Sydney Gazette

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The Sydney Gazette was the first newspaper in Australia. Published from 5 March 1803, it was initially called 'The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser '. The paper was issued weekly; the content was mostly government-issued official notices dealing with 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 paper's original publisher, editor, typesetter and printer was George Howe, who had been transported to Sydney in 1800. After 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.