Forbes and Dunedoo.
Newspaper printer, reporter, subeditor, editor, photographer and proprietor, racing car driver and author Denis Gregory OAM died in Orange on 12 November 2021, aged 83 years.
The 2022 Gnoo Blas Classic Car Show was held in memory of Denis and the inaugural Denis Gregory Perpetual Trophy was awarded for Best Car of the Show.
Denis leaves a lasting legacy with his nine books: Camden Park, birthplace of Australia's agriculture (1992), There's some bloody funny people on the road to Broken Hill (1993), It's all about Australia, mate (2004), Australia's great explorers (2004), Great houses of Australia: 50 homes with a story to tell (2006), The Colours of Orange a photographic essay of Orange NSW (2011), Chequered times: a history of Gnoo Blas Orange 1953-1961 (2012), The Hazelton story from an Auster to an airline (2014) and This is where we Live (2015).
