DIVERSE, EXPERIENCED, RESPECTED

Caribou Publications is a pioneering event management, media services and publishing company, founded by John Craven in 1980. The Geelong-based Caribou has been Australia’s leading cycling promoter for the past 30 years, organising iconic races like the Herald Sun Tour for 16 years, Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic (21), Australian road championships in Portarlington and Ballarat (12) and the Victorian road titles (9).

Caribou also founded and promoted the Tours of Tasmania, Murray River, Gippsland, Alpine NSW, Queensland and Geelong, and created the hugely-successful Tattersall’s-Scody Cup series. The company inaugurated the cross-border Tour of the Great South Coast in 2012 and was heavily engaged in the organisation and promotion of the historic Tasmanian Christmas Sports Carnivals from 2013-18.

On the athletics front, Caribou created and organised the trail-blazing Great Otway Classic for 16 years – from 1980 onwards – and managed the establishment and promotion of the fabulous Great Ocean Road International Marathon from 2005-13.

The company, which engages up to 150 personnel on its events, also resurrected and organised the Yarra River Three-Mile Swim in the 1980s.

John Craven, who was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday honours for his service to cycling and community events, is a widely-experienced journalist. He worked for the Department of Public Health’s information division in Papua New Guinea, the Geelong Advertiser, Launceston Examiner, Melbourne Herald and Australian Associated Press in Canada. More recently, he has contributed to the www.sportshounds.com.au website.

Caribou published the autobiographies of sprint queen Raelene Boyle, champion jockey Roy Higgins, AFL legends Leigh Matthews, Robbie Flower and Wayne Johnston, and the fabled 1950s cyclist Max Rowley.

Craven is the author of five books, including Raelene Boyle’s. He also collaborated with race callers John Russell and Greg Miles on their autobiographies and wrote the acclaimed history of the celebrated Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic, released in 2015, to coincide with the event's 120th Anniversary.

Perhaps his crowning achievement as a writer is The Conquerors, an 850-page extravaganza on the Geelong region's All-Time International Sports Champions and Brownlow Medallists.

Caribou’s publishing and book division is administered and propelled by the company’s resourceful, founding co-director and secretary Bernadette Craven.