Sydney Gazette

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The Sydney Gazette was the first published newspaper in Australia. Initially published as 'The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser ' on 5 March 1803. The paper was issued weekly and the content mostly government issued official notices such as the import of spirits and General Orders regulating boats’ cargoes. In 1825 the paper became bi-weekly and by 1831 the 'Sydney Gazette' was available three times a week.

It first took the form of a single sheet folded to four pages of foolscap size, each page typeset in three columns.

There were 300 subscribers at sixpence a copy in the first years of publication.

The papers original publisher, editor, typesetter and printer was George Howe who had been transported to Sydney in 1800.

After George Howe's death in 1821, the Gazette was published by his son Robert until he drowned in a boating incident in Sydney Harbour in 1829. Publication of the printing business passed onto his apprentice Horatio Wills.

The paper ceased publication on 20 October 1842.