Edward Rhode was a compositor, printer, and newspaper proprietor. In April 1877 he started the first Cairns newspaper, The Cairns Advertiser and Smithfield Observer, followed by The Port Douglas Gazette in June 1879, and The Cairns Chronicle in July 1880 with John Kiley Mehan and D. S. Clarke. This last paper failed in February 1881 after a libel action brought by The Advertiser.
Rhode then moved to Townsville, where he joined up again with Mehan and Clarke to launch The Townsville Daily Bulletin on 5 September 1881. Further newspapers followed, including The Torres Straits Pilot and New Guinea Gazette in January 1888, and The Townsville Evening Star which he started with George Bellingham and Augustus Winniett in 1889.
Rhode's final venture was The Evening News in Charters Towers. Launched in 1891, the paper was sold to John O'Kane in March 1892 after the tragic death of Rhode's wife in February and of his 51-day-old daughter in March.
Sources: James Manion. Paper Power in North Queensland Townsville: The North Queensland Newspaper Company Limited, 1982, and Rod Kirkpatrick. Sworn to No Master : A History of the Provincial Press in Queensland to 1930 Toowoomba: Darling Downs Institute Press, 1984.
