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) 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 (18 ...
(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 co ...
'' 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 metr ...
,
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,
Macclesfield,
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,
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 Baudi ...
,
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. 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 documen ...
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 ...
.
See also
*
List of newspapers in Australia
References
External links
''Southern Argus'' websiteSouthern Argus SA Memory, State Library of South Australia
Catalogue record State Library of South Australia
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Argus, The
Newspapers published in South Australia
Newspapers established in 1866
1866 establishments in Australia
Newspapers on Trove
Weekly newspapers published in Australia