The Barrier Daily Truth was a local newspaper for the mining town of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It coverered a range of stories that affect local residents, including industrial news relating to the mines and stories submitted by readers such as local sport stories. The paper also covered national news events of importance. It was owned by the

Barrier Industrial Council The Barrier Industrial Council is the trades and labour council in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, and surrounding areas. Formed in 1923 by 18 trade unions, the council has been unusually influential in local government, for a labour conf ...

and was one of the few small newspapers in Australia to remain locally owned.

History

''The Barrier Truth'' started in 1898 as a weekly English language news sheet. It was printed by Thomas Nicholls, for the proprietor Nicholas James Buzacott from 1898 to 1908. Initially it was printed in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

until 10 September 1898 and it began to be printed locally in Broken Hill. In 1899 the news sheet format was abandoned in favour of a proper newspaper, and in July 1899 the newspaper became owned by the Barrier District Australasian Labor Federation and was published by William Arthur Jones. At this time it became the official organ of the Barrier District Council of the Australian Labor Federation. Later the owner became the Barrier Industrial Council. Between 1899 and 1902 the paper published very little other than local news and general Labour news. In 1902 a

women's section The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...

was added to the paper, and sporting news and racing results were also included in the paper. This had the effect of doubling the paper's circulation in about nine months. The paper changed its name to the ''Barrier Daily Truth'' in 1908 and Volume 1, number 1 under the new title was published on 2 November 1908. The masthead on that first issue reads: Barrier Daily Truth with which is incorporated the Barrier Truth, established 1898. At this time the paper also changed from a weekly to a daily publication. Construction began on the building in which the ''Barrier Daily Truth'' currently resides on 31 October 1904. It was completed in February 1905 and a second story added in 1908. In the late 1970s the building was refurbished to house a modern

offset press Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on t ...

. From 1941 to 1951 the ''Barrier Daily Truth'' also published

Wilcannia Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th ce ...

's weekly newspaper ''

Western Grazier The ''Western Grazier'' was a newspaper published from 1880 until 1951, covering the central Darling River region of New South Wales. It was published in Wilcannia until 1940, when it moved to Broken Hill. Newspaper history Wilcannia's fir ...

''. On Saturday, 28 March 2020, within the context of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the Barrier Daily Truth suspended daily publication. Staff volunteered to produce a weekly newspaper and then received payment via the Australian Government's Jobkeeper program. They made the newspaper viable again under the original Barrier Truth banner, which is now a twice-weekly publication. A new staff was then employed to forge a new direction.

Digitisation

Some issues of the paper published in 1908, and many issues published between 1941 and 1954 have been digitised as part of the

Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program 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 document ...

, a project of the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

in cooperation with the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

References

External links

* * {{Trove newspaper, 635, Barrier Daily Truth , Broken Hill, NSW : 1908; 1941 – 1954 Newspapers published in New South Wales Daily newspapers published in Australia Newspapers on Trove Broken Hill, New South Wales