09/05/2026
“Press On.”
Those two simple words followed my mother Edna Anderson — affectionately known as “Press On Andy” — throughout her life after a school friend believed her sketch was a respresention of Mum’s character, surging forward uphill with a flag bearing those words C1931 in her Parramatta High School uniform.
Not long afterwards, Mum was forced to leave school aged about 13 in Year 8 during the Depression years to work in a hessian bag factory to help support her family. Yet she simply pressed on through hardship and went on to become many things in her life — a bush nurse, farmer’s wife, writer, mother of four children in outback NSW, Henry Lawson Festival Writers Award winner, and a tireless contributor to her community.
In Merriwagga, where I grew up in a tiny community of around 120 people, Mum and her dear friend Isabel started the Merriwagga Amateur Dramatic Society — “MADS”. Mum abridged the scripts of productions such as The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and other Gilbert and Sullivan favourites, involving local teenagers and younger residents in wonderful community theatre evenings held in the small local hall.
The whole town would come together to watch the performances. It brought the farmers and their families into town, the young and the old, created memories and gave young people confidence, laughter and connection in a small outback town.
After she and Dad married, Mum also ran the bush nursing hospital from our home on 7500 acres along Trunk Road 80 (now The Kidman Way) at Merriwagga for a period. I was apparently her best patient, while Dad affectionately nicknamed me Calamity Kate at other times Annie Oakley — a far cry from “Press On Andy”!
That was our world growing up — community, people helping one another, local identity and creating things together. Perhaps true purpose comes when we are in the service of others.
In many ways, Manilla is much the same, and it is fitting that the words “Press On” now seem connected to our own effort to preserve the press itself.
The Manilla Express has now served this community for 127 years, but with the closure of regional newspaper printing services we are fighting to keep our printed newspaper alive for elderly residents, isolated people especially in the northern regions, the many readers who still value sitting down with a real newspaper each week, and for Manilla’s documented history since 1899.
Importantly, the newspaper also provides paid employment within our small regional communities. The Manilla Express currently employs journalists at Barraba and Attunga, along with our Admin Officer in Manilla. In smaller towns such as Barraba, Manilla and Attunga, those jobs matter.
Our campaign is a simple solution: use the unlimited capacity of digital world to help preserve the print world and support our community.
For just $1 per week — less than the cost of a postage stamp — readers anywhere in Australia or the world can receive the digital edition of the Manilla Express and help support the future printing of the newspaper.
If enough people join, the numbers themselves become strong enough to help keep regional print journalism alive. Please consider supporting the campaign or sharing it with others who love regional Australia, local history, country towns, community journalism and the spirit of people who simply “Press on...
Subscribe: https://manillaexpress.com.au GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/a176145d1
