The printing firm Wilke had its origins in 1896 when Herbert Wilke, Henry Barton and Alice H. Barton opened Excelsior Printing Office in Bay Street, Port Melbourne, to print the Port Melbourne Gazette. This publication was short-lived, but the business continued, with the Bartons departing and G. M. Bowden joining in 1901, when it was called Wilke and Bowden. When Bowden sold out to W. S. Mitchell and linotype printer George Cathie joined, it became Wilke, Mitchell and Co. From 1908 the business printed and published the magazine Sport, and subsequently printed a range of high volume sporting magazines, notably The Football Record, which it printed from 1912 to 1960. The business expanded and moved first to Equitable Place, then to King Street in 1914. In 1922 it moved to William Street, where with a technically advanced plant it began printing telephone directories. In 1938 the plant moved to Jephcott Street. The business was listed as a public company, Wilke and Co. Pty Ltd, in 1948. Primarily a printer of high-volume and high-profile serial publications, the firm's output included Australian and New Zealand editions of The Reader's Digest and Vogue, and the South East Pacific edition of Time Magazine.
Wilke & Co took over Jacaranda Press early in the 1960s; later that decade Wilke, Jacaranda and Cheshire were bought out by International Publishing Company. In the early 21st century, Wilke's parent company is Pacific Magazines and Printing (PMP) and Wilke continued within PMP as Wilke Color, and Wilke Directories.(http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/PMP-Ltd-Company-History.html).
