HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Herald'' was a morning and, later, evening
broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
newspaper published in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia, from 3 January 1840 to 5 October 1990, which is when it merged with its sister morning newspaper ''
The Sun News-Pictorial ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' (known as ''The Sun'') was a morning daily tabloid newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria, from 1922 until its merger in 1990 with '' The Herald'' to form the ''Herald-Sun''. ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' was part ...
'' to form the ''
Herald-Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald Sun ...
''.


Founding

The ''Port Phillip Herald'' was first published as a semi-weekly newspaper on 3 January 1840 from a weatherboard shack in Collins Street. It was the fourth newspaper to start in Melbourne. The paper took its name from the region it served. Until its establishment as a separate colony in 1851, the area now known as
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
was a part of
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 ...
and it was generally referred to as the
Port Phillip Port Phillip ( Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is com ...
district. Preceding it was the short-lived ''
Melbourne Advertiser The ''Melbourne Advertiser'' was the first newspaper published in Melbourne, in what was then known as Port Phillip District, and now is Victoria, Australia. It was published by John Pascoe Fawkner, a co-founder of Melbourne. The first edition ...
'' which
John Pascoe Fawkner John Pascoe Fawkner (20 October 1792 – 4 September 1869) was an early Australian pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania), to sail ...
first produced on 1 January 1838 as hand-written editions for 10 weeks and then printed for a further 17 weekly issues, the ''
Port Phillip Gazette There were two Australian periodicals called The ''Port Phillip Gazette.'' The first was the second newspaper published in Melbourne, in the then Port Phillip District and what is now Victoria, Australia. It was first published by Thomas Strode ...
'' and ''The Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser''. But within eighteen months of its inauguration, the ''
Port Phillip Herald ''The Herald'' was a morning and, later, evening broadsheet newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia, from 3 January 1840 to 5 October 1990, which is when it merged with its sister morning newspaper ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' to form the '' ...
'' had grown to have the largest circulation of all Melbourne papers. It was founded and published by George Cavenagh (1808–1869). He was born in India, as the youngest son of a Major. He came to
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 ...
in March 1825 where he worked as a magistrates’ clerk and farmer, before eventually taking on the role editor of the ''
Sydney Gazette ''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' was the first newspaper printed in Australia, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of New South Wales, authorised by Governo ...
'' in 1836. Bringing his wife and eight children, his staff and machinery to Melbourne, Cavenagh first produced the ''Port Phillip Herald'' as free editions. Later copies were to sell for sixpence. Subscriptions could be taken out for ten
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s per quarter. The newspaper came out twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.


Original staff

The paper opened with the adopted motto "
impartial Impartiality (also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another ...
– but not neutral", which was to run under its masthead for 50 years. It was edited by William Kerr (1812–1859) who left Cavenagh in 1841 to be editor of the ''Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser'' and then on to the ''Port Phillip Gazette'' about a decade later. The editor who followed Kerr at the ''Port Phillip Herald'' was Thomas Hamilton Osborne (c. 1805 – 1853) who later became proprietor of ''The Portland Mercury and Port Fairy Register'' (originally known as ''The Portland Mercury and Normanby Advertiser'') on 10 January 1844.
Edmund Finn Edmund 'Garryowen' Finn (13 January 1819 – 4 April 1898) was an Australian journalist and author who wrote many colorful descriptions of the life and people in early Melbourne. Finn was born in Tipperary, Ireland, the son of William Finn and ...
worked as the star reporter on ''The Herald'' for thirteen years. He arrived in Melbourne on 19 July 1841 and he joined the newspaper's staff in 1845. Under George Cavenagh's leadership the paper would denounce adversaries, challenge ideas, and employ negative emotive language in an astute invective manner. In the early 1840s this was manifest in dealing with Judge
John Walpole Willis John Walpole Willis (4 January 1793 – 10 September 1877) was a British judge of Upper Canada, British Guiana (as acting Chief Justice), the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and resident judge at Port Phillip, Melbourne. Early life The ...
which resulted in severe fines being imposed on Cavenagh. It was an editorial policy that often involved litigation and Cavenagh was defendant in the first civil libel case in the colony. He retired in 1853, returned briefly the next year, and then retired permanently in 1855.


Daily

On 1 January 1849, the ''Port Phillip Herald'' changed its name to ''The Melbourne Morning Herald and General Daily Advertiser''. It also upped its printing schedule from thrice-weekly to daily. ''The Argus'', which would not yet be a daily until 18 June 1849, scorned its rival's change of schedule with this report on 2 January 1849: For twenty years from 1854, a succession of owners struggled to keep the newspaper afloat during the goldrush period. This included two years in which it was reduced to a biweekly. The newspaper changed its name several times before settling on ''The Herald'' from 8 September 1855 – the name it held for the next 135 years. In 1869 it developed stability as an evening daily.


Twentieth century

''The Herald'' was the home of many journalists and cartoonists, including Tess Lawrence, Lawrence Money, and
William Ellis Green William Ellis Green (12 August 1923 – 29 December 2008), who signed his cartoons "WEG", was an Australian editorial cartoonist and illustrator who drew the Australian Football League premiership posters from 1954 until his death. Life and ca ...
, whose
Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...
caricatures were a feature of Melbourne life for decades.
C. J. Dennis Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis (7 September 1876 – 22 June 1938), better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' (1915). Alongside ...
served as staff poet from 1922 to his death in 1938. Cartoonist John Frith () spent 18 years at the paper from 1950 to 1969. In February 1987, ''The Herald'' was included in the sale of
The Herald and Weekly Times The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (HWT) is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by News Pty Ltd, which as News Ltd, purchased the HWT in 1987. Newspapers The HWT's newspaper interests date ba ...
to
News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...
.


Closure

''The Herald'' ceased publication on 5 October 1990 and merged with sister morning newspaper ''
The Sun News-Pictorial ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' (known as ''The Sun'') was a morning daily tabloid newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria, from 1922 until its merger in 1990 with '' The Herald'' to form the ''Herald-Sun''. ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' was part ...
'' to form the ''
Herald-Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald Sun ...
'', which contained columns and features from both of its predecessors.


References


Further reading

*''Printers of the streets and lanes of Melbourne'' by Don Hauser. Nondescript Press. Melbourne 2006 *''One Hundred & Fifty Years of News from The Herald'' by Geoff Gaylard. Southbank Editions. Fishermans Bend 1990 {{DEFAULTSORT:Herald Melbourne Daily newspapers published in Australia Defunct newspapers published in Melbourne History of Melbourne Newspapers established in 1840 Publications disestablished in 1990 1840 establishments in Australia 1990 disestablishments in Australia