Pigs , dogs, sharks,snakes , hangings , China and natives were some of the many subjects covered in Australia's first newspaper ,the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser , which was launched in 1803 and ran until 1842.
One terrible story, run in full in the above entertaining 2003 book , recently acquired by Little Darwin , told how a newborne baby was eaten to death by a pig in the penal colony.
And the television show Who Do You Think You Are recently revealed that an ancestor of Australian comedian and presenter of the popular ABC Hard Quiz,Tom Gleeson, who was transported for stealing a watch got a run in the colonial press for shooting dead two bushrangers .
The editor of the Sydney Gazette was George Howe who had worked on newspapers including the London Times . Sentenced to death for shoplifting , his sentence was commuted to transportation to NSW .
Governor King made Howe the government printer and editor of the Sydney Gazette, the first edition printed in a Government House room .The paper consisted of two or four pages.
LIttle Darwin recently ran a post about a bound volume containing the first eight issues-May to December 1821- of Australia’s first periodical, The Australian Magazine, being offered for $45,000 by Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne.
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It was edited by Reverend Ralph Mansfield and printed by Robert Howe ,George Howe's son. It went out of circulation in September 22, 1822 after 14 issues.
The first issue of the Australian Magazine was published on May 1,1821,10 days before George Howe's death. Having already succeeded his father as Government Printer, Robert also became editor, printer and publisher of the Gazette,which he had formerly helped his father to publish.
George Howe (1759-l821) , also printed the first book in Australia in l802 , the New South Wales General Standing Order.
( Australia. Publishing . History.)
