SA Newspapers: West Coast/ Eyre Peninsula

The Challenger newspaper was owned and edited by Mrs Rebecca McGregor, and published in Port Lincoln. Mrs McGregor and her sons owned the West Coast Recorder. It is a fascinating and outspoken socialist newspaper, produced at the height of the Great Depression. Both as a country newspaper and as a political voice, it is unique. The Challenger provided forthright opinions about a range of local, state and federal issues. The newspaper's title with its image of a knight on horseback set the tone. As well as fulsome political critiques, the Challenger contained news for Port Lincoln and the adjacent towns of Lock, Kimba, Wudinna and Tumby Bay. Social events were described alongside long columns reporting the activities of the local branches of the Labor Party, Country Party, and Liberal and Country League. The rifle club was well reported, along with church news, sports results, school news and obituaries.

This was a small hand mimeographed local newspaper for the fishing town on the western Eyre Peninsula.

Charles Smith of the Adelaide and Port Lincoln Trading Company published this newspaper to promote land sales at Port Lincoln. Joseph Barnett was the publisher and Archibald Macdougall the printer. There were many humorous as well as more serious articles in the newspaper. Proceeds from sales were donated to charitable causes, including the establishment of the Adelaide Hospital.

This free newspaper appears to have been published by the Port Lincoln Times, in conjunction with the West Coast Sentinel. A sister publication was the Peninsula Farmer. The intended readership was farming families of the Eyre Peninsula.

The Eyre's Peninsula Tribune was established in 1910 to serve the towns of Cowell, Cleve, Franklin Harbour and Arno Bay. It outlived smaller newspapers in the district, absorbing the Kimba Dispatch, before being merged with the Port Lincoln Times and Areas Express. In 1982 it was taken over by Northern Newspapers Pty Ltd, but is now part of Fairfax Media. In the 1970s the title changed slightly to become the Eyre Peninsula Tribune.

James Taylor was a successful Gawler photographer. In the early 1880s he moved the business to Port Augusta. A family concern, his wife Isabella was one of the colony's first women 'portrait operators', and two sons followed their parents’ lead, experimenting in collotype publishing. (Collotype, a process used for printing photographs within publications, predated the cheaper offset lithography.) The Taylor’s small illustrated newspaper ran to just seven issues. Each contained collotypes of residents, sporting teams, visiting ships and local works – including the building of the copper smelters. Although well received, the newspaper ceased due to the pressures of the printing business, the family's main concern. News articles included local social events, sport, concerts, and club activities. The building of the smelters, shipping news and the early stages of the Transcontinental Railway were also covered. Apart from Port Augusta news coverage included the towns of Stirling, Tarcoola, Leigh Creek, Iron Knob and Quorn.

The number of settlements covered in the news columns of this newspaper are impressive. It was begun shortly after the incorporation of the town, with the aim of making the opinions of the people of the mid-north known to Adelaide decision-makers. The columns of the Dispatch were packed with the news of the multitude of tiny communities around Port Augusta, while the 'Adelaide letter' provided detailed news from the capital. Local sport in the form of cricket, chess and rifle shooting was reported. Football is not mentioned until the early 1900s. The printer, young David Drysdale, was captain in the volunteer militia and a member of the local rifle club, which ensured coverage of both bodies in the paper. The activities of the port were well represented, including controversial wharf extensions in 1882, the call to build smelters in 1898, and the misbehaviour of visiting sailors as represented in the court reports. For a brief period in 1901 a social column, 'Town gossip by Dolly Pertinax', appeared. The quality of the newspaper fell in the decades before its demise, although when Drysdale re-purchased the Dispatch in 1915, various improvements were made. An interesting double-page coloured lithographic supplement of Port Augusta scenes, prepared by Rider and Mercer of Ballarat, was published with the issue of 28 October 1892.

The number of settlements covered in the news columns of this newspaper are impressive. It was begun shortly after the incorporation of the town, with the aim of making the opinions of the people of the mid-north known to Adelaide decision-makers. The columns of the Dispatch were packed with the news of the multitude of tiny communities around Port Augusta, while the 'Adelaide letter' provided detailed news from the capital. Local sport in the form of cricket, chess and rifle shooting was reported. Football is not mentioned until the early 1900s. The printer, young David Drysdale, was captain in the volunteer militia and a member of the local rifle club, which ensured coverage of both bodies in the paper. The activities of the port were well represented, including controversial wharf extensions in 1882, the call to build smelters in 1898, and the misbehaviour of visiting sailors as represented in the court reports. For a brief period in 1901 a social column, 'Town gossip by Dolly Pertinax', appeared. The quality of the newspaper fell in the decades before its demise, although when Drysdale re-purchased the Dispatch in 1915, various improvements were made. An interesting double-page coloured lithographic supplement of Port Augusta scenes, prepared by Rider and Mercer of Ballarat, was published with the issue of 28 October 1892.

The number of settlements covered in the news columns of this newspaper are impressive. It was begun shortly after the incorporation of the town, with the aim of making the opinions of the people of the mid-north known to Adelaide decision-makers. The columns of the Dispatch were packed with the news of the multitude of tiny communities around Port Augusta, while the 'Adelaide letter' provided detailed news from the capital. Local sport in the form of cricket, chess and rifle shooting was reported. Football is not mentioned until the early 1900s. The printer, young David Drysdale, was captain in the volunteer militia and a member of the local rifle club, which ensured coverage of both bodies in the paper. The activities of the port were well represented, including controversial wharf extensions in 1882, the call to build smelters in 1898, and the misbehaviour of visiting sailors as represented in the court reports. For a brief period in 1901 a social column, 'Town gossip by Dolly Pertinax', appeared. The quality of the newspaper fell in the decades before its demise, although when Drysdale re-purchased the Dispatch in 1915, various improvements were made. An interesting double-page coloured lithographic supplement of Port Augusta scenes, prepared by Rider and Mercer of Ballarat, was published with the issue of 28 October 1892.

This was South Australia's first country newspaper. It came into existence in 1839 for the purpose of promoting the establishment of a harbour at Port Lincoln. The first issue was printed and published in Adelaide. Seven months later the second issue was printed in a hut at Port Lincoln. The newspaper was owned by Robert Thomas, of the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, and printed by George Dehane as co-owner. Later Charles Smith joined the partnership. The owners hoped Port Lincoln would become the capital of South Australia. This did not eventuate and Thomas and Smith withdrew, leaving Dehane to continue the newspaper alone under the title Adelaide General Advertizer and Port Lincoln Herald. The newspaper contained articles promoting Port Lincoln, advertisements for its first businesses, and general news which included a report of the coming marriage of Queen Victoria. Only three issues are held by the State Library although at least six are known to have been published.

This newspaper was founded by Maurice Hill and Ken Robertson. As with several country newspapers, publishing ceased for some years during the Second World War. Since its early years there was been much coverage given to agriculture and sport. By the 1960s the Hill family had given the newspaper the look of a city newspaper, with big front page headlines, sport action photographs and large advertisements. In 1990 the newspaper was taken over by Rural Press, which is now part of Fairfax Media.

David Drysdale of the Port Augusta Dispatch established this Port Lincoln newspaper in 1904. Initially he used many syndicated articles, but also published news reports, sport results and agricultural articles relevant to the Eyre Peninsula communities. Subsequent owner, Rebecca McGregor of the Challenger, was approached to sell the title in 1925. When she refused, Maurice Hill and JE Edwards established the rival Port Lincoln Times. The restrictions to labour and paper caused by the Second World War caused the Recorder to close in 1942. Its subscriptions were transferred to the Times.

Scope was a monthly regional magazine in newspaper format published by the Willson family of the Whyalla News. It was issued as an insert to six local newspapers: the Recorder (Port Pirie), Transcontinental (Port Augusta), Eyre Peninsula Tribune (Cleve), Port Lincoln Times, West Coast Sentinel (Streaky Bay) and Northern Argus (Clare). Scope had a strong agricultural focus.

The Transcontinental was founded by James Barclay of Wilmington. After two issues Barclay sold to Maurice Hill and John Edwards, previously employed at the Port Augusta Dispatch as a printer and a journalist. Port Augusta at this time was about to be developed by the Federal government as an important point in the building of the Trans-Australian railway, hence the title.

Between March 1961 and January 1963 the newspaper was published twice weekly on Tuesday and Friday. For a time between July and September 1971, the Transcontinental was combined with the Port Pirie Recorder as the Northern Observer. The move was not popular and the two titles reverted to separate publication. In 1991 the Transcontinental became part of Rural Press, which later joined with Fairfax Media.

The West Coast Sentinel began at Streaky Bay. News coverage extended to Kimba, Port Kenny, Minnipa, Penong and Elliston. In 1990 it was taken over by Rural Press, now a subsidiary of Fairfax Media.

The Western Mail concentrated on news for the town of Ceduna, in particular the movement to build the local hospital. News, obituaries, social notes, a children's column and pages of motoring, radio and agricultural information were included. 'Flotsam and Jetsam by The Wrecker' was a weekly commentary on a broad range of subjects both local and other.

This newspaper lasted only three issues. It was published by young Tumby Bay printer, Walter Augustine Wade. The newspaper contained Tumby Bay news, local council and sporting club news, and tips for farmers. The first issue included a commemorative single page supplement with photographs, one depicting Wade's printing office.

This was the first newspaper for the expanding communities of the Eyre Peninsula at the beginning of the 20th century. The aim was to cover news for the whole of the Eyre Peninsula, but Port Lincoln received most coverage. A 'local' column contained news from the various small towns but Streaky Bay and Franklin Harbour had more frequent reports. Sports reports most often covered tennis and cricket. There are several reports of St Thomas’ Anglican Church, Port Lincoln. Interestingly, in the issue of 18 October 1902, the Franklin Harbour correspondent refers to the completion of the dog-proof fence.