AustLit

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser was the first newspaper published in Australia, and until 1824, the only newspaper published in New South Wales. Printed and published by George Howe, the first Gazette was produced in 1803 with the permission of the Governor of New South Wales and for much of its life the paper carried the slogan 'Published by authority.' It served as vehicle for the promulgation of government orders and other information, with other material inserted in the four-page issue by the editor as space permitted. Howe financed the paper from sales and advertising, and was permitted to keep any profits in return for this service to the government. He was also employed as the Government Printer, from 1810 on salary.

The Gazette was printed during its earliest years on a portable wooden and iron press which had been brought to the colony on the first fleet. Howe had enough print to set only one page at a time, and struggled to source adequate paper and ink. The quality of the publication improved gradually, notably following the arrival of a new iron Stanhope press in 1814. Initially housed in a room attached to the back of the first Government house, the press and the Gazette moved in 1810 to premises at 96 George Street, Sydney, which were extensively renovated in the following year to plans made by Francis Greenway to include a new printery and a substantial residence. The business moved again in 1824, to a new 2-storied L-shaped building running from a George Street frontage to Charlotte Place.

George Howe printed, published and edited the Gazette until his death in 1821, when it was taken over by his son Robert Howe. After Robert's sudden death in 1829 the Gazette entered a volatile period, with a succession of editors appointed and dismissed, while the Gazette continued to be published by executors for Robert Howe's estate. Robert's widow Ann Howe took over the management in 1833, then, from 1836, it was managed by an executor for the estate. In 1839 Robert's eldest son Robert Charles Howe gained full ownership of the paper, but the Gazette passed out of the hands of the Howe family when it was sold to Patrick Grant in October 1841. Grant in turn sold the paper to Richard Sanderson, but it had become economically unviable, and the Gazette finally ceased publication in October 1842.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser is a source of the earliest Australian literature. Poetry by local residents was published throughout its lifetime, together with a range of poems, stories and other literary items reprinted from British sources. The Gazette noticed early theatrical productions in Sydney, publications by local writers, and the establishment of bodies such as schools, literary societies, libraries, and bookshops.

Sources: Sandy Blair, 'The Sydney Gazette and Its Readers 1803 - 1842' in The Australian Press: A Bicentennial Retrospect, edited by Victor Isaacs and Rod Kirkpatrick, Australian Newspaper History Group and State Library of New South Wales, Middle Park, Qld, 2003; R. B. Walker, The Newspaper Press in New South Wales, 1803 - 1920, Sydney University Press, 1976.