There was a familiar face at one of the stalls at the Handmade Market at Exhibition Park in Canberra over the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Former Today Show weatherman Monte Dwyer was behind one of the tables. He is still travelling around the country, this time chronicling the "rarely-told stories and characters from the Australian bush".
He does it by book, CDs, DVDs and audiobook under the label Red in the Centre, all of which he was selling at the market.
And Monte's smile is still as wide as ever.
"The Today Show was good to me for a decade or more but was never going to be enough for someone as creatively restless as me," he said.
"So when I couldn't talk the networks into giving me something more challenging to do I (eventually) sucked up the courage to walk away from all that lovely money and kudos and what-have-you, to do my own thing.
"Now with my Red in the Centre project I tell the stories seldom told from the Australian bush in as many ways as I can - in books, DVDs and even the occasional CD of original music to frighten the small and sensitive alike - and since I'm a one man band I'm well and truly satisfied in a creative sense.
"Hand selling my work at field days and markets like your fantastic Handmade Market is just another necessary part of that process, and after trying hard to leave the weatherman tag behind for many years I'm now comfortable resurrecting the title to help sell my product.
"It's been a long process to get to this point where I'm able to earn a living from my own hand, but I'd never go back to mainstream now unless it was on my own terms."
More details at www.monte.com.au/
