Ararat Advertiser
The Ararat Advertiser is a newspaper published in Ararat, Victoria, Australia.
History
Jabez Walter Banfield worked in the printing industry in Liverpool with a friend James Gearing. Due to periodic unemployment and worsening industrial conditions, Banfield and Gearing sailed for Australia in search of gold. Arriving on 10 October 1952, they followed the Victorian gold rush to Melbourne, where they went into partnership with Edward Hot Nuthall, a printer recently arrived from India. In May 1855 the trio returned to the central goldfields to invest in a printing plant in Maryborough. Between 1855 and 1864 Banfield and Gearing were associated with newspaper or printing offices in thirteen towns.
First published on 1 August 1857 as a free single sheet newspaper under the name Mount Ararat Advertiser, the paper was distributed throughout the Mount Ararat gold diggings. A report at the time estimated the number of people on the diggings to be between 40,000 and 50,000[1]
Six months after the death of Nuthall, Banfield bought the newspaper business for £1012 10s when it was auctioned on 20 March 1861. Banfield died in 1899 and the newspaper remained in the family's control until sold to a new company controlled by the Ballarat Courier in early 1962.[1]
It is one of the oldest continuously operating newspapers in Victoria, second in age only to The Geelong Advertiser masthead.[2] The paper is now published by Fairfax Media.
Digitisation
The paper has been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program of the National Library of Australia.
References
- ^ a b Kirkpatrick, Rod (2010). The bold type: a history of Victoria's country newspapers. Ascot Vale, Vic, Australia: The Victorian Country Press Association. ISBN 9780977556229.
- ^ "About us". Ararat Advertiser. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 15 February 2015.