''The Riverine Herald'' is a tri-weekly newspaper based in

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and largest ...

in Victoria's Goulburn Valley, servicing the Echuca-

Moama Moama ( or ) is a town in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales, Australia, in the Murray River Council local government area. The town is directly across the Murray River from the larger town of Echuca in the neighbouring state ...

area. The paper is owned by McPherson Media Group.

Origins

The newspaper was founded at

on 1 July 1863, with its first editor as Robert Ross Haverfield (1819–1889) and joint owners James Joseph Casey (1831–1913) and Angus Mackay (1824–1886) - the latter also being one of the proprietors of the

Bendigo Advertiser The ''Bendigo Advertiser'' (commonly referred to as ''"The Addy"'') is an Australian regional newspaper. It is the daily (Monday–Saturday) newspaper for Bendigo, Victoria, and its surrounding region. The paper is published by Australian Communi ...

. Haverfield was a drover, grazier, gold miner, explorer and journalist. He was born on 26 February 1819 at

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the main town of the Torridge local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bideford is recorded as ''Bedeford'', ''By ...

, North Devon,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as the son of a Royal Navy Commander R.T. Haverfield, and his wife, née Ross. He

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to Australia in 1838 where he went

droving Droving is the practice of walking livestock over long distances. It is a type of herding. Droving stock to market—usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs—has a very long history in the Old World. An owner might entrust an agent to de ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

from

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, working an alluvial claim near Bendigo, and started the ''Bendigo Advertiser'' with A.M. Lloyd (which he later sold to Mackay). It became a daily on 1 July 1878, and continued until 31 March 1956, before reverting to a tri-weekly issue. In 1880 it was one of only two daily provincial newspapers circulated in New South Wales. In 1995 the ''Riverine Herald'' first provided local call Internet access to its community. Note/Correction: Local Call internet access was provided to the community by The Riverine Herald's parent company, the McPherson Media Group by their Internet Service Provider, McPherson Media. That particular arm of the group is to try and demonstrate media and news on all platforms, print, web and mobile. More info can be found at http://www.mcmedia.com.au.

Staff

In the same year as founding ''Riverine Herald'' as Echuca's first newspaper, Robert Ross married Marianna Collier. Newspaper proprietor and politician, Angus Mackay was born on 26 January 1824 in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. He had worked as a

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

in Sydney prior to buying Haverfield's share in the ''Bendigo Advertiser'' and later helping to start The ''Riverine Herald''. Journalist and short story writer William Astley (1854–1911) had work published by the ''Herald''.

Editorial campaigns

The ''Riverine Herald'' has championed many causes throughout its history. These included calls for the de-snagging the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...

so that it would be navigable, and the construction of

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s on it to assist

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

which has made this one of Australia's major food bowl regions. The paper has also pushed for more environmental awareness with its "Minding the Murray" campaign and more recently played a pivotal role in Echuca Regional Health securing funding for a new Echuca Hospital.

Digitisation

The paper has been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program 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 ...

References

Mackay, G., ''The History of Bendigo,'' Melbourne, 1891.

External links