The ''Townsville Bulletin'' is a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

published in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, formerly known as the ''Townsville Daily Bulletin''. It is the only daily paper that serves the

northern Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

region. The paper has a print edition, a subscription World Wide Web edition, and a subscription digital edition. The newspaper is published by The North Queensland Newspaper Company Pty Ltd, which has been a subsidiary of

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 3,00 ...

since 1984.BHP Billiton Our World History Series: Townsville Bulletin
2013. News Limited is Australia's largest newspaper publisher and a subsidiary of

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

associated with

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

. The newspaper employs over 100 people. The ''Bulletin'' is published Monday through Saturday, with a higher price on the Saturday edition. It is in

tabloid format A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format. Etymology The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...

. In 2006 the Bulletin had a readership (average) Monday to Friday of 84,000 (up 15.5% on 2005) and weekend readership (avg) of 104,000 (up 1.96% on 2005) and circulation (avg) of 27,187 Monday to Friday, weekend circulation (avg) of 41,814.

History

The town of Townsville's early newspaper was '' The Cleveland Bay Herald and Northern Pioneer'' which came into existence on 3 March 1866, which was soon renamed as the ''Cleveland Bay Express'', and later became the ''Townsville Herald''. The ''Townsville Bulletin'' was then established on 5 September 1881 by Edward Rhode, John Kiley Mehan (–1941) and Dodd Smith Clarke (–July 1918). Rhode, Mehan, and Clarke had previously started a newspaper in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

. Co-founder and first editor Clarke was credited as 'mainly instrumental through his brilliant writings in making the venture the success it proved'. It was priced at three pence, a 50% reduction on that of the two other local newspapers, and became a daily publication on 1 January 1883. Out of this, the ''North Queensland Bulletin'' was launched as a weekly journal by mid-1883. With the formation of the Townsville Newspaper Company in 1884, the ''

Townsville Herald The ''Townsville Herald'' was a newspaper published in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was also known as ''North Queensland Herald, Cleveland Bay Express and Northern Advertiser, and Townsville Times and North Queensland Advertiser''. His ...

'' was acquired, and later merged into the ''Bulletin''. It would appear as the ''North Queensland Herald''. The ''Bulletin'' offices were first in a premises on the eastern side of Stokes Street, before moving to a larger premises at south-eastern corner of Flinders and Stanley Streets from 1887 to 1896. The company then moved to the south-western corner of the intersection, until November 1908 when they moved further west on Flinders Street to a two-story building. Prior to air conditioning systems, the building was selected for cool air flow, and had installed an electric fan system. The original newspaper was printed on a double demy Albion hand press, followed about 1883 by a gas engine powering a small single feeder Inglis machine – which printed two pages at a time, resulting in 250 newspapers an hour – before settling on a Cox Duplex rotary self-feeding and folding machine, able to turn out 1000 eight-page broadsheet by 1909. Electricity had also been installed, but with gas lighting maintained in case of emergency. Staffing-wise, the 1881 start saw three proprietors and a boy; by 1909, eight staff had over twenty years service with the company. A fire of the premises on 18 October 1912 destroyed much of the newspaper's early records. Described as completely gutted other than for the strong-room, insurance amounts totalled £13,680. The newspaper continued for the moment between the ''Evening Star'' and '' Northern Miner'' offices. The ''Bulletin'' was later amalgamated with ''

The Northern Miner ''The Northern Miner'' is a weekly trade journal (formerly part of the Hollinger group) that reports on the mining industry. ''The Northern Miner'' began publication in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada, in 1915, and has since moved publication to Toront ...

'', and in 1940, it incorporated ''The Townsville Evening Star''.

Modern era

In 1984, the ''Townsville Daily Bulletin'' was acquired by

News Corp Australia 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 3,00 ...

and renamed as the ''Townsville Bulletin''. The newspaper chartered a

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, ...

to take North Queensland fans to the 2005 NRL grand final, the Cowboys' first. It was awarded

's Regional Newspaper of the Year in 2009.

Personnel

John Gagliardi John Gagliardi ( ; November 1, 1926 – October 7, 2018) was an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, from 1953 until 2012. From 1949 to 1952, he was the head footba ...

, editor, 1970s * Geoff Hill, journalist, 1980s. * Christopher Mitchell, journalist, 1970s. *

Alexander Vindex Vennard Alexander Vindex Vennard (11 July 1884–16 February 1947), or 'Bowie', was an Australian writer known by several pen names, principally Bill Bowyang. The name bowyang referred to a piece of cord strapped below the knee of a wearer's trousers. ...

, writer 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 ...

s of Bill Bowyang, Frank Reid, and Maurice Deane, 1920s to 1940s. Vennard also wrote for '' The North Queensland Register''.

Aerial photos and maps

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Digitisation

The paper has been digitised as part of the

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 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 "maint ...

References

External links

* {{coord, -19.2627, 146.8155, type:landmark_region:AU, display=title Newspapers published in Queensland Townsville News Corp Australia Publications established in 1881 1881 establishments in Australia Daily newspapers published in Australia Newspapers on Trove