Alternative title: Bendigo Advertiser and Sandhurst Commerical Courier
Date: 1855 Note: Length of editorship yet to be established.
Date: 1853-1855 Note: Founding editor.
Issue Details: First known date: 1853... 1853 The Bendigo Advertiser
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Bendigo Advertiser has delivered trusted news to the people of central Victoria since 1853. Arthur Moore Lloyd and Robert Ross Haverfield founded the newspaper on the goldfields with Haverfield the founding editor. The first issue of the Bendigo Advertiser and Sandhurst Commerical Courier appeared as a single sheet, 17 inches by 11 inches, on December 9, 1953. The production cost of the 500-copy print run for the first edition was 18 pounds and the newspaper cover price was equal to five cents in today's value.

'Four months after that first edition, the Bendigo Advertiser grew to four pages. In 1855, the Bendigo Advertiser was acquired by young Sydney reporter Angus Mackay in partnership with Irish barristers John Henderson and James Joseph Casey. The trio rapidly developed the newspaper into what one writer described as ''the most powerful organ of public opinion in the provinces''.

'A significant element of the Bendigo Advertiser's history would be set in motion when John Andrew Michelsen joined the Bendigo Advertiser as mining reporter in 1892. His son Cyril would later join the newspaper as a cadet in 1922 and go on to play a major role in the development of the newspaper, retiring as editor in 1972.

'Another significant moment in the Bendigo Advertiser's history occurred on July 29, 1962, when fire destroyed the "ultra modern structure" that was its home leaving a damage bill of 250,000 pounds. One of the most unfortunate results of the fire was the complete loss of the newspaper's files dating back to the first edition in 1853 and an historically significant photographic library. Production of the newspaper for its next issue proceeded despite the fire. For the next week Bendigo radio station 3BO offered space for a news room for Bendigo Advertiser staff to work while the production was carried out at the Riverine Herald offices in Echuca.

The Bendigo Advertiser changed from a broadsheet publication to its present tabloid form in June 1998 and published its first full-colour edition on June 15, 1998. Today [2013], under the ownership of Fairfax Media, the Bendigo Advertiser continues to deliver trusted news to central Victoria, but the format is changing. As well as the printed version which now sells around 80,000 copies each week, the Bendigo Advertiser has an extensive website and on June 12 steps into a new horizon with an iPhone app.

'The Bendigo Advertiser is committed to delivering real news everyday.'

Source: 'About Us', Bendigo Advertiser website, http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/about-us/
Sighted: 25/03/2013

Notes

  • For further information, see the Bendigo Advertiser website, http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/
  • For publication history, including details of mergers, etc, see: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/44180

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1853
Notes:
Digitised issues available for the period 1 September 1855 to 31 December 1918. (Correct as of 2 December 2013.)
    • Bendigo, Bendigo area, Ballarat - Bendigo area, Victoria,: Mackay and Co. , 1855- .
      Note/s:
      • 'Published by Mackay and Co. at their offices, Bull-street and Pike's Buildings, Pall Mall, Sandhurst, Victoria.'

PeriodicalNewspaper Details

Frequency:
Twice weekly (Wednesday and Saturday) ; later daily (Monday-Saturday)
Range:
9 December 1853 -
Continues:
Bendigo Independent
Supplement:
Includes supplements
Price:
Original price: 6d. ; 12s. per quarter
Advertising:
Includes advertising

Has serialised

The Shadow of Larose, Arthur Gask , single work novel detective

'On the lonely stretch of road between Whyalla and Iron Knob a man was murdered and robbed of £1,850. Upon that fiction Mr. Arthur Gask has built up one of his best detective stories, under the title 'The Shadow of Larose.''

Source:

'Lonely Road: Scene of Mysterious Murder', Advertiser, 12 May 1920, p.16.

The Life and Adventures of John Marmon, the Hokianga Pakeha Maori; or, Seventy-Five Years in New Zealand, John Marmon , single work autobiography
Scattered Leaves from Peregrine Pick's Diary: A Romance of Old Bendigo, Robert Ross Haverfield , single work novel
The Romance of the Rallaby Riders, Robert Ross Haverfield , single work novel
The Rise of the Australian Wool Kings : A Romance of Port Phillip, James Mouat , single work novel
Last amended 2 Dec 2013 16:44:16
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