| Year | Date | Centre | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1851 | 1 July | Victoria | Victoria becomes a separate colony. |
| 1852 | 1 Jan | Melbourne | The Argus incorporates the Melbourne Daily News (formerly the Port Phillip Patriot) |
| 1853 | 4 Jan | Adelaide | Adelaide Times appears daily again. Ceases 8 May 1858. |
| 1853 | 30 Sept | Sydney | John Fairfax buys Charles Kemp’s interest in Sydney Morning Herald and takes Charles Fairfax as a partner. |
| 1853 | 3 Nov | Sandhurst, Vic. | First issue of Diggers’ Advocate (printed in Melbourne), first goldfields newspaper in Victoria. |
| 1853 | 9 Dec | Sandhurst, Vic. | First issue of Bendigo Advertiser. |
| 1854 | 5 July | Hobart | First issue of Hobarton Mercury, a bi-weekly. |
| 1854 | 17 Oct | Melbourne | First issue of the Age; daily. |
| 1856 | 1 Jan | Tasmania | Van Diemen's Land becomes Tasmania; its Constitution was enacted by the British Parliament in 1855. |
| 1856 | 12 June | Melbourne | Ebenezer Syme buys the Age. |
| 1856 | 27 Sept | Melbourne | David Syme becomes a partner in the Age, now printed and published by E. and D. Syme. |
| 1857 | 24 Aug | Hobart | Hobarton Mercury incorporates oldest journal in Tasmania, the tri-weekly Colonial Times with which is incorporated the Tasmanian, leaving Sydney Morning Herald as Australia’s oldest surviving paper. |
| 1858 | 1 Jan | Hobart | Hobarton Mercury becomes a daily. |
| 1858 | 11 Jan | Melbourne | First issue of Melbourne Evening Mail. Ceases 10 July 1858. |
| 1858 | 1 June | Hobart | Hobarton Mercury incorporates Tasmanian Daily News. |
| 1858 | 12 July | Adelaide | First issue of South Australian Advertiser; daily. |
| 1858 | 28 Aug | Sydney | Empire, as run by Henry Parkes, ceases; resumes 23 May 1859. |
| 1859 | 7 Feb | Sydney | First issue of Sydney Evening Mail; ceases 18 May. |
| 1859 | 23 May | Sydney | First issue of Empire, now owned by Samuel Bennett (after nine months’ discontinuation of publication). |
| 1859 | 1 June | Hobart | Hobarton Daily Mercury incorporates Daily Courier. |
| 1859 | 10 Dec | Queensland | Queensland becomes a separate colony. |
| 1860 | 13 Feb | Melbourne | Argus reduces cover price from 6d to 3d. |
| 1860 | 16 Feb | Melbourne | Age reduces cover price from 6d to 3d. |
| 1860 | 18 Feb | Sydney | Empire reduces cover price from 4d to 3d |
| 1860 | 20 Feb | Sydney | Sydney Morning Herald reduces cover price from 4d to 3d |
| 1860 | 13 Mar | Melbourne | Ebenezer Syme, part-proprietor of Age, dies, aged 34. David Syme continues the paper, with Ebenezer's widow as a part-proprietor. |
| 1860 | 17 Mar | Kapunda, SA | First issue of Northern Star, first new SA provincial English-language newspaper since 1839. Ceases 26 Dec 1863. |
| 1860 | 31 Mar | Brisbane | First issue of Queensland Guardian; ceases 27 June 1868. |
| 1860 | 2 July | Hobart | Hobarton Mercury changes name to simply the Mercury. |
| 1860 | 7 July | Sydney | First issue of Sydney Mail, published by John Fairfax & Sons. |
| 1861 | 14 May | Brisbane | Moreton Bay Courier becomes a daily and changes name to the Courier; changes again on 11 April 1864 to Brisbane Courier. |
| 1862 | 16 Aug | Adelaide | First issue of Telegraph (upon connection of telegraph from Melbourne to Adelaide). Said to be Australia's first penny evening daily. |
| 1862 | Unknown | Melbourne | First issue of Evening News. Ceases 19 August 1896? |
| 1863 | March | Tanunda, SA | First issue of Tanunda Deutsche Zeitung, filling gap left by departure to Adelaide at start of 1863 of Sudaustralien Zeitung. |
| 1863 | 4 Apr | Brisbane | Queensland Guardian becomes a daily. |
| 1863 | 30 Nov | Adelaide | First issue of Adelaide Express, penny evening paper published by SA Advertiser. |
| 1864 | 27 May | Adelaide | South Australian Register reduces cover price: 4d to 3d. |
| 1864 | 16 Sept | Adelaide | South Australian Advertiser reduces cover price: 4d to 3d. |
| 1864 | 29 Sept | Perth | Final issue of West Australian Times (Vol. 1, No 53); weekly. |
| 1864 | 30 Sept | Perth | Final issue of Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News. |
| 1864 | 7 Oct | Perth | Arthur Shenton incorporates the West Australian Times in the newly titled Perth Gazette and West Australian Times: A Journal of Politics & News. Vol. 1, No. 1. |
| 1865 | 2 Oct | Brisbane | First issue of Daily Leader. |
| 1866 | 3 Feb | Brisbane | First issue of Queenslander; weekly; ceases 22 Feb 1939. |
| 1867 | 1 Jan | Melbourne | Age reduces cover price from 3d to 2d (Argus is still 3d) |
| 1867 | 29 July | Sydney | First issue of Evening News (first penny daily in NSW); Samuel Bennett is proprietor. Ceases 21 March 1931. |
| 1867 | 14 Oct | Melbourne | First issue of Evening Star. |
| 1868 | 1 June | Melbourne | Age reduces cover price from 2d to 1d (Argus is still 3d) |
| 1868-1869 | Darwin | Earliest Northern Territory newspaper was Moonta Herald, published seven times on board ship that brought SA Surveyor-General George Goyder and his team of surveyors and workers to Darwin (then Palmerston). | |
| 1869 | 2 Jan | Adelaide | First issue of Evening Journal (produced by South Australian Register group). |
| 1869 | 4 Jan | Melbourne | First issue of Herald (estab. 1840 as Port Phillip Herald) as evening daily. |
| 1869 | 8 Feb | Melbourne | First issue of Daily Telegraph. Ceases May 1892. |
| 1870 | 3 Jan | Fremantle | First issue of Express; first daily in WA; mornings. |
| 1870 | 9 Jan | Sydney | First issue of Australian Town & Country Journal. |
| 1870 | 30 Jan | Sydney | First issue of Afternoon Telegram, evening daily from Fairfax stable. Ceases 30 April 1870. |
| 1870 | 1 July | Fremantle | First issue of Express, daily, Vol 1, No 1 (reincarnation of former title); ceases with Vol 1, No 181, 28 Jan 1871. |
| 1872 | 25 June | Sydney | Samuel Bennett initiates first telegram sent direct from Australia to London: order for up-to-date printing machine (probably the Victory Stereo Rotary Printing Press). |
| 1872 | 1 Oct | Brisbane | First issue of Telegraph; daily; ceases 5 Feb 1988. |
| 1873 | Nov | Darwin | First issue of Northern Territory Times and Government Gazette, the first machine-printed newspaper in Darwin; printed in back room of a government office; Adelaide journalist Richard Wells is editor and George T. Clarkson publisher. Survives until 1932. |
| 1874 | 3 July | Perth | Perth Gazette and West Australian Times becomes a bi-weekly (Tues/Fri) and changes title to the Western Australian Times (Vol. 1, No 1). |
| 1875 | 16 Feb | Sydney | Evening News absorbs Empire. |
| 1875 | 1 May | Sydney | First issue of Echo, penny evening daily from Fairfax stable. Ceases 22 July 1893. |
| 1876 | 12 July | Melbourne | First issue of Evening Post. Closure date unknown. |
| 1878 | 3 June | Sydney | Death of Samuel Bennett (1815-1878), founder of Evening News. |
| 1879 | 1 May | Sydney | First issue of the Echo. Ceases 22 July 1893. |
| 1879 | 1 July | Sydney | First issue of Sydney Daily Telegraph, which later became simply the Daily Telegraph. |
| 1879 | 18 Nov | Perth | Western Australian Times changes title to the West Australian. Vol. 1 No. 1. Includes a poem from Henry Kendall. The paper is still bi-weekly (Tues/Fri). |
| 1880 | 13 Jan | Brisbane | First Brisbane issue of Daily Observer (formerly Ipswich Observer, launched 1 June 1870; daily from 12 May 1879; becomes Daily Observer 17 June 1879). Becomes Evening Observer from 8 May 1884. |
| 1880 | 31 Jan | Sydney | First issue of the Bulletin, later a magazine rather than newspaper. |
| 1881 | 17 Oct | Melbourne | First issue of Evening Mail. Ceases 1882. |
| 1882 | 26 July | Perth | First issue of Daily News; appeared Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat (not on Wed because the Inquirer appeared that day and both titles were owned by one partnership). |
| 1882 | Oct | Sydney | First issue of the Tribune and News of the Week, weekly stable-mate of Daily Telegraph; ceases 28 June 1889. |
| 1883 | 16 Oct | Perth | West Australian becomes a tri-weekly. |
| 1884 | 1 July | Melbourne | Argus reduces cover price from 3d to 2d. |
| 1885 | 1 Jan | Perth | West Australian becomes a daily. |
| 1885 | 15 Nov | Sydney | First issue of Sunday Times; initiator is W.H.L. Bailey. Ceases 1 June 1930. |
| 1885 | 16 Nov | Sydney | First issue of the Globe, evening daily issued by Sunday Times. Ceases June 1887. |
| 1886 | 20 Oct | Sydney | First issue of Referee, a sporting newspaper. |
| 1887 | Dec | Sydney | First issue of Australian Star; becomes Sun on 1 July 1910. |
| 1889 | 29 April | Melbourne | First issue of Evening Standard. Ceases October 1894. |
| 1889 | 17 Oct | Melbourne | Herald becomes first Australian newspaper to regularly make Page 1 its main news page. |
| 1890 | 3 Aug | Sydney | First issue of Truth. |
| 1891 | 21 March | Melbourne | Imprint of Age changes with departure from partnership of Joseph Cowen Syme, nephew of David Syme. David buys out nephew's 25pc interest for £140,000. Contract signed on 28 Feb and £40,000 cash paid on 19 March. Remainder paid at £10,000 every six months, with interest set at 6pc. Total amount actually paid is £156,674 4s 10d. |
| 1893 | 1 April | Melbourne | Argus reduces cover price from 2d to 1d. |
| 1893 | 26 June | Sydney | Sydney Morning Herald reduces cover price to one penny. |
| 1893 | 22 July | Sydney | Echo, evening stable-mate of Sydney Morning Herald, closes. |
| 1894 | April | Sydney | Linotypes machines installed at Sydney Daily Telegraph. |
| 1894 | late | Melbourne | A.H.Massina & Co. installs Victoria's first Linotype machine (firm publishes and prints various weeklies and monthlies). |
| 1895 | early | Melbourne | Linotype machines installed at the Melbourne Herald. |
Updated 25 January 2012
