''The Pennant'' is a weekly newspaper published in

Penola, South Australia Penola is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located about southeast of the state capital of Adelaide in the wine growing area known as the Coonawarra. At the , town of Penola had a population of 1,312. It is known as the cent ...

, from July 1946. Along with ''

The Border Watch ''The Border Watch'' is an Australian newspaper based in Mount Gambier, South Australia, as of October 2020 owned by TBW Today Pty Ltd. The paper services Mount Gambier, the South Australian Limestone Coast, and parts of Western Victoria. It is ...

'', it was most recently owned by the Scott Group of Companies. After 74 years of publishing, however, the newspaper (along with sister publication the '' South Eastern Times'') was discontinued on 21 August 2020. However, in March 2022 the newspaper was relaunched with funding after an 18-month hiatus.

History

''The Pennant'' was founded by W. Erwin Thiele, who felt that a publication to service the town and local areas was needed after a "lack of communication from Mount Gambier and Naracoorte was evident". It was first published on Thursday, 25 July 1946, leading with a story about plans to upgrade Penola's Memorial Hospital. Kenneth Victor Dohnt (a New Zealander), assumed control of the paper in 1950 and maintained it until his death in 1971. It was then controlled by Lyle Shurdington, a local and long-time employee, and in October 1978, it was taken over by South East Telecasters, whose major shareholder was Allan Scott, of the Scott Group of Companies. Under the supervision of ''

'', it was published every Wednesday and its head office (for local advertising and editorial content) was at 81 Commercial Street East, Mount Gambier. The newspaper ceased publication for 18 months in 2020-2022 due to financial difficulties but was successfully relaunched.

Distribution

The newspaper advertised itself as "Circulating extensively throughout the Penola District Council Area, embracing Kalangadoo, Coonawarra, Nangwarry, Comaum, Glenroy, Monbulla and Maaoupe; and the South-East generally." At the time of its 2020 closure, it had a circulation of 1,000.

Digitisation

Microfilm of ''The Pennant'' have been created 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 ...

Australian National Library 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 ...

also carries images and text versions of the newspaper from July 1946 to December 1955, accessible using

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 ...

, the on-line newspaper retrieval service.

References

External links

Country Press - Penola Pennant
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pennant, The Newspapers published in South Australia Publications established in 1946 Weekly newspapers published in Australia Defunct newspapers published in Australia