The ''Moonta Herald and Northern Territory Gazette'' was a newspaper produced on the vessel ''SS Moonta'' that was sailed by

George Goyder George Woodroffe Goyder (24 June 1826 – 2 November 1898) was a surveyor in the Colony of South Australia during the latter half of the nineteenth century. He rose rapidly in the civil service, becoming Assistant Surveyor-General by 1856 ...

in 1868 and 1869 from

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

to Darwin. The aim of the 41-day voyage was to provide an initial survey of what was to become the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. It consisted of five issues (Saturdays, 2-30 January 1869) and a supplement (Wednesday 24 February 1869), and an additional issue that was released when the vessel reached

Port Darwin Port Darwin is the port in Darwin, Northern Territory, in northern Australia. The port has operated in a number of locations, including Stokes Hill Wharf, Cullen Bay and East Arm Wharf. In 2015, a 99-year lease was granted to the Chinese-owned ...

, where its reporting captures some of the earliest colonial impressions of the sea and land surrounding the site. The issues, which were distributed to all the people on ''Moonta'', contained comedic articles, a

lost and found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...

section, advertisements for on-board events such as concerts, and more. The original

newspapers A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

were hand-written, but it was professionally printed later 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 ...

References

External links

Trove
– photo-image of the newspaper * * * * * *
Goyder Subject guide at Northern Territory LibrarySurveying Darwin, Northern Territory Library online feature
Publications established in 1868 Defunct newspapers published in the Northern Territory Defunct newspapers published in South Australia {{Australia-newspaper-stub