A technician's assistant managed to herd the goats into an adjacent paddock while a technical producer worked at repairing the cable, finishing with only fifteen minutes until the start of the broadcast.
[8] The Sydney Morning Herald's Harry Robinson said that the program was, to any "savvy" listener, a mash of 1930s folksy corn and a dopey gnome in the ABC's garden.
[citation needed] Robinson said that not much happens on the program apart from a lot of phone calls with little substance, consisting only of lengthy discussions about wombats, curlews, white-tailed spiders and mopokes.
[8] Robinson also said that it was easy for the program to cater to "One Nation types", by telling them their world of nice, bland, decent folk is the best of all possibilities because they considered change an abomination.
[13] Former ABC managing director David Hill has said he understands why McNamara receives some vitriolic criticism as he is philosophically an old Australian working-class conservative and a real non-progressive traditionalist uncomfortable with change.
[8] In 1988, a 20-minute radio documentary on the re-enactment of The First Fleet Voyage recorded aboard the Swedish barquentine, the Amorina, as it sailed from Hobart to Newcastle produced by Tasmanian Country Hour presenter Tom Murrell, won Best Special Talks and Documentary - Radio International Open for the Bicentennial Media Awards, the Paters sponsored by the Australian Academy of Broadcast Arts and Sciences.