Rod Kirkpatrick states that the Gippsland Mercury was launched by Alexander Britton 'at Sale on November 1, 1869, using the presses of Gippsland's earliest newspaper, the Gippsland Guardian, which had closed four months earlier. Britton had been the editor of the Guardian.' (Source: Rod Kirkpatrick, 'A Sale Where Sometimes You Pay, and Sometimes You Don't', UQ eSpace (October 2005): 48-49)
Other sources, including the State Library of Victoria, provide1860 as the newspaper's start date.
Gippsland Guardian
1855
Port Albert
:
Jacob Ferris
,
1855-1867
Z1930150
1855
newspaper
(1 issues)
The Gippsland Times
Gipps Land Times
1861
Sale
:
J. J. Hart
,
1861-1954
Z1930556
1861
newspaper
(2 issues)
'James Johnston Hart, an Arts graduate of Dublin University, acquired the plant of the defunct [Gippsland] Independent and, with his partner George Gellatly, a Scottish compositor, first published the Gippsland Times on July 31, 1861 ... Hart and Gellatly established a journal that was circulated through the goldfields of the hinterland as well as the central plains of North Gippsland. The Times gathered news from correspondents in outlying districts and via the electric telegraph, as well as through its own reporters. But the founding proprietorship did not last long: Hart died in 1865 and Gellatly in 1869, about three months after he had sold the Times.'
Source: Rod Kirkpatrick, 'A Sale Where Sometimes You Pay, and Sometimes You Don't', UQ eSpace (October 2005): 48-49
