| Year | Date | Centre | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1802 | Unknown | Sydney | George Howe, second NSW Government Printer, prints the first book produced in colony of New South Wales: The New South Wales General Standing Orders. |
| 1803 | 5 March | Sydney | First issue of Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser; publisher George Howe. |
| 1807 | April-May | Sydney | Sydney Gazette fails to appear for six weeks (lack of paper); No. 214 was 19 April and No. 215 was 7 June. |
| 1808 | 30 Aug | Sydney | Sydney Gazette suspends publication; resumes 15 May 1809 (lack of paper; no Gazette during Rum Rebellion on 26/1/1808 which overthrew Governor Bligh). |
| 1810 | 8 Jan | Hobart | First issue of Derwent Star and Van Diemen’s Land Intelligencer; 12 issues; probably ceased 11 June 1810. |
| 1814 | 14 May | Hobart | First issue of Van Diemen’s Land Gazette and General Advertiser. Final issue is dated “from September 10 to September 24” 1814. |
| 1816 | 1 June | Hobart | First issue of Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter. Bent remains as printer until 24 June 1825 (No 481). |
| 1821 | 11 May | Sydney | Death of father of Australian press, George Howe, at 51. |
| 1824 | 14 Oct | Sydney | First issue of the Australian; published without prior restraint, and, immediately, at Robert Howe’s request, censorship of the Gazette ceases. |
| 1825 | 5 Jan | Launceston | First issue of Tasmanian and Port Dalrymple Advertiser, Australia’s first provincial newspaper. Appears irregularly; ceases 18 May 1825. |
| 1825 | 2 May | Sydney | First issue of Howe’s Weekly Commercial Express. Ceases 26 September. |
| 1825 | 25 June | Hobart | Governor Arthur pirates Hobart Town Gazette title; appoints James Ross and George Terry Howe as government printers; Bent continues to publish. |
| 1825 | 19 Aug | Hobart | First issue of Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser. |
| 1825 | Oct | Sydney | Sydney Gazette is published bi-weekly – after Robert Howe closes the Express. |
| 1826 | 19 May | Sydney | First issue of the Monitor; ceases end March 1842. |
| 1827 | 1 Jan | Sydney | Sydney Gazette becomes a daily. Final daily issue is 10 Feb 1827. (It was bi-weekly immediately before daily issue and tri-weekly immediately after.) |
| 1827 | 3 Mar | Hobart | First issue of Tasmanian. |
| 1827 | 5 April | Sydney | First issue of the Gleaner; ceases 29 Sept. 1827 25 April Sydney Governor Darling’s “Gagging Act” passed by Legislative Council. |
| 1827 | 3 May | Sydney | “Stamp Act” (a duty on newspapers) passed by Legislative Council, but never enforced. |
| 1827 | 20 Oct | Hobart | First issue of Hobart Town Courier. |
| 1828 | March | Hobart | First issue of Colonial Advocate and Tasmanian Monthly Review, a magazine published by Andrew Bent to avoid the necessity for a newspaper licence. No 8, October 1828 was final issue. |
| 1829 | 29 Jan | Sydney | Sydney Gazette proprietor Robert Howe drowns in boating accident on Sydney Harbour. |
| 1829 | 9 Feb | Launceston | First issue of Launceston Advertiser. |
| 1829 | 24 Feb | Launceston | First issue of Cornwall Press and Commercial Advertiser. Ceases with No 20 on 7 July 1829. |
| 1830 | Unknown | Fremantle | First issue of Fremantle Journal and General Advertiser (manuscript; short-lived) |
| 1830 | Unknown | Perth | First issue of West Australian Gazette (manuscript; short-lived) |
| 1831 | 28 Mar | Launceston | First issue of Independent; ceases 31 Jan 1835. |
| 1831 | 18 April | Sydney | First issue of Sydney Herald. Started by Alfred Ward Stephens, 27, Frederick Michael Stokes, 26, and William McGarvie, 21. |
| 1831 | 25 April | Fremantle | First issue of the Fremantle Observer, Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal . |
| 1831 | Unknown | Perth | First issue of the West Australian Chronicle and Perth Gazette (manuscript; short-lived) |
| 1831 | Unknown | Perth | First issue of the Western Australian (manuscript; short-lived) |
| 1832 | 7 March | Sydney | First issue of the official Government Gazette for New South Wales. Contained only orders and notices; no news and adverts. End of the arrangement by which the Sydney Gazette, alone among newspapers, was paid to publish Government Orders. |
| 1832 | 17 May | Sydney | Sydney Herald becomes bi-weekly. Price per copy drops to sixpence, but rises to 9d when size enlarged on 3 March 1834. |
| 1832 | June | Sydney | G.T. Graham replaces Ralph Mansfield as editor of Sydney Gazette. |
| 1832 | 6 July | Sydney | Alfred Hill, printer of Hall’s Monitor, launches Hill’s Life in New South Wales, sporting weekly modelled on Bell’s Life in London; 5d. SMH only cheaper Sydney paper. Ceases Jan 1833. |
| 1832 | 6 July | Hobart | First issue of Colonist and Van Diemen’s Land Commercial & Agricultural Advertiser. |
| 1832 | 25 Aug | Sydney | First issue of Currency Lad, published by executors of Howe estate and Horatio Wills, George Howe’s step-son. Ceases May 1833. |
| 1832 | Nov | Sydney | Edward O’Shaughnessy (an emancipist) replaces Graham as editor of Sydney Gazette. |
| 1833 | Unknown | Perth | First issue of Western Australian Colonial News (manuscript; short-lived) |
| 1833 | Unknown | Perth | First issue of Inquisitor (manuscript; short-lived) |
| 1833 | 5 Jan | Perth | First issue of Perth Gazette, forerunner of today’s West Australian. |
| 1833 | 26 Feb | Hobart | First issue of Hobart Town Chronicle. Ceases 2 July 1833. |
| 1833 | June | Sydney | The widowed Mrs Howe, as executrix, takes over direct control of the Sydney Gazette, but O’Shaughnessy remains as editor. |
| 1834 | 22 Aug | Hobart | First issue of People’s Horn Boy. Ceases 13 Dec 1834. |
| 1834 | 28 Nov | Hobart | First issue of Morning Star and Commercial Advertiser. Ceases 23 Oct 1835. |
| 1835 | 1 Jan | Sydney | First issue of the Colonist. Proprietor John Dunmore Lang. Incorporated in Sydney Herald from 1 Jan 1841. |
| 1836 | 18 June | Adelaide | First issue of South Australian Gazette & Colonial Register (this issue published in London, six months before colony is proclaimed; 2nd issue published in Adelaide on 3 June 1837). Ceases 20 Feb 1931. |
| 1836 | 6 Oct | Perth | First issue of the Swan River Guardian (survives 16 months) |
| 1836 | Oct | Sydney | Frederick Stokes, co-owner of the Sydney Herald, ‘had some difference with Mr Stephens’, sells him his half share and withdraws from the paper. |
| 1838 | 1 Jan | Melbourne | First issue of Melbourne Advertiser; manuscript; printed from 5/3; discontinued in April as was not registered. |
| 1838 | 2 July | Sydney | Sydney Herald becomes tri-weekly. |
| 1838 | 27 Oct | Melbourne | First issue of Port Phillip Gazette. |
| 1838 | 2 June | Adelaide | First issue of Southern Australian; appears under that title to Oct 1844; then South Australian. |
| 1839 | 6 Feb | Melbourne | First issue of Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser. |
| 1839 | 10 April | Port Lincoln | First issue of Port Lincoln Herald. First, sixth and seventh issued printed in Adelaide; 2-5 printed at Port Lincoln. Ceases with No. 7 on 28 Sept. 1841. |
| 1839 | 20 June | Adelaide | South Australian Gazette appears as separate organ from South Australian Register. |
| 1839 | 7 Sept | Adelaide | First issue of Adelaide Guardian; becomes Adelaide Chronicle 10 Dec 1839. Thomas and Co buys it in March 1840 and continues to publish it on Weds, with Register on Sats. |
| 1839 | Dec | Sydney | Robert Howe, son of Robert Howe (1795-1829), buys Sydney Gazette at auction and becomes third generation of Howe family to own the paper. Sells in October 1841. |
| 1839 | 31 Dec | Sydney | Frederick Stokes buys back Sydney Herald from Ward Stephens. |
| 1840 | 3 Jan | Melbourne | First issue of Port Phillip Herald. Becomes Melbourne Morning Herald Jan 1849 and the Herald from 1855. |
| 1840 | 1 July | Sydney | Sydney Monitor becomes a daily; published daily only until year's end. |
| 1840 | 1 Oct | Sydney | Sydney Herald becomes daily, reducing its price to sixpence. |
| 1840 | 12 Nov | Adelaide | Thomas and Co issue unauthorised South Australian Gazette, claiming it to be “authorised”; forces SA Government to change title of the authorised version to the South Australian Government Gazette. |
| 1840 | 21 Nov | Geelong | First issue of Geelong Advertiser, first regular provincial mainland newspaper; still published. |
| 1840 | unknown | Sydney | Transportation of convicts to NSW ceases. |
| 1841 | 1 Jan | Sydney | Sydney Herald incorporates John Dunmore Lang’s Colonist. |
| 1841 | 8 Feb | Sydney | John Fairfax and Charles Kemp buy Sydney Herald from Frederick Stokes. |
| 1841 | May | Adelaide | Departure of Gawler as Governor of SA. End of government intervention in SA newspapers. Depression forces sale of the SA Register to James Allen, Baptist preacher. |
| 1841 | 11 Dec | Maitland | NSW First issue of Hunter River Gazette, first provincial newspaper in NSW. Ceases 25 June 1842. |
| 1841 | 29 Dec | Sydney | Monitor ceases publication. |
| 1841 | unknown | Sydney | NSW Government Printer appointed to run a government printery and print Government Gazette. This ended annual tendering arrangement that gave Government some influence over the press. [Contract was held by proprietors of Sydney Gazette, 1832-34; Herald, 1835, 1837 and 1840; Australian, 1838-39; and a non-newspaper printer, 1836.] |
| 1841 | unknown | Sydney | Population of NSW: 130,000, including 46,000 convicts and ex-convicts (1851: 187,000, including 26,000 convicts and ex-cons). |
| 1842 | 12 March | Launceston | First issue of Launceston Examiner; still published. |
| 1842 | July | Sydney | Publication of Sydney Gazette suspended when owner Patrick Grant could not pay his printers; printer Richard Sanderson resumed publication on 2 August. |
| 1842 | 1 Aug | Sydney | Sydney Herald becomes Sydney Morning Herald. |
| 1842 | 6 Aug | Adelaide | South Australian Register announces partnership between its proprietors, Robert Thomas and George Stevenson, is dissolved; paper and plant auctioned to James Allen for £600. |
| 1842 | 20 Aug | Portland | First issue of Portland Guardian; ceases 1964 |
| 1842 | 31 Aug | Portland | First issue of Portland Mercury; ceases 29 June 1844 |
| 1842 | 20 Oct | Sydney | Australia’s first newspaper, the Sydney Gazette, ceases (after publication had been suspended for a few weeks in July). |
| 1842 | 26 Oct | Adelaide | First issue of the Southern Star. Ceases 15 Feb 1843. |
| 1843 | 7 Jan | Maitland | NSW First issue of Maitland Mercury; still published. |
| 1843 | 1 July | Adelaide | First issue of Adelaide Observer; edited and owned by John Stephens, a teetotaller Methodist who later plays influential role in the anti-state aid to religion campaign; Observer rises out of ashes of Examiner, which was one of the victims of the depression of early 1840s (Carey, p.16). |
| 1843 | unknown | Sydney | Institution of a two-thirds elected Legislative Council in NSW. Press takes on additional responsibility for there is no official Hansard until 1879 and there are now periodic elections. Press had been reporting the nominee Council since 1838. |
| 1843 | July | Sydney | First issue of W.A. Duncan’s Weekly Register. Ceases December 1845. |
| 1844 | 1 Jan | Sydney | Editor Thomas Forster and printer E.H. Statham buy the Australian and make it a daily; it remains a daily for a year and then becomes a tri-weekly and later a bi-weekly. |
| 1844 | 23 Dec | Adelaide | SA Register appears as a daily – for seven weeks, under James Allen’s ownership. Allen had already lifted it to bi-weekly issue. Ceased daily issue on Wed 12 Feb 1845. Became a Wed/Sat bi-weekly. |
| 1844 | 3 July | Portland | First issue of Portland Gazette. Ceases 23 March 1849 |
| 1844 | 30 Nov | Sydney | First issue of the Atlas [full title: Atlas, Sydney Weekly, Journal of Politics, Commerce and Literature]. Ceases 30 December 1848. |
| 1845 | 15 Jan | Portland | First issue of Portland Bay Examiner; ceases 13 May 1845. |
| 1845 | 15 May | Melbourne | Port Phillip Patriot becomes a daily, Melbourne’s first |
| 1845 | July | Adelaide | James Allen sells South Australian Register to John Stephens, owner of the Adelaide Observer; the latter becomes the weekly edition of the Register, and both are controlled from same office until Register’s closure in 1931 |
| 1845 | 4 July | Hobart | Colonial Times incorporates the Tasmanian. |
| 1845 | 5 July | Adelaide | First issue of Mark 2 of the South Australian Gazette & Colonial Register, with George Stevenson in control. Confusing title and the Register is still being published, as is the SA Government Gazette. In Oct 1847 Stevenson changes Colonial to Mining in the title. |
| 1846 | 2 June | Melbourne | First issue of Argus; William Kerr is editor/proprietor. |
| 1846 | 20 June | Brisbane | First issue of Moreton Bay Courier. Courier-Mail of today is descended from it. |
| 1848 | June | Tanunda | SA First issue of Deutsche Post fur die Australische Colonien in Adelaide on 6 Jan 1848. Bilingual English-German weekly. Ceases after three months and proprietor transfers seat of operations to Tanunda in the Barossa Valley where a large number of German-speaking migrants have settled. Publication resumes in June. |
| 1848 | 15 Sept | Melbourne | The Melbourne Argus banner becomes simply the Argus. Damages in a libel action against the Argus force founder William Kerr to sell the newspaper. Contributor Edward Wilson buys it for £300, but has to borrow. |
| 1848 | 23 Sept | Sydney | Closure of the Australian. |
| 1848 | 2 Oct | Sydney | First issue of Daily News and Evening Chronicle; ceases 29 Nov |
| 1848 | 2 Oct | Adelaide | First issue of the Adelaide Times. Weekly. |
| 1848 | 9 Oct | Melbourne | Port Phillip Patriot becomes Melbourne Daily News. |
| 1849 | 1 Jan | Melbourne | Port Phillip Herald becomes a daily (Melbourne’s second) and changes title to the Melbourne Morning Herald |
| 1849 | 17 June | Sydney | First issue of Sunday Times, Australia's first designated Sunday paper; published by Thomas Revel Johnson; survived only three or four issues. |
| 1849 | 18 June | Melbourne | Argus becomes a daily, Melbourne’s third |
| 1849 | 9 Sept | Sydney | First issue of the Australian Sportsman. |
| 1849 | 13 Nov | Geelong | Geelong Advertiser becomes Australia’s first provincial daily. |
| 1850 | 1 Jan | Adelaide | South Australian Register appears as a daily for the second time. |
| 1850 | 26 Jan | Hobart | First issue of the Irish Exile: Freedom’s Advocate; ceases 12 April 1851. |
| 1850 | 1 April | Adelaide | The Times, Adelaide (formerly the Adelaide Times) becomes a daily (until Sat 29 November 1851, then weekly [Sat]). |
| 1850 | 19 July | Brisbane | First issue of Moreton Bay Free Press. |
| 1850 | Oct | Tanunda | SA First issue of Deutsche Zeitung fur Sudaustralien. Ceases March 1851. |
| 1850 | 28 Dec | Sydney | First issue of the Empire. Launched by Henry Parkes. Daily from 20 Jan 1851. |
Updated 25 January 201
