A torn and worn poster on a bin displaying pineapples outside a shop in the once fabulous gold mining town of Charters Towers declares local news is covered every Thursday in the Murdoch Townsville Bulletin, 137 kilometres away.
In 2020, after 148 years, the local Northern Miner newspaper was one of the NewsCorp regional papers closed or digitised , resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs. The closure was greeted with dismay and anger in the town , according to an ABC report .
By Peter Simon
During its rip-roaring goldrush days , Charters Towers became Queensland's second largest city outside Brisbane, had its own stock exchange , was dubbed The World because anything you wanted was available there , and it was regarded as the mining capital of North Queensland . Fortunes were made and lost .
A former owner-editor of the Northern Miner , wild Irishman ,Thadeus O'Kane (1820-1890) wrote fiery editorials , resulting in several libel cases. He was inducted into the Australian Hall of Media Fame in 2018 and is commemorated , below, in one of the many plaques scattered about the cbd honouring past influential residents.
A strong supporter of the white Australia policy , he was deeply involved in politics , unsuccessfully contested elections , played a big part in civic affairs.The book, How He Died, by John Farrell, contains the poem Thadeus O'Kane , see the Australian Poets Library website .
It asked if O'Kane, now in his "new sphere deviner", away from the heat and anger of Queensland , longed for the roaring old days of The Miner .There is mention of his northern battles to right wrongs , the quagmires of libel . .
The historian , journalist, author and publisher , the late Glenville Pike , who wrote books about the early Northern Territory and North Queensland ,encouraged pioneers to write their memoirs , also edited the North Australian Monthly magazine , once lived in Charters Towers.
During that time , he spent many hours in the Northern Miner going through-mining - its extensive old newspaper files . These , he told me , were a goldmine , rich in information about characters , miners, politics, the rise of Labor . He deplored the fact that the newspapers were likely to end up in Brisbane . They should have been kept in the North , available for research.
