''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' was the first newspaper printed in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, authorised by Governor King and printed by George Howe. On 14 October 1824, under the editorship of

Robert Howe Robert Howe may refer to: * Robert Howe (footballer) (1903–1979), Scottish international football (soccer) player * Robert Howe (Continental Army officer) (1732–1786), Major-General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War ...

, it ceased to be censored by the colonial government.

Printing press

When the eleven vessels of the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command o ...

of settlers reached New South Wales in January 1788, among the cargo aboard was a small second-hand printing press intended for printing general orders, regulations and official proclamations in the new penal settlement. Seven years went by before someone was found who could work the press. This was convict George Hughes, who used it to print more than 200 government orders between 1795 and 1799. Australia's first printer also used the press to produce playbills for theatrical performances in Sydney in March and April 1800, and he also appeared as an actor in these plays. He was replaced as government printer by George Howe, who arrived in the colony on 22 November 1800. He had worked as a printer before being convicted of shoplifting in 1799 and sentenced to transportation. Among other things, Howe printed ''New South Wales Standing Orders '' (1802), the first book published in Australia. In 1803, Governor King wrote a despatch to Lord Hobart in which he explained that,

Mission

The introductory address, by Howe, was published on the first page in the third column. It read:

Editors

The newspaper's original editor, typesetter and printer was George Howe, who had been transported to

for shoplifting in 1800. After Howe's death in 1821, the ''Gazette'' was printed by his son, Robert, until he drowned in a boating accident in

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman S ...

in 1829. The business then passed to Robert's co-editor and friend

Ralph Mansfield Ralph Mansfield (12 March 1799 – 1 September 1880) was a Methodist missionary and newspaper editor in colonial Australia. Born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, son of Ralph Mansfield, an earthenware manufacturer, and his wife Ann, ''née'' ...

. Mansfield soon left the ''Gazette'', and was replaced by a series of short-term editors including Edward O'Shaughnessy, George Thomas Graham and Horatio Wills, Robert Howe's apprentice and step-brother. From 1833, the paper was nominally edited by Ann Howe, Robert's widow, but managed by O'Shaughnessy and later William Watt, a ticket of leave convict whom Anne later married. After Watt's banishment to

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Se ...

in 1835, ownership of the ''Gazette'' passed to Richard Jones, co-executor to Robert Howe's estate. Jones helped establish Robert Charles Howe, Howe's eldest illegitimate son, as the legal owner. Howe sold the newspaper in 1841 to Patrick Grant. Its final editor, from 2 August 1842, was Richard Sanderson.

Production

The ''Gazette'' was printed alongside government orders, rules and regulations on a small

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

and used type brought to the colony by Governor Phillip in January 1788. It was initially printed as a single sheet, folded into four pages of foolscap size, with each page typeset in three columns. In appearance, it resembled the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

''.Walker, p.3 Its masthead was a locally produce

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

of Sydney and carried the '' imprimatur'' 'Published by Authority'. For a long time the wood-cut depicted a female figure seated on a bale surrounded by the words, "Thus we hope to prosper". On 24 June 1804, this woodcut was replaced by another which represented the royal arms. Editorial independence was not an option when the printing press was located in Government House, used government ink and printed on government paper. The scarcity of type in the Colony was shown by the fact that the capital W in "Wales", and the capital A in "Advertiser" were formed using inverted V's. In addition the lack of paper meant the quality of the publication was extremely variable and led to the printer sending out numerous requests for Spanish paper to enable him to complete his work. In May 1803, Howe successfully requested new type and additional

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

s to replace the worn type that had been used previously. The printing materials were further upgraded by Howe's son, when he enlarged the newspaper to Demy size in 1824. From the 5 March 1803, and for some time afterwards the "Gazette' was published weekly. The sixth edition was published on Sunday 10 April 1803 and for the next 7 years continued to be issued on that day. From the 29 September 1825, the ''Gazette'' was issued weekly, after which it was published bi-weekly until 30 December 1826. For six weeks, from 1 January to 10 February 1827, it appeared daily, but the postal service could not accommodate this schedule. The last issue of the ''Gazette'' appeared on 23 December 1843.

Discontinuation of long s

When the newspaper first began publishing in 1803 the use of the

long s The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "po� ...

was still in usage by published books and newspapers across English speaking countries. The masthead (known as a nameplate in American English) last used the long s on the edition on Sunday 17 June 1804, reading as:

''THE SYDNEY GAZETTE And New South Wales Advertiſer''

The next week's edition on the Sunday 24 June 1804 introduced a new masthead with the modern s, reading as:

''THE Sydney Gazette AND NEW SOUTH WALES ADVERTISER''

The articles within the newspaper, however, continued to use the long s for just over eight more years with declining usage. The apparent last edition that used the long s was on 27 June 1812, reading as:

ON SALE, at reduced Prices, for Ready Money, the valuable Inveſtment, imported per Brig Eagle, Captain McLardie; conſiſting of sugar by the bag; Souchong Tea by the cheſt, weight 82lbs; coarſe Calico by the bale; coarſe Gurrahs by the ditto; fine India Prints by the ditto; Bengal Boots and Shoes; beſt Dara Soap in hogſheads; Bourbon Coffee by the bag; and a Quantity of empty Gunny Bags. Application to be made to Mr. Robert Campbell, jun. at his Office, No. 15, Hunter- ſtreet, Sydney.

The next edition on 4 July 1812 has no articles that use it and later editions appear to be the same.

Legacy

The ''Sydney Gazette'' was the first newspaper published in Australia. Although subject of government censorship in its early years, it went on to be a typical newspaper of the period and contains much information about New South Wales in the first half of the 19th century available nowhere else. As such, it continues to serve the public as a unique source for the study of Australian history.

Digitisation

The paper has been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program project of the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "maint ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Publications established in 1803 1803 establishments in Australia Publications disestablished in 1842 Government publications Newspapers on Trove Defunct newspapers published in Sydney