The Naracoorte Herald was a weekly newspaper first published in South Australia on 14 December 1875, and continues to this day as the The Naracoorte Herald, serving a region around Naracoorte, South Australia which includes the towns of Lucindale, Penola, Padthaway and Frances.
Contents
History
The Naracoorte Herald was founded in 1875 by Andrew F. Laurie (1843–1920) and John Watson (ca.1842–1925) as an offshoot of their Border Watch and run by John B. Mather (1853–1940) and Archibald Caldwell (1855–1942), who had learned the trade at the Border Watch. Caldwell left soon after, and the paper was purchased by Mather and George Ash and they ran the business until 1889. In that year Mather and Ash were successfully sued by William Hutchison, J.P. (ca.1841–1914), for a libel accusing the wealthy squatter of dummying, and giving the opinion that Justices of the Peace should be free of such taint. Considerable sympathy was felt by the farming community for Ash and Mather, and they had a Legislative Council champion in A. M. Simpson, but after a Supreme Court trial under Justice Boucaut lasting ten days, Hutchison was vindicated, and Mather and Ash lost all they had.
The paper was forced to close at the end of August; publishing resumed with the issue of 25 October after Archibald returned to purchase the business, and with his brother Dugald Caldwell ran it until his death. Dugald then took over the business, assisted by his niece Mrs. Jean Anderson.
In 1948 Dugald sold the business to James L. Thomson, a long-serving employee. By this time a collaboration was in place between the Herald, Mount Gambier's Border Watch and Bordertown's Border Chronicle.
Harry and Margaret Peake bought the paper in 1958 and their son Richard Peake and his wife Judith Barton took over in 1979.
The Naracoorte Herald has been owned by Fairfax Regional Media since October 2010.
Orthography
The Post Office, Railways and other government departments had standardized the town's spelling to "Naracoorte" before 1896, but like the editor of the Narandera Argus, Archibald Caldwell doggedly stuck to the alternative spelling, and it was not until new owners took over in 1948 that the banner was changed.
Australian National Library's carries images and text versions of the newspaper from 1875 to 1954, accessible using Trove, the on-line newspaper retrieval service, under the single spelling "Naracoorte Herald".