Port Phillip Patriot Office and Melbourne Club

The ''Melbourne Advertiser'' was the first newspaper published in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, in what was then known as

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

, and now is

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

. It was published by John Pascoe Fawkner, a co-founder of Melbourne. The first edition appeared on 1 January 1838, handwritten in ink by Fawkner himself and displayed at his hotel. Ten hand-written weekly editions were published before Fawkner acquired a wooden press and some metal fount from Launceston. The ''Advertiser'' was initially printed in a shed at the rear of Fawkner's hotel. It sold for a

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

but could be read for free at his hotel. After printing a further seventeen issues he was forced by law to cease publication because he had failed to register the newspaper. On 6 February 1839, he registered and renamed the newspaper as ''Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser''. William Kerr (1812–1859) left the '' Port Phillip Herald'' in 1841 to be editor of the newspaper; he continued as editor for about ten years before becoming editor of a rival newspaper, the '' Times''. The newspaper became the first newspaper to achieve daily publication in Melbourne on 15 May 1845. The paper was renamed ''The Melbourne Daily News and Port Phillip Patriot'' on 9 October 1848 and then simply ''The Melbourne Daily News'' from November 1848 to 30 June 1851. The original printing press still exists and is stored at the Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne. Images and transcripts of 16 issues of the ''Melbourne Advertiser'' (1838) are available freely online, via the

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

. Most issues published during 1839–1845 are available freely online, via

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

. Issues published during 1845–1848, when it was known as the ''Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser'', are also available freely online, via

. Issues of ''The Melbourne Daily News and Port Phillip Patriot'' are available freely online, via

. Issues of ''The Melbourne Daily News'' are also available freely online, via

.The Melbourne Daily News (Vic. : 1848 - 1851)
,

References

{{Reflist Newspapers established in 1838 Defunct newspapers published in Melbourne History of Melbourne 1838 establishments in Australia Newspapers on Trove