Australia’s first published …

Newspaper, 1803

Hot off the Press

Crime and punishment; real estate auctions; births and suicides; the most fashionable imported clothes; pleasure boats for sale; the latest activities prohibited by Government; gossip; wars and tragedies overseas—all these appear in the early issues of our first newspaper which commenced on 5 March 1803.

Governor Philip Gidley King took advantage of the fact that George Howe, an experienced printer transported for shoplifting, had arrived in the Colony in late 1800. Howe was given access to the primitive printing press brought out on the First Fleet and permission to start a newspaper provided that a Government official previewed its contents. Howe had to solicit contributions, set the type, distribute the newspaper and collect subscriptions—and he probably wrote much of the paper himself. He fought a continuing battle to find paper which was in short supply. The first issue was four pages and cost sixpence, the price of one dozen peaches. The paper appeared weekly.

The Sydney Gazette remained the only newspaper in New South Wales until 1824 when newspaper censorship was lifted. It continued until 1842, by which stage it was being published three times a week. The Library holds the only complete run of the Sydney Gazette.
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