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You have probably never heard of Peta Garrett, and that is rather the point. She grew up in Newport, on Beaconsfield Street, went to Newport Public, and describes herself as a cheeky, happy kid who played handball at lunch and painted the banana trees behind the school in year three. Her first proper job was listening to what a whole country was saying, all day, every day, in media monitoring. She says it opens your mind to what other people are going through. Then she became a journalist on community newspapers, and two of those stories have never left her: a twelve-year-old boy whose whole life was looking after his brother, and a room full of parents in their eighties, frightened about what would happen to their adult children. Somewhere in the middle of it, she taught six- and seven-year-olds ethics at a public school and ran the communications for the Mini-Mos, one of the country's longest continuously held community fun runs. She says teaching ethics is one of the best things she has ever done. Then she stopped writing about the community and went to work inside it, as the person just behind the representative. The one who listens, solves the problem, and watches somebody else's name go on the result. Duncan asks what that seat costs her, whether she misses the byline, what she does to keep from burning out, and what she would say to everyone doing the unseen work in their own world. Her answer to that last one is the reason this hour exists. She brings five songs, and she took weeks over them. An aunt she lost. The Opera House steps. A concert a few months after Michael Hutchence died. And her dad, dancing around the room to Elvis. beerwithDuncan doesn't just tell other people's stories. It changes the way you see your own. Episode 8, from Saturday 26 September at 9:01am on Radio Northern Beaches 88.7 and 90.3, and on Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube the same day.
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