UG TilE UNIVERSI1Y OF QUEENSLAND UBRARIES LIBRARY · : UNDERGRADUATE . 4F19B8 · I! lJ6ll J!!6� tlliJ IJ - -- --- -- -- --- ---- - ...-- -----· �-------- -- �· ,.. , ; · - �· THE PRESS IN COLONIAL QUEENSLAND A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY 1845-1875 Denis Cryle University of Queensland Press \ ' 100 r • I I , , ' � trCt�lr:'\ t.. I First published 1989 by University of Queensland Press, Box 42, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia © Denis Cryle 1989 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. The typeset text for this book was supplied by the author and has not been copyedited by the publisher. Printed in Australia by The Australian Print Group, Maryborough, Victoria Distributed in the USA and Canada by International Specialized Book Services, Inc., 5602 N.E. Hassalo Street, Portland, Oregon 97213-3640 Cataloguing in Publication Data National Library of Australia Cryle, Denis, 1949- . The press in colonial Queensland. Bibliography. Includes index. 1. Australian newspapers - Queensland - History - 19th century. 2. Press and politics - Queensland·_ History - 19th century. 3. Queensland - Social conditions - 1824-1900. I. Title. 079'.943 ISBN 0 7022 2181 3 Contents . Acknowledgments Vl List of T abies vii List of Maps vzzz . List of Illustrations lX Introduction: Redefining the Colonial Newspaper 1 Chapter 1 Press and Police: The Northern Frontier 7 Chapter 2 Press and Platform: Lang and the Nonconformists 25 Chapter 3 Press, Parliament and Bar: The Politics of Separation 38 Chapter 4 'Wilful Murder!": Native Police Operations in the Settled Districts 1860-63 55 Chapter 5 Company Formation: The Queensland Daily Guardian and the Land Question 1866-68 73 II Chapter 6 Gagging the Press": The First Brisbane (Courier) Newspaper Company 1868-73 88 Chapter 7 Town and Station: Land Disputes in Southern and Central Queensland 107 Chapter 8 ��Scribes and Hirelings!": The Provincial Press and the Elections of 1871 121 Conclusion 138 Abbreviations 143 Notes 145 Appendix 1 Chronological List of Queensland Newspapers at Five Year Periods 1851-71 165 Appendix 2 Genealogy of the Brisbane and Ipswich Press 1846-73 167 Appendix 3 Missing Queensland Newspaper Files 1846-71 168 Bibliography 169 Index 185 L \. ARll!l ur::c:�'c:'' AT'lD BR . ·.. o TY OF J, .._- �. r-tfJb.fi't UN· tVERSI L-lj,t!- -� TI:iAICHEB M�MO fU� rm17-06".S7 First published 1989 by University of Queensland Press, Box 42, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia © Denis Cryle 1989 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. The typeset text for this book was supplied by the author and has not been copyedited by the publisher. Printed in Australia by The Australian Print Group, Maryborough, Victoria Distributed in the USA and Canada by International Specialized Book Services, Inc., 5602 N.E. Hassalo Street, Portland, Oregon 97213-3640 Cataloguing in Publication Data National Library of Australia Cryle, Denis, 1949- . The press in colonial Queensland. Bibliography. Includes index. 1. Australian newspapers - Queensland - History - 19th century. 2. Press and politics - Queensland ·_ History - 19th century. 3. Queensland - Social conditions - 1824-1900. I. Title. 079'.943 ISBN 0 7022 2181 3 Contents . Acknowledgments Vl List of Tables vii List of Maps vzu . List of Illustrations lX Introduction: Redefining the Colonial Newspaper 1 Chapter 1 Press and Police: The Northern Frontier 7 Chapter 2 Press and Platform: Lang and the Nonconformists 25 Chapter 3 Press, Parliament and Bar: The Politics of Separation 38 Chapter 4 'Wilful Murder!": Native Police Operations in the Settled Districts 1860-63 55 Chapter 5 Company Formation: The Queensland Daily Guardian and the Land Question 1866-68 73 Chapter 6 ��Gagging the Press": The First Brisbane (Courier) Newspaper Company 1868-73 88 Chapter 7 Town and Station: Land Disputes in Southern and Central Queensland 107 Chapter 8 ��Scribes and Hirelings!": The Provincial Press and the Elections of 1871 121 Conclusion 138 Abbreviations 143 Notes 145 Appendix 1 Chronological List of Queensland Newspapers at Five Year Periods 1851-71 165 Appendix 2 Genealogy of the Brisbane and Ipswich Press 1846-73 167 Appendix 3 Missing Queensland Newspaper Files 1846-71 168 Bibliography 169 Index 185 Acknowledgments I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the following organisations in the preparation of this book: John Oxley Memorial Library, Brisbane; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries of New South Wales; Queensland State Archives; Fryer and Main Library of Queensland University; Royal Historical Society of Queensland Library; Griffith University Library; National Library and Australian Dictionary of Biography Unit; Queensland Parliamentary Library; Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education; Ipswich Historical Society; Warwick and District Historical Society; Maryborough and Wide Bay Historical Society; Courier-Mail; Warwick Daily News; Mary borough Chronicle; and Maitland Mercury. I include a special mention for the personal service provided by staff members of the above institutions: Colin Sheehan, Robert Longhurst and John Cook (John Oxley Memorial Library); Ruth Kerr and Lee McGregor (Queensland State Archives); Spencer Routh (Main Library); Jim Gibbney (Australian Dictionary of Biography Unit); Sir Theodore Bray, Brian Reis and Regina Ganter (Griffith University); and John Irwin (Wanvick Daily News). For their constant interest and friendly support during the project, I am pleased to thank fellow academics: Ray Evans, Helen Taylor, Bill Thorpe, Kay Saunders, Stuart Pow, and Sylvia Lawson. I must pay special tribute to my supervisor Lyndall Ryan whose unflagging interest, broad historical knowledge and administrative ability were invaluable assets. For proofreading the manuscript, I am indebted to Hazel Cryle, Mark Cryle and Ron Baynes; to Tania Tinney and Annette Ganter for typing the manuscript; to Greg Hicks for drafting the maps; and to David Dalziel (S.A.T.A.) for improving my study technique. Finally, I cannot praise too highly the assistance of my wife, Aileen Cryle, for deciphering the original manuscript under difficult conditions and for providing constant encouragement over a protracted period. Tables 1. List of Guardian shareholders present at company meeting of 29 March 1867 75 2. Queensland Ministries 1866-68 82 3. Brisbane Newspaper Company shareholders 1866-73 89 4. Amounts paid to Queensland newspapers for government advertisements during 1868 122 5. Libel cases involving Queensland newspapers, 1861-71 134-35 Maps 1. Pastoral expansion into the Wide Bay and Burnett districts 1850-55, showing historic stations and settlements, Native Police camps and frontier clashes 11 2. Maryborough district and township, showing trajectory of Native Police raid of 3 February 1860 57 3. Moreton and Wide Bay pastoral districts 1860-61, showing Native Police camps and operations, settlements and pastoral stations 66 4. Warwick district around 1870, showing township, reserves, stations and pre-emption 111 5. Clermont district, with pastoral runs and mineral discoveries approximately marked 117 6. Provincial press expansion 1846-71, showing movements of proprietors and years of arrival 129 7. Warwick township 1871, showing election riot, movement of crowd and shooting incident of 21 July 132 Illustrations 1. Theophilus Parsons Pugh, first Queensland government printer and third Courier editor 48 2. Brisbane Newspaper Company shareholders, around 1870 91 3. Courier office, corner of Charlotte and George Streets, around 1870 100 4. Charles Hardie Buzacott, proprietor and editor of the Peak Downs Telegram, around 1870 115 Introduction: Redefining the Colonial Newspaper George Nadel in the introduction of his Australia's Colonial Culture observed that researchers of the 19th cen­ tury are confronted from the outset with an "embarras de richesse", or overabundance of source material.1 Despite the common efforts of archivists, literary critics, students of journalism and political scientists, Australian newspaper history has advanced little beyond the methods of the early investigators.2 In part this failure can be explained by the prolific and ephemeral character of 19th century news­ papers themselves. The Golden Age of the press might well be renamed the Era of Instability, for the salient feature of press ownership, individual or collective, is undoubtedly its ephemerality. In Queensland, metropolitan papers changed hands every five years while, in the provinces, turnover was as high as every two years. Although Queens­ land boasts a sizeable body of press writing, the task of identifying numerous individual publications and proprietors has absorbed researchers to the exclusion of sustained writ­ ten commentary. The prolific character of the 19th century press has important implications for general historians as well as for specialist newspaper researchers. In the absence of sys­ tematic research into the newspaper sources upon which they depend, most historians cite the press in piecemeal fashion without any consideration of proprietorial politics or the audience for which the paper was intended; they prefer to consult colonial papers