By MARG STORK
WITH the mini-series Underbelly: Squizzy on television, I can almost hear the clackety-clack of the Remington typewriter of an old friend, the late Hugh Buggy.
Hugh was an all-round journalist for all the great newspapers – The Argus, The Sun, The Truth, and of course, The Dandenong Journal – and covered many famous stories, including the fatal shoot-out between Squizzy Taylor and Snowy Cutmore in 1927.
Hugh and I became great pals when he worked at The Dandenong Journal and often came to our home in Oakleigh for a Sunday roast – “a proper meal”.
He lived in Carlton North, “alone with my cat and typewriter”, as
he would say. He was known for walking his cat on a lead. He showed me
around Squizzy’s haunts, as he knew all the back lanes in the inner
city.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says
Hugh reported on more than 200 murder investigations and 83 murder
trials, and attended nine hangings. He was a colourful sports writer,
covering VFL and Test cricket, and was considered by many to have coined
the term Bodyline for the nasty Ashes series in 1932-33.
Hugh covered Charles Kingsford-Smith’s landing of the Southern
Cross on his flight from London to Australia in 1928, and later ghosted
his book. He was in Sydney in 1932 for the Harbour Bridge opening and
was the only reporter to interview scene-stealer Captain Francis de
Groote.
He loved the theatre in Melbourne and took me to many shows,
“sitting right up with the gods”. Afterwards, we’d have a meal at his
favourite restaurant in Exhibition Street.
When The Argus closed in 1957, Hugh worked for suburban papers in Oakleigh, Footscray and Dandenong. He wrote several books, including 140 Crimes of Passion. I still have a copy of it and remember him mentioning the 1934 Pyjama Girl mystery when a woman’s body was found at Albury.
He had a great sense of humour – he referred to himself as “Sir
Hugh de Buggy House’’ – and was universally held in high esteem.
Reading is a joy for life
When my late father, Rowland Hill Archer, was growing up on the
family property, Landfall, in the Tamar Valley in Tasmania, the family’s
live-in governess instilled in him, his brothers and sister the joy of
reading.
When we lived at Lyndhurst, my parents used to drive to the
Dandenong market every Tuesday, and unfailingly also visit the Dandenong
library, upstairs in the town hall where Miss McAfee reigned supreme.
My parents would choose six books, all with different themes, which was
our weekly quota, and my brother and I were required to read the books
chosen for us.
I remember Miss McAfee as a friend. In later years, Mrs Wagstaff’s
library operated near Crump’s Store around the corner from the town
hall, now known as the Drum Theatre.
An innings well played
The Endeavour Hills family of veteran local cricketer Mark Pereira
are still thanking friends for their messages of condolence for the man
they remember as a good sport on and off the field.
Mr Pereira, a formidable right-hand opening batsman and brilliant
fieldsman, was a life member of Buckley Ridges Cricket Club, where he
is in the record books for being the oldest player to score a century,
notching up 142 at age 63.
The expat Sri Lankan, who was 77 when he died in November, played
cricket on two continents as well as in his homeland. He and his wife,
Angie, migrated to Canada in 1965, then to Australia in 1981, where he
joined Buckley Ridges in the Dandenong District Cricket Association.
With friends, they founded St Paul Apostle Parish tennis club in 1982,
where he served as captain and was still playing night games at 75.
Mr Pereira was often Sports Star of the Week in The Dandenong Journal, regularly taking out the district’s batting awards.
