GH also claimed that “in about 1967 or 1968” a Goulburn Evening Post photographer came to the Home and took six or seven boys including him to a creek bed in the bush “near the road to Bungonia Gorge or Braidwood.”
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There the photographer made them undress and took photos while they went swimming.
“He said: ‘Don’t tell anybody. You’re my special people.
This is our special place and I got pictures to remember you all by.’ “At the time I thought that being photographed in the nude must be okay because we were nude at the Gill Home when we had showers.”
In separate evidence, another ex-resident, Mark Stiles, referred to a photographer with the Christian name, Gordon, often taking the boys out and teaching them about photography.
“He taught me how to develop film. I do not think he offended against any of the boys,” Mr Stiles said.
“In my opinion he was just a lonely bloke who tried to help the boys at the Home.”
The Goulburn Post can confirm that this man was not employed by the newspaper but was allowed to cover certain events, unpaid, to relieve the fulltime photographers. He was undertaking an external university course at the time and had to demonstrate as part of this that his photos were being published.
At no time did he ever use the newspaper’s dark room, instead relying on a facility in his home.
A photographer employed by the newspaper at the time recalled this week that he fielded inquiries from Sydney police about Gordon in later years.
He understood that Gordon had subsequently died in Brisbane.
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