LONG before producing the Daily News became a computerised process, Ed Kemp was one of a busy team who painstakingly set the block type for each word, each line, each sentence on every page.

He had to put in the hard yards for a while first however.

"I was at Warwick High School in Year 9,” he said.

"The principal approached me and said said 'You haven't been at school much lately, what do you want to do?'”

"I said, 'I want to leave'.”

In those days the school was notified of the vacancies in town and Mr Kemp said he had a few options.

"I could have gone to the hardware store, the railway or become a message boy at the Daily News,” he said.

"So I went for an interview at the Daily News with a bloke called John Irwin and the first thing he asked me was, 'So you want to be a printer?'”

"Now that had never occurred to me and I had no clue as to what a printer did but I said yes.”

Mr Kemp said he started the next week.

"I had to be the message boy for a year,” he said.

"It was all the dirty jobs, cleaning toilets, running errands, going to the post office, picking up all the left over papers around town, all sorts of things.

"I didn't have time to stand still, they always had something for me to do.

After the year was up, Mr Kemp knew he liked what the tradesman were doing and decided to give it a go himself.

"I started a five year apprenticeship in Hand and Machine Composition,” he said.

"Back in those days the place was really busy and very controlled, well run but if you stepped out of line the bosses would come down hard.

"I also spent about 10 years working at various newspapers around the country but didn't like the city life and returned to the Daily News in 1976.

"I stayed until I retired in 2005, by which time the whole process had been computerised.”

These days, now happily retired there's a lot more golfing, a little share-market play and a bit of fishing.

Mr Kemp is one man who thinks Warwick has what it takes to become a first class fishing destination.

Our rivers, creeks and dams are all teeming with fish, thanks to Mr Kemp and Warwick Fish Stocking.

"I've been the secretary of the club for 11 years and we promote the area as a fishing destination,” he said.

"All the money we receive to restock the waterways come from the money people pay for the fishing permits.

"Every year we receive a cheque from Queensland Fisheries and that allows us to do what we do, keep the dams and rivers full of fish.”