EARLY AUSTRALIAN PUBLICATIONS : THE FIRST PERIODICAL / PRINTED ON SILK

 

An extremely rare run of  the  above magazine , eight issues ,  edited by Methodist minister Ralph Mansfield , is  listed at  $60,000, in the latest  acquisitions  offered  by  Douglas Stewart  Books, Melbourne . 

A monthly  , it sold for two shillings and sixpence an issue, or one shilling and threepence for an  annual subscription.  It  was  first printed by George Howe of the Sydney Gazette ,Australia's first newspaper, then by his son, Robert .

Apart from theology, it included  poetry, short stories and  local  news , had a short run from May 1821 to May the next year. The Australian National Library has a  complete  run  of  the  publication .  

One of  the many treasures  in Townsville's  James  Cook  University  Library Special  Collections is  the  first edition of  the  1887 Croydon Miner (below)  printed on  silk .  

The gold rush to  the  area that began in  l886   turned Croydon into a boomtown  , with 7000 residents , providing  a wide range of services which  included  a hospital , three churches , a school and  19 pubs. 

The above catalogue for the university exhibition in the Perc Tucker Gallery, Townsville , states the Croydon Miner was typical of small regional newspapers of the time, usually run by just an editor/journalist  and a compositor/printer.

 Experienced  journalist  and editor , Horace Wellington Harris,  had arrived in town "without a shilling to his name ". Nicknamed "The Duke",  he was a dynamic individual , sold hundreds of  subscriptions  and  lots of  advertising space in the paper which was  pro Labour.  During his career he was  declared insolvent  twice, the paper ceased publication about October l888, the printing plant sold  off  and used to start  two other  newspapers.