The ''Southern Argus'' is a newspaper first published from March 1866 in

Port Elliot, South Australia Port Elliot is a town in South Australia toward the eastern end of the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is situated on the sheltered Horseshoe Bay, a small bay off the much larger Encounter Bay. Pullen Island lies outside the mouth of t ...

, and then in Strathalbyn from 1868 to the present. It is published on Thursdays.

History

The ''Southern Argus'' (as distinct from the ''Northern Argus'' published in

Clare Clare may refer to: Places Antarctica * Clare Range, a mountain range in Victoria Land Australia * Clare, South Australia, a town in the Clare Valley * Clare Valley, South Australia Canada * Clare (electoral district), an electoral district * Cl ...

) is one of the state's oldest country newspapers, privately owned by the Elliott and Jones families for 140 years. It was founded by

Ebenezer Ward Ebenezer Ward (4 September 1837 – 8 October 1917) was an Australian politician and journalist. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1870 to 1880 and from 1881 to 1890, representing Gumeracha (1870–1880), Burra (188 ...

(1837–1917) in Port Elliot as a weekly newspaper, the first issue appearing on Saturday 17 March 1866. While primarily called the ''Southern Argus,'' for the first decade it was also subtitled'';'' ''"And Strathalbyn, Wellington, Milang, Langhorne's Creek, Woodchester, Mount Barker, Echunga, Macclesfield, Bull's Creek, Clarendon, Noarlunga, Willunga, Aldinga, Sellick's Hill, Myponga, Normanville, Yankalilla, Rapid Bay, Cape Jervis, Inman Valley, Bald Hills, Hindmarsh Valley, Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, Middleton, Currency Creek and Goolwa,.and River Murray Advertiser."'' Ward expected that the new southern port of Port Elliot was to become an enterprising outlet for the

River Murray 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 ...

trade. Using the original ''

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in con ...

'' printing press, Ward set up the newspaper in the small coastal town; its first office was previously J. Barton's shop. In mid-April 1868, following financial difficulties and ownership changes, the production of the newspaper moved to William Colman's shop in Strathalbyn, then on 5 December 1868, to their new building adjacent to the Strathalbyn Post Office. It was purchased in 1871 by William Fisher and Joseph Elliott (c. 1833 – 21 May 1883), the latter whose brother James Elliott was the first owner of ''

The Kapunda Herald ''The Kapunda Herald'' was a newspaper published in Kapunda, South Australia from 29 October 1864 to 25 January 1951. From 1864 to 1878 the masthead was subtitled ''"and Northern Intelligencer"''. It was published weekly, except for the period Feb ...

''. Elliott bought his partner out shortly after. The long title of the newspaper persisted until 5 July 1877 when it was shortened to the ''Southern Argus and River Murray Advertiser''. On 4 January 1893, it lengthened again to ''The'' ''Southern Argus Strathalbyn, Goolwa, and River Murray Advertiser,'' later variously re-adding ''Victor Harbor, Milang, Meningie.'' On 14 August 1940, the subtitle was finally removed.

Literature

The ''Southern Argus'' published serials and poems by South Australian writers. The first serial was ''Middle Life: a tale'' by James Dunlop, in 1870.

Distribution

The publication's early coverage included the towns of: Strathalbyn,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Milang Milang ( ) is a town and locality located in the Australian state of South Australia on the west coast of Lake Alexandrina (South Australia), Lake Alexandrina about south-east of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide and about nor ...

, Langhorne's Creek,

Woodchester Woodchester is a Gloucestershire village in the Nailsworth (or Woodchester) Valley, a valley in the South Cotswolds in England, running southwards from Stroud along the A46 road to Nailsworth. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was ...

, Mount Barker,

Echunga Echunga ( ) is a small town in the Adelaide Hills located south-east of Adelaide in South Australia. The area was settled by Europeans during the period of British colonisation of South Australia in 1839, with the town laid out in 1849. The na ...

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

, Bull's Creek, Clarendon, Noarlunga, Willunga, Aldinga, Sellick's Hill, Myponga, Normanville, Yankalilla,

Rapid Bay Rapid Bay is a locality that includes a small seaside town and bay on the west coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. It lies within the District Council of Yankalilla and its township is approximately 100 km south of the stat ...

Cape Jervis Cape Jervis is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located near the western tip of Fleurieu Peninsula on the southern end of the Main South Road approximately south of the state capital of Adelaide. It is named after the headla ...

, Inman Valley, Bald Hills, Hindmarsh Valley,

Encounter Bay Encounter Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south central coast about south of the state capital of Adelaide. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his encounter on 8 April 1802 with Nicolas Baud ...

, Victor Harbor,

Port Elliot Port Elliot is a town in South Australia toward the eastern end of the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is situated on the sheltered Horseshoe Bay, a small bay off the much larger Encounter Bay. Pullen Island lies outside the mouth of t ...

, Middleton, Currency Creek, and Goolwa.

Preservation and digitisation

This newspaper title has been preserved on

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...

by the

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research l ...

. It has been digitised from the microfilm for the

Australian Newspapers Digitisation Project 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 ...

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

External links