David Syme was taught at home in North Berwick, Scotland by his father George Alexander Syme. He worked as proofreader's assistant in Glasgow before travelling first to California and then to Victoria in search of gold. According to the
Australian Dictionary of Biography (
ADB), Syme prospected in Victoria for three years, having 'some success' on the diggings at Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine and Beechworth. He also worked as a road contractor.
In September 1856, Syme, using funds from his road contracting business, joined his brother
Ebenezer in the joint ownership of the Melbourne
Age. The brothers worked in partnership until Ebenezer Syme's death in 1860 when his share passed to his widow and sons. In 1891 David Syme bought out his nephews and continued as sole proprieter until his death.
Syme was a fierce proponent of protectionism and the Age was regularly attacked by free trade interests. In the early 1860s the Victorian government and Syme's commercial adversaries withdrew advertising from the newspaper. 'Syme replied by reducing the price of the Age to 2d. in 1863 and to 1d. in 1868. Circulation increased markedly to 15,000 at the end of that year but the size of the paper dropped from 56 to 36 columns because of the shrinkage of advertising and the need to reduce expenditure to offset the price reduction. But the greater circulation brought back profitable advertising and for the first time the paper began to prosper.'
Ambrose Pratt, in his preface to David Syme, Father of Protection in Australia (1908), describes Syme thus: 'Syme was The Age, and for nearly half a century there has been no influence so potent on Australian public life ... For almost fifty years he was the most powerful person in Australia'.
In addition to his newspaper writing, Syme also published several prose works including Outlines of an Industrial Science (1876), Representative Government in England: Its Faults and Failures (1881), On the Modification of Organisms (1890) and The Soul: A Study and an Argument (1903).
Sources: 'David Syme', Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/syme-david-4679 and Ambrose Pratt, David Syme, Father of Protection in Australia (1908).
