Gold Coast Bulletin: Origin story of newspaper’s founding in 1885 and how it grew in the 20th century
As the Gold Coast Bulletin today marks 139 years of publication, we look back at its humble origins and the incredible true story of how it took shape. FULL STORY
History
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March 28, 1885 was an important day in the life of the region that more than seven decades would become 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.
It was the first edition of what would later be named the Gold Coast Bulletin.
Thursday marks the paper’s 139th birthday.
The Gold Coast is famous for its quirky and weird characters and the story of the Bulletin began with one of those very people – Patrick Joseph Macnamara.
He arrived when Southport was a small fishing village 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.
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 eventually 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.
In 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, corruption inquiries at the Gold Coast City Council, the pandemic, the rise, fall and rise of our sporting teams and the dramatic changes to the skyline.
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