''The Cumberland Free Press'' was a short-lived weekly

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published and printed in

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, with a coverage extending across the

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and

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regions of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. The paper was first published on 22 June 1895 and ceased publication in March 1898.

History

''The Cumberland Free Press'' was published by John Black and Company, located in Church Street, Parramatta. The company had been founded in 1895 by John Black, George B. Davey and William Henry Hillis, three former employees of ''The Cumberland Mercury'', a newspaper that had recently been absorbed by ''

The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate ''The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate'' (also known as ''The Cumberland Argus'' or ''The Argus'') was a newspaper published in Parramatta, New South Wales, Parramatta with coverage and circulation incorporating Greater Western Sydney ...

''. The first edition of the paper was issued on Saturday, 22 June 1895, with the masthead proclaiming that the newspaper was "devoted to the interests of and circulating extensively throughout the electorates of

, Granville,

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

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, Willoughby and

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

." The first issue was described as being "well edited and printed and holds liberal views on political matters." In May 1897, ''The Cumberland Free Press'' was being published by John Black & Company in Parramatta and

, with the ''Ryde Electorate Press'' newspaper officially incorporated into ''The Cumberland Free Press'' from the issue dated Saturday, 5 June 1897. The ''Ryde Electorate Press'' had only been in operation since November 1896. On 25 March 1898, ''The Cumberland Free Press'' (along with the ''Ryde Electorate Press'') was purchased by the owners of ''The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate''. Black, Davey and other staff from the ''Free Press'' were retained by ''The Cumberland Argus''. The acquisition provided the new owners with more districts to cover and to sell their paper in. As a result, the owners began to publish ''The Cumberland Argus'' twice a week, introducing a Wednesday edition, to "faithfully and fully report the district's proceedings." ''The Cumberland Free Press'' was officially incorporated into ''The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate'' from the issue dated Saturday, 2 April 1898.

Availability

Hardcopy of ''The Cumberland Free Press'' is available from Vol. I, No. 1, 22 June 1895 to 1896. These issues are held by 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 ...

in offsite storage. In August 1993, Gosford Micrographics Pty Ltd filmed the issues of ''The Cumberland Free Press'', covering Vol. 1, No. 1, 22 June 1895 to Vol. 2, No. 107, 26 June 1897, onto two reels of 35mm

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 ...

. This microfilm is available to view at 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 ...

, State Library of New South Wales, and the

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

services of Holroyd, Hornsby and

Councils A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

. ''The Cumberland Free Press'' has been digitised and is available on the National Library of Australia's Trove Australian newspapers and more website.

Indexes

The

Ryerson Index The Ryerson Index is an online index of death notices from Australian newspapers, past and present, compiled by the Sydney-based non-profit organisation Ryerson Index Incorporated. The index database has in excess of 5 million records compiled ...

, an online

index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

of death notices and

obituaries An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

appearing in Australian newspapers, has begun indexing death notices and obituaries appearing in ''The Cumberland Free Press''.

References

External links

*
The Ryerson Index
(online index of death notices and obituaries appearing in Australian newspapers) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cumberland Free Press, The Defunct newspapers published in Sydney Newspapers on Trove

History

Availability

Indexes

See also

References

External links