The Sydney Gazette was the first newspaper in Australia. Governor King authorised the publication of what was initially called 'The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser in 1803.[1] Subsequently the first edition was published 5 March. 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. The heavily censored paper's masthead carried the imprimatur Published by Authority. In 1825 the paper became bi-weekly, and by 1831 the 'Sydney Gazette' was available three times a week.
The Gazette first took the form of a single sheet folded to four pages of foolscap size, each page typeset in three columns. It was printed with use of a small wooden printing press brought out aboard one of the First Fleet ships.[1] The introductory address, by Howe, was published on the first page in the third column. It read:
ADDRESS
Innumerable as the Obstacles were which threatened to oppose our Undertaking, yet we are happy to affirm that they were not insurmountable, however difficult the task before us.
The utility of a PAPER in the COLONY, as it must open a source of solid information, will we hope, be universally felt and acknowledged, We have courted the assistance of the INGENIOUS and INTELLIGENT :--- We open no channel to Political Discussion, or Personal Animadversion :--- Information is our only purpose; that accomplished, we shall consider that we have done our duty, in an exertion to merit the Approbation of the PUBLIC, and to secure a liberal Patronage to the Sydney Gazette.[2]
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 for shoplifting 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.