BULLETIN MADE TO DELIVER
Since 1885, your local newspaper has proudly covered all the big stories and kept Gold Coasters informed
MARCH 28, 1885, was an important day in the life of the region, more than seven decades before it became the Gold Coast.
In Southport, an Irishman sat in a wooden shed on Lawson St, operating a small printing press.
Coming off the metal was the inaugural edition of the Gold Coast’s first newspaper, the Southern Queensland Bulletin.
Today marks the 135th anniversary of what today is known as the Gold Coast Bulletin.
Normally such an auspicious occasion would be a cause for celebration, but of course this milestone falls amid a once-in-a-generation event as COVID-19 ravages the world.
It’s times like this when the Bulletin – and the thousands of people who have worked for it across the years – has done its best work and kept Coast locals informed.
The Gold Coast is famous for its quirky and weird characters and the story of the Bulletin begins with one of those very people – Patrick Joseph Macnamara.
He arrived when Southport was a small fishing village and home to just 300 people and published the first edition of the paper, a four-page opus with a print run of 100 copies.
The first Bulletin contained stories of war rumblings from the Sudan and fears of Russian advances in Europe were being felt even here.
Working with a primitive hand-run press, McNamara would work alone through the night to produce the paper, which contained local, interstate and international news, as well as a collection of English and Irish jokes.
In 1893, McNamara left the Bulletin and the country, taking his family to Paraguay to found New Australia, an infamously unsuccessful endeavour.
He died in 1915.
The paper’s ownership changed several times over the decades along with its name, which in 1895 became the Logan and Albert Bulletin.
By 1908, the involvement of the Rootes family, which went on to own the Bulletin for many decades, began with the arrival of Walter Vincent Rootes who worked as a compositor.
Walter came and went from the Bulletin several times in the following decade but by 1919 had joined the board.
He remained with the paper until his death on February 12, 1970, at the age of 82.
Around 1928, as money grew tight and the town felt the first pains of the Depression, the Rootes boys – Wally Jnr, John and Tom – were helping at the paper, leaving school early on Fridays to deliver 800 copies that afternoon. In coming years they would serve their apprenticeships. In 1931 the paper was taken over by the Bulletin Printery Ltd.
After World War II, the Rootes boys returned to the business. John had served in the RAAF and was discharged in 1945, along with Wally who had reached the rank of major in the army, while Tom – whose war record included the battle at Milne Bay in New Guinea in 1942 – was discharged in 1944 because of war ailments.
The three bought shares and were invited on to the board. John Rootes became manager in 1953 and then secretary/manager in 1955, before his appointment as managing director of Gold Coast Publications in 1960.
On May 8, 1963, the South Coast Bulletin was renamed the Gold Coast Bulletin.
Fast-forward 24 years to 1987 and the company was bought by News Corporation.
Across the decades, the Bulletin has proudly covered all the big stories – from the end of World War II, the closure of the railway in 1964, the Fitzgerald Inquiry, Indy and corruption inquiries at the Gold Coast City Council.
Long may it continue. Happy Birthday Gold Coast Bulletin.