Compiled by Rod Kirkpatrick for the Australian Newspaper History Group (ANHG)
The information for the twentieth century was compiled by Rod Kirkpatrick (with Victor Isaacs contributing at a late stage) for the Australian Newspaper History Group, using various sources, including Gavin Souter’s Company of Heralds, 1981; Paul Chadwick’s Media Mates: Carving up Australia’s Media, 1989, (espec. the “Chronology” from pp.xix-xlvii); Henry Mayer’s The Press in Australia, 1964; and Bridget Griffen-Foley’s books on the Packers, R.B. Walker’s books on the NSW press, Rod Kirkpatrick’s books on the NSW provincial press (Country Conscience) and Queensland provincial press (Sworn to No Master) and his research notes, and a wide range of other sources to a lesser extent.
| Year | Date | Details |
| 1901 | 1 Jan | Federation of the Australian colonies |
| 1901 | 21 Dec | First issue of World News, weekly issued by Daily Telegraph, Sydney. |
| 1903 | Linotype machines installed at Sydney Morning Herald. | |
| 1903 | 4 April | First issue of Sunday Sun, Sydney |
| 1903 | 24 Oct | First issue of Border Morning Mail, Albury (daily) |
| 1907 | 11 March | Australian Star, Sydney, becomes the Star |
| 1908 | 22 April | First photographs in the Melbourne dailies, Age and Argus. |
| 1910 | 1 July | Sun, Sydney, launched by Hugh Denison; replaces Australian Star. |
| 1910 | 10 June | The North Queensland Newspaper Co. Limited is formed by the amalgamation of The Townsville Newspaper Co. Limited and The Northern Mining Printing and Publishing Co. Limited. Capital £48,000. |
| 1916 | 11 Oct | First issue of Northern Times, Newcastle; forerunner of Newcastle Sun |
| 1918 | 23 March | First issue of Newcastle Sun; news all over Page 1 |
| 1918 | 12 Oct | First issue of Labor News, Sydney |
| 1918 | Dec | Charles Brunsdon Fletcher appointed editor of Sydney Morning Herald |
| 1919 | 1 March | First issue of Smith’s Weekly, Sydney |
Henry Mayer described the twenties as “by far the toughest and most ruthless period in Australian journalism” (The Press in Australia, 1964, p.29).
| 1922 | 11 Sept | First issue of Sun News-Pictorial, Melbourne’s first new daily for 31 years; launched by Sydney-based Hugh Denison, publisher of that city’s Sun and modelled on London’s Daily Sketch and Daily Mirror. |
| 1923 | 4 April | Denison launches Evening Sun, Melbourne; it is coloured pink and is sensational and sets out to pick at little faults in the Herald. |
| 1923 | 2 July | Daily Guardian launched in Sydney after Smith’s Newspapers Ltd (publisher of Smith’s Weekly) was incorporated. |
| 1924 | March | Keith Murdoch becomes managing director of Herald and Weekly Times. |
| 1924 | Jan | The Labour News, Sydney, becomes Labor Daily. |
| 1924 | 15 Sept | Ballarat Courier incorporates its older rival daily, the Ballarat Star. |
| 1924 | 31 Dec | Albury Daily News ceases; incorporated in Border Morning Mail from January 1925. |
| 1925 | Sept | Warwick Oswald Fairfax joins John Fairfax & Sons. |
| 1925 | 25 April | Denison closes Melbourne Evening Sun (lost between £200,000 and £300,000) and sells Sun News-Pictorial to Herald & Weekly Times. |
| 1925 | 29 Oct | First issue of Morning Star, Melbourne, daily issued by Victorian Farmers Union; sold at one penny a copy, one-third cheaper than the other dailies. Ceased two years later – with circulation that never exceeded 50,000 – when sold for £31,000 to Pictorial Newspapers Pty Ltd, registered publisher of Sun News-Pictorial. The Farmers Union lost 12s in the £. |
| 1926 | Sept | Murdoch leads Melbourne syndicate to buy Perth West Australian and issues shares to locals to appease concern about interstate control. |
| 1926 | 3 Sept | The Shakespeare family, with Thomas Mitchell Shakespeare at its head, launches the Canberra Times as a weekly (eight months before the “temporary” Parliament House is opened in Canberra); paper’s motto: “To serve the National City and through it the Nation.” |
| 1927 | 3 May | Canberra Times becomes a bi-weekly. |
| 1927 | Ailing Morning Star sold to HWT subsidiary. | |
| 1928 | 20 Feb | Canberra Times becomes a daily. |
| 1928 | Murdoch-led syndicate buys South Australia’s oldest, sickest paper, the Adelaide Register, tarts it up, cuts cover price and pressures long-time owner of successful Adelaide Advertiser, Sir Langdon Bonython, to sell for £1 million; Register closed 1931. | |
| 1928 | 18 July | Death of Sir James Oswald Fairfax (1863-1928), Partner John Fairfax & Sons, 1889-1916; director, John Fairfax & Sons Ltd, 1916-28. |
| 1929 | 29 Sept | Sunday Guardian, Sydney, launched. |
| 1930 | 27 March | Death of G.E. Fairfax, a Fairfax director, 1916-20; Warwick Fairfax appointed managing director of John Fairfax and Sons Ltd. Holds this position, then chairmanship (with two-month break in 1961) for 47 years. |
| 1930 | The owners of the Adelaide News need the Herald & Weekly Times to save them during the Depression and Keith Murdoch extracts as the price control of the News. | |
| 1930 | Associated Newspapers Ltd acquires Daily and Sunday Guardians, Sydney. |
| 1931 | 11 March | Birth of Rupert Keith Murdoch, only son of Keith Murdoch. |
| 1931 | 20 Feb | Final issue of Young Daily Witness, New South Wales; Young Witness continues. |
| 1933 | 3 June | Keith Murdoch knighted on recommendation of Lyons Government. |
| 1933 | 10 June | Frank Packer launches Australian Women’s Weekly. |
| 1933 | 28 Aug | Merger of Brisbane Courier and Daily Mail to form the Courier-Mail. |
| 1934 | 12 April | Death of Robert Clyde Packer, father of Frank Packer. |
| 1935 | 1 July | Australian Associated Press established. |
| 1936 | March | Frank Packer buys and rejuvenates Daily Telegraph. |
| 1936 | April | Melbourne Star closes, again leaving the city with no direct afternoon competitor to the Herald. |
| 1937 | 30 Sept | First issue of Illawarra Star, Port Kembla, NSW; bi-weekly (Mon./Thurs. afternoons). Later became a daily. |
| 1938 | Australian Newsprint Mills established by eight major newspaper publishers; biggest interests held by Herald 7 Weekly Times and Fairfax. First paper produced February 1941. | |
| 1939 | 19 Nov | First issue of Sunday Telegraph, Sydney. |
| 1940 | 13 Jan | Final issue of Sydney Morning Herald evening edition, for country readers. |
| 1940 | 13 April | Final issue of Evening Star, a Townsville daily. |
| 1940 | 1 July | Wartime newsprint rationing comes into effect. |
| 1941 | 27 Feb | National Security Act passed; controls newspaper production and importation of newsprint. |
| 1941 | 12 May | Daily Mirror established as Sydney afternoon newspaper after several changes of heart on the part of the Government (because of newsprint rationing). |
| 1941 | 31 July | Final issue of Evening News, a Rockhampton daily. |
| 1941 | 20 Oct | Sydney Morning Herald adopts new page size. |
| 1942 | Oct | Formation of Newsprint Pool. |
| 1942 | 15 April | Sir Keith Murdoch becomes chairman of the Herald & Weekly Times Ltd. |
| 1944 | Sydney Morning Herald makes Page 1 its main news page. | |
| 1944 | April | Climax of intense dispute between Chief Censor, Garnet Bonney (backed by Arthur Calwell, Information Minister) and all Sydney newspapers proprietors. Papers defy censor; police stop deliveries, resulting in famous picture of policeman pointing revolver at newspaper delivery truck driver; resulting political compromise leads to defeat for Calwell; sharpens his hatred of press owners. |
| 1944 | 9-20 Oct | Sydney newspaper strike and composite newspaper publication. |
| 1945 | April | Government grants publishers a 45 per cent increase in the base year consumption of newsprint. |
| 1945 | 7 Aug | Sydney Daily Telegraph publishes special edition about dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. |
| 1945 | Prime Minister Curtin dies (July); and World War II ends in Europe (May) and the Pacific (August) | |
| 1945 | 1 Oct | First issue of Central Western Daily, Orange, NSW; results from amalgamation of two tri-weeklies, Orange Leader and Western Advocate, Orange. |
| 1946 | 8 Feb | “Town Talk”, the first regular front-page column to appear in an Australian newspaper, makes debut in Sydney Daily Telegraph; David McNicoll was the columnist. |
| 1946 | Sept | Sydney Sunday papers raise cover price from threepence to fourpence because of newsprint shortage. |
| 1946 | Consolidated Press establishes a studio at its offices so its journalists could provide Radio 2UW with a 24-hour news service. | |
| 1947 | 17 Nov | Sun, Sydney, changes from broadsheet to tabloid format. |
| 1948 | 23 Aug | Fairfax launches fortnightly Home |
| 1949 | 21 Jan | Fairfax launches Sunday Herald |
| 1949 | Sir Keith Murdoch personally controls Adelaide News having convinced the HWT boards to sell its stake to him in return for first option on his holding in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail. British Mirror Group buys Melbourne Argus after failed negotiations in which Prime Minister Chifley had an unofficial hand | |
| 1949 | 3 Oct | Lithgow Mercury, NSW, becomes a daily |
| 1949 | 10 Dec | West Australian is last metropolitan daily newspaper to make Page 1 its main news page. |
| 1949 | Dec | Chifley Labor Government voted out of office; Menzies begins what becomes a 17-year reign as Prime Minister. |
| 1950 | 9 Jan | Wollongong’s Illawarra Mercury becomes a daily. |
| 1950 | 29 Sept | Merger of Home and Woman’s Day magazines to form Woman’s Day and Home. |
Updated to 10 September 2006
1901 - 1950
1951 - 1960
1961 - 1970
1971 - 1980
1981 - 2000
2001 - 2005