Memories of newspapers
SADLY, The Northern Miner no longer exists. It will be missed by the many researchers who have found it a wonderful source not only for Charters Towers history, but also for North Queensland history.
Originally called The Charters Towers Miner, it was first published in August 1872 by James Smith Reid. In 1873 he employed Thaddeus O’kane as Editor. O’kane, a peppery Irishman, was the first of several notable pressmen associated with the paper in following years.
Destined for the priesthood in Ireland, he changed direction, leaving for London to become a journalist. There he was involved in a celebrated court case with Lord Palmerston whom he accused of having an affair with his actress wife, which he lost when it was found that he had never legally married the woman. Then he migrated to Australia, working as a journalist in Brisbane and Rockhampton before moving to Charters Towers. As editor of The Northern Miner, he became popular as a champion of the miners, but his derogatory comments regarding rival newspapers, journalists, publics servants and politicians attracted several libel cases.
The Townsville Bulletin, originally The Townsville Daily Bulletin came later. It was not published until September 1881 by Edward Rhode, Dodd S. Clarke and John Kiley Mehan. In 1910 the companies that published both papers united to form The North Queensland Newspaper Company. The first board chairman was Joe Hodel; the first editor was
David Green who had previously been editor of The Northern Miner, though The Northern Miner and The Townsville Daily Bulletin continued to be published as two separate papers.
Humphrey David Green (commonly called Davey) was one of several journalists with early associations with The Northern Miner who moved to Townsville from Charters Towers. Some of the more notable of these were Edward George Barrymore who wrote under the alias ‘Cestus’, and James Harry (Jim) Gibbard, who succeeded Green as editor of The Townsville Daily Bulletin and, later of the North Queensland Register. Gibbard also became chairman of the board of the North Queensland Newspaper Co.
Both Barrymore and Gibbard were renowned for their interest in horse racing, and Gibbard often travelled to the annual “Shows’’ held in every North Queensland town, acquiring an extensive knowledge of the North. It was said, though I have not tried to verify it, that he flew to New Guinea about 1940 and with a Box Brownie camera took a photograph from the plane on which he was travelling when leaving Rabaul. When the Japanese attacked in 1941, the photograph was the best visual evidence showing Rabaul harbour at the time, so it was used by Australians in trying to repel the Japanese invasion.
Barrymore’s wife, Freda, a former secretary to Dame Nellie Melba, married her husband in 1929 and became one of the earliest women to write book reviews for The Townsville Daily Bulletin. She is best known now for her book Townsville, Queen City of North Queensland. Its publication was financed in 1933 by Townsville City Council and the Townsville Harbour Board.
It is sad to learn that The Northern Miner will no longer appear in print, but it is fortunate now that future researchers will be able to continue to search back issues of the paper that can be viewed online thanks to the program TROVE.