Issue Details: First known date: 1858... 1858 The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter District News
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In 1858 George Tully placed an advertisement in the Sydney press, suggesting there was a good opening for a newspaper in Newcastle and inviting interested people to contact him. Two compositors working on a Sydney paper Hugh McDicken and James Baker saw the advertisement and travelled by steamer to Newcastle to meet Tully and size up the opportunity.

'Tully told the pair that Newcastle was destined to become an important shipping and commercial centre. McDicken and Baker bought an old press and type for 100 pounds and Tully stumped up a matching sum to keep things moving. The first issue of The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter District News appeared on August 28, 1858. It was a flimsy, four-page sheet with a sixpenny cover price. But unlike the earlier Telegraph, The Chronicle survived.

'By March 3, 1861, the paper was appearing as a six-page publication and it shifted from weekly to twice a week. The following year the paper was appearing every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Editorially, The Chronicle campaigned for a hospital, for coalmine ventilation, for a school of arts and for better roads.

'... the fledgling newspaper didn't have things all its own way. The founder of the short-lived Telegraph, George Maxted, tried yet again, founding The Newcastle Free Press in 1861. It was another failure. The Newcastle Standard appeared in 1864 and this paper had a fiery relationship with The Chronicle. The feud between the two papers culminated in The Standard's editor whipping his opposite number from The Chronicle in Bolton St, an assault for which he was fined five pounds. '

Source: Greg Ray, '150 Years in Print' , Newcastle Herald, 13 November 2008. Reproduced at: http://www.tannery.com.au/tannery-articles/2008/11/13/150-years-in-print/
Sighted: 18/04/2013

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1858

PeriodicalNewspaper Details

ISSN: 2200-6885
Frequency:
Weekly ; twice weekly ([from 1861]) ; thrice weekly (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) (from 1862)
Range:
28 August 1858 - 25 July 1866
Continued by:
The Newcastle Chronicle.
Price:
6d
Last amended 18 Apr 2013 13:06:33
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X