National Library of Australia

State Library of South Australia

State Library of South Australia

The State Library of South Australia (SLSA) maintains preservation standard in-house microfilming facilities and has been contributing to the Australian Newspaper Plan (ANPlan) since its beginning as the National Newspaper Plan Working Group in 1991.

Each year, SLSA microfilms all current South Australian newspapers and as many ‘old’ newspapers as funding will allow.

All retrospective filming of newspapers is funded either through ANPlan microfilming cooperative project payments from the National Library of Australia or in partnership with South Australian local councils, public libraries and newspaper publishers.

The State Library of South Australia’s current goal is to complete retrospective filming of The Advertiser, South Australia’s longest-running daily newspaper. The gap in preservation standard film for this important title has been reduced to the editions from 1953-1959. The National Library is digitising The Advertiser from SLSA’s high quality microfilm for the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Project.

SLSA’s next priority is the South Australian Register, South Australia’s first newspaper. Its first edition was printed in London in June 1836 shortly before its publishers set sail for the new colony. The Library has piloted its own newspaper digitisation projects using the earliest years of this title as well as The Border Watch (1910-1912) funded by the Mount Gambier Public Library, and the Southern Argus (1866-1913) Victor Harbor Times (1912-1978) funded by the Victor Harbor Public Library.

In January 2007, SLSA surveyed regional and suburban newspaper publishers about the possibility of receiving from them the ‘pre-press’ electronic files that are used to print current hard-copy newspapers. These files could become important elements in preserving access to Australian newspapers.

Accessing Newspapers at the State Library of South Australia

Information about newspapers and how to access them at the State Library of South Australia is available at:

  • Search the catalogue at the State Library of South Australia
  • SA Memory website - to find information about the history of South Australian newspapers and details about particular papers, click on 'Themes' and then on 'SA Newspapers'
  • See also section on Access to newspapers at this website

Newspaper titles recently microfilmed

Newspaper titles microfilmed in 2007/8 are:

  • Advertiser (1940-1952; 156 reels – with cooperative newspaper microfilming funding from the National Library of Australia)
  • Advertiser (2007-8; 36 reels – with partial funding from News Ltd)
  • Bunyip (1951-1960; 10 reels – with funding from Gawler Public Library)
  • Leader (Angaston) (1964; 1 reel – within funding from the Barossa Public Library)
  • Pt Wakefield Monitor (1915-1941; 9 reels)
  • Recorder Pt Pirie (1988; 3 reels)
  • South Australian Messenger Press Regional Newspapers (2006; approx. 127 reels)
  • Southern Cross (1971-1980; 10 reels – with funding from the Catholic Archives)
  • Stanley Herald (1909-1948; 11 reels – partially funded by News Ltd)
  • Sunday Mail (2007-2008; 12 reels)
  • Unley Citizen and Suburban Chronicle (22 Jun 1906-27 Dec 1912; 3 reels)
  • Unley Welfare (Aug 1921-Oct 1924; 2 reels)

See also Cooperative Newspaper Microfilming 2008/9.

Missing titles

An up-to-date list of missing newspapers is available on this website. Please contact the State Library if you are able to help locate these titles.

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Last updated 13/8/09

Accessing Newspapers at the State Library of South Australia

Newspaper titles recently microfilmed

Missing titles