Devoted Warrnambool readers wouldn't be without The Standard

"Oh no, I wouldn't be without it. It would be terrible," she said. "I still have it delivered. I can't start the day without it.

"I don't know what I'd do without it."

Mrs Tinker's fondness for The Standard dates back to the early 1960s when she moved here to marry Kie Tinker, who spent his whole career working in the pressroom.

"It was his life, absolutely," she said. "He was very keen on what was going on in the back room, the front room and upstairs.

Mrs Tinker has a twinge of sadness about the closure of the presses in Warrnambool where her husband worked for decade: "It was actually sad that it had to go. It was an icon."

As well as her collection of old newspapers, Mrs Tinker has kept the frame full of memorabilia her husband collected from the old pressroom when it moved from its Koroit Street home.

Mrs Tinker said there were always time-pressures to get the paper printed and get it out to readers.

"The milk tankers would take it out, the train would take it out and the bus, so the paper had to be ready by then," she said.

"It was all really full on."

She said the whole neighbourhood in South Warrnambool would know when the paper was out because they could hear her husband's noisy car coming home at 5am every morning.

He'd set off for work at 10pm, the presses would roll at 2am and his car going over the old Merri River bridge would signal another edition had hit the streets.

"I heard him coming home every morning and by the time he got to the back door I was fast asleep but I knew he was home," she said.

Leisurely perusing the pages of The Standard over a morning cuppa has long been a ritual for Pat Varley.

But the local daily is much more than simply an enjoyable way to start the day for the recently turned 90-year-old Warrnambool resident.

"Newspapers keep our history alive," says Pat, a retired educator for whom history has long been a passion.

"The local newspaper is a sort of glue in our community."

Originally from Beaufort, Pat and her late husband Roy moved their young family from Ballarat to Warrnambool back in 1964 and the Varleys have been subscribers ever since.

"I get it thrown over my fence every morning and if it's not there, I'm extremely disappointed," she says.

"I've been known to hunt for it up trees and over hedges."

Both Pat and Roy initially taught at Warrnambool Technical College which evolved into the Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education (WIAE) where Pat was a foundation staff member.

She subsequently chaired the academic board during negotiations, resulting in the merger of the institute and Deakin University in 1990.

Since her retirement in 1993, Pat has been heavily involved in the Warrnambool and District Historical Society and the Friends of Warrnambool Botanic Gardens, roles which have both involved regular interactions with The Standard.

"The Standard has always been extremely co-operative in covering things we were trying to do," she says.

The paper also helped launch a career in journalism for her daughter Carolyn who worked as a cadet reporter in the early 1980s.

While The Standard has progressed to the digital age since then, Pat maintains a strong attachment to the printed version of the paper.

"I know a lot of people get it online but I don't find it as satisfying as lounging over it with a cup of tea," she says.

"I go through it fairly systematically from the front to the back and I've always been interested in the sports, particularly when my grandchildren have been involved over the years."

And then of course there's the cryptic crossword. "I like to do, or I should say, I like having a go at the cryptic," she laughs.

Larry McCarthy grew up with The Standard, and at 63, it's still a staple around the family breakfast table.

From the top news stories of the day to the sporting columns, the market reports to the real estate pages, the Warrnambool-based farmer has always turned to his local daily newspaper to keep up to date.

"It's a great paper and when you hear about other regional papers closing down, it's great that The Standard has been able to find a way to keep going and pivot with the digital age," he said.

"It's an asset to the city and the district."

As a keen advocate of freedom of speech, Mr McCarthy regards The Standard's letters to the editor section as an important platform.

"The Saturday edition's letters page provides readers with a good avenue to express their opinions," he says.

Few have utilised the letters columns as much as Larry's late father Frank McCarthy.

The former city councillor of 14 years and ex-mayor was a prolific letter-writer.

In fact, Larry reckons his dad could very well hold the record for contributions to the letters' page.

"After he died, I was tidying up things and I came across copies of all the letters he'd written over the years. I lost count after a while," he says.

The Standard is something of a family affair for the McCarthys.

All eight siblings still read the paper, with the five who have moved away now accessing the online edition.

Larry's mother Rita, who turns 90 in October, and his 88-year-old mother-in-law Kathleen Kent, are also avid readers, preferring the traditional hard copy.

As a keen sporting family, the McCarthys' exploits have regularly featured in The Standard's sports pages over the years.

Larry and his brothers Frank and Vin were all talented cyclists, with Larry having notched up five starts in the Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic, a long-standing event which graces the paper's pages each year.

With a strong interest in horse racing, these days it's often the racing columns and, no doubt the new 16-page Friday form guide, that Mr McCarthy turns to first in The Standard.

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