''The Liverpool News'' newspaper was priced at one penny15 April 1937 - The Liverpool News (p1) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6496357 and was one of the earliest newspapers in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The weekly publication was delivered to the shops and houses by Ethbert (Bert) Banyer's son, Brian Banyer. A copy was taken to file at th
Liverpool City Council
in a folder especially provided as a record of Liverpool's history during those years. Other newspapers also published around this time were ''The Liverpool Times'', ''The Liverpool Mercury'' and ''

The Liverpool Herald ''The Liverpool Herald'', earlier published as ''The Liverpool Mercury'' and ''The Liverpool Times'', was a weekly English language newspaper published in Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia from 1897 to 1907 and is an important resource to ...

''.

History

According to a 1930 copy of the Liverpool News, which no longer exists, the newspaper stated that it was in its "25th Year of Publication". The Liverpool News (1993) by Bruce Banyer However, based on the edition dated 15 April 1937, the newspaper was established in 1904 and ended in about 1973, the exact ending year remains unknown. The Liverpool News remained a Banyer family business until about 1937 when it was purchased by The Biz newspaper of Fairfield, owned by the Bright Family. It was eventually absorbed by Cumberland Press, and soon disappeared from circulation.

Early proprietors

In about 1912, Mr. Brown-Parker purchased the newspaper from the previous owner who remains unknown as there is no record of the previous or the original owner of the newspaper. Alf James then took over The Liverpool News from Brown-Parker. The business was conducted in a building in the grounds of what was later Queen's College in Speed Street, roughly at the near of the

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...

, the front of which is in Pirie Street. It is not known when Alf James took over the business. It was not known when Alf James took over the business from Mr. Brown-Parker. In 1919, ownership of the newspaper was transferred to Benjamin Robinson Banyer who came from

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. When Benjamin Robinson Banyer took over the ownership of the newspaper, the printing works was moved to the two-storied premises then existing between Christiansen's Hardware and Building Supplies, and the Commercial Bank of Sydney on the Corner of Scott Street and Macquarie Street. The site is now 242 Macquarie Street, and when last seen in 1982 was Lowes Men's Wear.

Printing setup

The newspaper was set up and printed in the shed behind a house. It also had the only

photographic studio A photographic studio is often a business owned and represented by one or more photographers, possibly accompanied by assistants and pupils, who create and sell their own and sometimes others’ photographs. Since the early years of the 20th ce ...

and film developing service in Liverpool. The printing works were located at the back right hand corner of the yard, with the photographic studio behind it. The photographic studio had a stage where Benjamin Robinson Banyer's daughters Joan and Shirley would give

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

s occasionally and also had two

trapeze A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...

s set up. Access to the works was by a pathway on the right hand side (Commercial Bank side) of the house, or vehicle access through a vacant block on the left hand side of the house. This block later had the Monte Carlo Café built on it, run by Con Vallis and Jim Johnson. The printing machinery consisted of two

Platen A platen (or platten) is a flat platform with a variety of roles in printing or manufacturing. It can be a flat metal (or earlier, wooden) plate pressed against a medium (such as paper) to cause an impression in letterpress printing. Platen m ...

type presses, used for small printing jobs such as advertising, brochures, public notice, hand-outs etc. The weekly newspaper was printed on a

flat bed press The history of printing starts as early as 3000 BCE, when the proto-Elamite and Sumerian civilizations used cylinder seals to certify documents written in clay tablets . Other early forms include block seals, hammered coinage, pottery imprints, a ...

, manufactured by Preston Engineering Co. Originally driven from a pulley on a shaft (which drove all the presses), it was later driven by a 2 HP three-phase electric motor. A lot of experimenting was necessary to get the correct pulley size for the motor, as the range of standard size flat pulleys was limited. One size was too small, the next size too large to drive the press at the correct speed. The problem was overcome by using the smaller size pulley and winding some thin rope around it to build it up to the correct size.

Financial aspects

Ethbert Banyer came to Liverpool in 1920 to help his father run The Liverpool News. Benjamin Robinson Banyer employed two casual men as well as Bert who was employed full-time. They had their regular wages each week, while his father and mother would have what was left over after expenses were taken out. Some shopkeepers could not pay their accounts for

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

in the newspaper so Benjamin and his daughter Joan would go to the advertising shopkeepers on a Friday evening (e.g. grocer, butcher, etc.) and get groceries (or other goods as the case may be) in exchange for what was owed. Some of these accounts would be up around 100 pounds (200 dollars), and the

Barter system In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists distingu ...

seemed to work to everyone's satisfaction (up to a point); the shops had to advertise and they had to eat. Many smaller customers had to have red lines drawn through their account in the book if they were having a hard time. The debt would then be written off, as sometimes there was no hope of recovering these payments during the Depression days. LiverpoolNewsAd193723Dec

The Liverpool News covered local news and of surrounding areas such as Ingleburn and the Shire of Nepean which is now

Penrith City Council The City of Penrith is a local government area in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The seat of the city is located in Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith, located about west of Sydney's Sydney central business district, central business ...

. The newspaper also covered events as well as the regular weekly coverage of each Sunday's sermons from local churches. Benjamin Robinson Banyer would bribe his unwilling daughter Joan with a bag of lollies to accompany him to all the local churches to obtain the sermons. Joan would sit quietly at the back row with her lollies while he wrote down the sermons. Banyer would also attend all of the numerous balls held such as the Ambulance Ball and the Mayoral Ball and publish a full report on who attended, highlights of the night and what the women wore. This was in addition to all the Council meetings that had to be reported in full. Hi wife had her own column from about 1929 to 1935 under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

"Arrow". The column was called "Flights and Darts" that provided coverage of local and overseas current affairs topics. His son Bert had a regular sports column that included coverage of cricket and tennis news. He would also included reports of the Liverpool Amateur Fishing Club meetings where he was made a Secretary on 9 July 1935 during an inaugural meeting.

Contests

The Liverpool News sponsored one of the earliest retail trade slogan contests in an effort to arrest the drift of shoppers to the rival centre of

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 ...

. It was won by Mr. Harold Havelock Chamman with the slogan "Liverpool Trade Means Liverpool Made".

Accessibility

Print

Unfortunately, early editions of The Liverpool News, 1905 -1937 were destroyed. However original print editions of April 1937 - 1941, 1959, and July 1961 - 1967 survived and are being held in preservation 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 ...

, Australia.Liverpool News, State Library of New South Wales

Microfilm

There are currently six reels of

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 ...

s available for public access a
Liverpool City Library
and th
State Library
of

. The reels contain editions of April 1937 - 1941, 1959, and July 1961 - 1967.

Digitisation

The Liverpool News was digitised as part of a digitisation initiative

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 ...

. The program was started by 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 2007 is part of the Australian Newspapers service which allows access to historic Australian newspapers published between 1803 and 1950s. The Liverpool News met the initiative's criteria and was one of the many titles selected nationwide to be digitised. The newspaper's coverage of its local and surrounding areas as well overseas news and events published prior to between 1803 and 1950s is considered to be of state significance. Digital copies of the newspaper from 1937 to 1967 can now be accessed online through

Trove 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 ...

.Liverpool News (NSW : 1937 - 1941), Trove http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title183

References

External links

Newspapers & Periodicals – Champion record, Liverpool City Library
*
Liverpool News, State Library of New South WalesAustralian Digitisation Program, http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/selected_newspapers/

Liverpool City Council, http://www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liverpool News Newspapers established in 1904 Defunct newspapers published in New South Wales Newspapers on Trove