Off the record: Denmark’s twin peaks, the house that was never lost, and a message from Ukraine to Albany

OUR TWIN PEAKS Imagine for a moment that you are Paul Rogers, the Perth Wildcats star and former NBA draft pick now living the quiet life in the coastal town of Denmark. You made the move to the south coast after a decorated basketball career headlined by multiple club championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics. At 213cm tall — or 7’0” in the old language — you are a towering figure in a small town. To put it simply, you are one of Australia’s great centres. What are the chances, then, that in your hometown of a few thousand people, you are not the tallest or most decorated Australian centre who has pulled on a Wildcats jumper, played at the Sydney Olympics and been drafted to the NBA? infinitesimally slim, right? Enter Luc Longley. “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.” So goes the frankly infuriating song by US glam rockers Sparks, which somehow reached No. 2 on the UK charts in 1974. Except in this case, the town is plenty big enough for the two gentle giants of Australian basketball. Longley is five years older and five centimetres taller, with three NBA championships to his name with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Rogers used to idolise him as a teenager, drawing inspiration from seeing him in the pages of Hoop magazine, the first Australian to play in the NBA. These days, both men live in the peaceful surrounds of Denmark, where they stand head and shoulders above the rest of the population. It’s quiet and out the way — and that’s just how they like it. It was Longley who introduced Rogers to the area in the 1990s after he bought a property using money from a basketball trading card contract. Rogers relocated from Perth in 2010 before Longley and his wife Anna Gare made a permanent move from Fremantle in 2015. Forty kilometres east of the Valley of the Giants, Denmark is home to the twin peaks of WA hoops. If there’s a place with more Australian basketball champions per capita, Off the Record would like to hear about it. STILL STANDING To channel Alf Stewart, February was a flamin’ mongrel of a month for bushfires. Denmark, Bridgetown Jerramungup, Bremer Bay, Wickepin, Corrigin, Tambellup — all of these towns and more came under direct threat from fire. Firefighters and local residents did an incredible job, backed up by air assets and support teams behind the scenes. But in Jerramungup, where photos of flames roaring above homes painted a hellish picture, firefighters deserved even more credit than they got. ‘One home lost’ was the official verdict from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services — and looking at those photos, it seemed a good result. That damage assessment was relayed by DFES Commissioner Darren Klemm then repeated later in the day by another senior DFES official. But after an hour spent driving around Jerramungup and the farming properties surrounding the town, OTR started and had one burning question. Where was this home that had been lost to the flames? After a few conversations with locals, the truth became clear — it did not exist. One Shire-owned house had smoke and water damage, mainly to a garage, but it was hardly destroyed. So credit where credit’s due — the volunteers did not lose any houses in Jerry. UKRAINE TO ALBANY Like many people around the world, OTR has been gripped by the shocking events unfolding in eastern Europe. Russia’s despotic leader Vladimir Putin has ordered the invasion of a democratic nation and seemingly threatened the use of nuclear weapons on those who would stand in his way. As the world reacts to the depravity of it all, there is also a growing admiration for the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is a hell of a long way from Albany, but on Monday night, that distance seemed to shrink. Sitting in the Advertiser newsroom, OTR checked applications for a job vacancy left by a departing young reporter. Out of the six applications, one stood out. It had been submitted by a man from Donetsk, Ukraine — a man who said he was a Ukrainian journalist and whose online presence seemed to confirm that claim. His “salary expectations” were lower than the rest of the applicants, to put it lightly. He said journalism was his “way of life” and he was willing to work seven days-a-week. Responding to a question about when he would be available to start employment, he said: “as soon as possible”. OTR will not divulge any more details about this applicant. Suffice to say, we hope he is OK.