Melbourne Advertiser

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The Melbourne Advertiser was Melbourne's first newspaper. It was published by John Pascoe Fawkner, a co-founder of Melbourne. The premier edition appeared on 1 January 1838 handwritten in ink by Fawkner himself and displayed at his hotel.

Ten handwritten weekly editions were published until Fawkner acquired a wooden press and some metal fount from Launceston. After printing a further seventeen issues he was forced by law to cease due to his failure to register his newspaper. He responded with a legally registered and renamed Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser on 6 February 1839, which became the first newspaper to achieve daily publication in Melbourne.

The paper was renamed The Melbourne Daily News and Port Phillip Patriot from 9 October 1848 and then simply The Melbourne Daily News from November 1848 to 30 June 1851.

The Advertiser was first printed from a shed a the rear of Fawkner's Shakespeare Hotel at the corner of Collins Street and Market Street.