Mr McNamara made a snap decision while speaking with Rochester’s Elaine Lees on his October 30 program.
Mrs Lees, a long-time fan of the show, contacted the radio host to provide an update on her community, two weeks after Campaspe River floodwaters had affected 90 per cent of the homes and businesses in the town.
Ten minutes into their live conversation Mr McNamara suggested he would like to do a “live broadcast’’ from Rochester and soon after producers of the program confirmed the date.
Rochester Sports Museum, at the Moore St railway station, will host the Australia All Over program from 5.30am until 10am on Sunday.
Mrs Lees, who lives a few kilometres outside of Rochester, spoke passionately about her town and the plight of its residents in recovering from its worst ever flood event.
“It’s been quite incredible, there has been lots of hugging, and tears,” she said.
Mrs Lees shared the story of hugging supermarket owner Brad Major soon after the business had managed to re-open its doors.
She told the story of her husband’s family history with the region and then shared a poem with the popular radio personality.
The poem was written by Eliza Watson (nee Hodgens), the wife of Rochester Football Netball coach Ash, explaining how she missed the familiar sounds of her town.
After Mrs Lees read the poem the offer came from Mr McNamara to visit the town and complete an outside broadcast from Rochester.
She said the Rochester Lions, with assistance of the Echuca club, would be staging a breakfast on the same day.
“It will be a bit of a break from dealing with insurance agencies. I am hoping people will bring along a chair to enjoy the broadcast,” she said.
Since the October 30 interview Mrs Lees has become a “semi-regular’’ with Macca in providing a weather report in the lead-up to Sunday.
For those interested in listening to the interview, it is available at the Australia All Over ABC website and is at the 42-minute mark of the October 30 episode.
Mrs Lees said she rang with the intention of lobbying to have “Macca’’ and his program come to Rochester. As it turns out that was not required.
She contacted community leaders Cate Ward and Amanda Logie to get the green light to co-ordinate the visit before accepting the invitation.
“As it happened they (Macca and producer Lee Kelly) were planning to do some outside broadcasts,” she said
McNamara first joined the ABC in 1974 and later became a rural reporter.
He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics degree before working as a jackaroo and in 1973 played the guitar with Col Joye and the Joy Boys.
As an author, he has written eight books include Australia all over (1992) and has been co-author of two cook books with Maggie Beer and Valli Little.
McNamara was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “service to the presentation and promotion of Australia’s non-urban culture, through the radio program Australia All Over” in 1994.
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