JOHNSON, MR M.R.

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (15:45): I would like to take the opportunity today to pay tribute to the work of one of my constituents. On previous occasions in this place, I have acknowledged the valuable contribution made to the wellbeing of my community by numerous volunteers and other community-minded people. Today, I would like to acknowledge the work of Martin Johnson, a local writer and poet.

Martin has made a valuable contribution to the cultural life of Gawler through his work as a writer and poet. His work has reflected the lives of the people of Gawler and the surrounding areas. Martin spent his first 12 years of life growing up in the married workers' camp during the building of the South Para reservoir. Here he became acutely aware of the working-class lifestyle: the daily struggles, the lack of opportunity and the hopes and dreams of the men who worked there, and their families.

After a stint in the Royal Australian Navy and at a brick-making factory, he began writing poetry while working as a piece-work timber feller at the Mount Crawford forest back in 1981. Martin's first book A Kind of Madness, an anecdotal history of timber felling at Mount Crawford between 1926 and 1986, was published in 1990. This was followed, in 1992, by 20 Houses, an anecdotal history of the building of the South Para reservoir. Both publications provided not only a voice for working-class people but set the stage for his commitment to represent ordinary people in his further writing.

Martin's first book of poetry, After the Axe-Men (poems from Mount Crawford forest), was published by Penguin Books in 1996. This was followed by three more commercially produced books of poetry. The Clothes-prop Man (poems from the South Para reservoir), was launched as part of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of Arts Writers' Week. Then followed Hometown Burial, which was launched as part of the 2002 Tasmanian Poetry Festival. Mike Ladd from ABC Radio National said:

Martin Johnson writes poetry of direct experience but rounded with a...viewpoint, a belief in his own and others' humanity.

This book was also made into a production for ABC Radio National, The Other side of the Tracks. This 40-minute program was broadcast in July 2002. His next book, The Earth Tree, was published in 2004. This book was actually described by a poetry critic as follows:

South Australian Martin R. Johnson's new collection, The Earth Tree, is a celebration of work that is wholesome in poems that alert us to the rhythms of country town life, low-income standards of living and a simple lifestyle with its positive attunement to nature.

Disappointed by the lack of opportunities and support by Australian book publishers, Martin started his own small press called Brand New Lino in 2005. He has since published three collections: The Hermit Crab's New Home, which attempts to portray something of the lives of ordinary people disadvantaged by a lack of opportunity and low incomes; Living with Ghosts (2006), which brought to life the history of the town of Gawler between 1839 and 2000; and his more recent work, City of Now, which is a poetic and photographic interpretation of the character of a country town (Gawler) at the beginning of the 21st century (and I am actually in that one).

On Sunday, 25 June 1995, Martin, along with his partner, poet Cathy Young, began the first Gawler Poetry Reading and, since that date, there have been 78 more. During this time, the couple has published (under the name of Gawler Poets) six anthologies of poetry aimed at encouraging new voices and, in particular, to provide an opportunity for regional writers. This is the reasoning behind Gawler Poets inviting their Broken Hill colleagues, the Silver-tongued Ferals, to perform in the town on Sunday 31 August this year.

Aware that artists in the Gawler community needed a voice and means by which they could promote themselves, and through his own experiences to be published for the first time, Martin established The Arts Page in the Gawler Bunyip, and has published about 70 articles based on people living around Gawler. Martin says, 'More than anything else I believe in the value of ordinary people to the community in which they live.' He is committed to recording his life and his talent in poetry. The cultural life of Gawler and the surrounding districts is enriched by the passion and commitment of Martin Johnson.