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The Southern Argus is a newspaper published from 1866 in Port Elliot then Strathalbyn, South Australia from 1868 - current
Contents
History
The Southern Argus is one of the state's oldest country newspapers, privately owned by the Elliott and Jones families for 140 years. It was founded by Ebenezer Ward (1837–1917), as The Southern Argus and River Murray Advertiser in Port Elliot as a weekly newspaper, the first issue appearing on Saturday 17 March 1866. Its coverage (taken from the masthead of issue No.1) included the towns of Strathalbyn, Wellington, Milang, Langhorne's Creek, Woodchester, Mount Barker, Echunga, Macclesfield, Bull's Creek, Clarendon, Noarlunga, Willunga, Aldinga, Sellick's Hill, Myponga, Normanville, Yankalilla, Rapid Bay, Cape Jervis, Inman Valley, Bald Hills, Hindmarsh Valley, Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, Middleton, Currency Creek and Goolwa.
Ward expected that the new southern port of Port Elliot was to become an enterprising outlet for the River Murray trade. Using the original Observer printing press, Ward set up the newspaper in the small coastal town; its first office was previously J. Barton's shop. In mid-April 1868, following financial difficulties and ownership changes, the production of the newspaper moved to William Colman's shop in Strathalbyn, then on 5 December 1868, to their new building adjacent to the Strathalbyn Post Office.
It was purchased in 1871 by William Fisher and Joseph Elliott (ca.1833 – 21 May 1883), the latter whose brother James Elliott was the first owner of the Kapunda Herald. Elliott bought his partner out shortly after.
Preservation
This newspaper title has been preserved on microfilm by the State Library of South Australia
Digitisation
This newspaper has been digitised from microfilm for the Australian Newspaper Digitisation Project of the National Library of Australia.