User:Gilgandra/sandbox

"The Castlereagh" was the first newspaper established in Gilgandra, New South Wales.

The first known issue of the paper ('The Castlereagh Vol. 1 - No. 1') is dated Friday 13th January, 1905. However, according to the authors of "Back to Gilgandra- souvenir booklet; September 20-26, 1937",. 'The Castlereagh' was established in December 1904.

The "Back to Gilgandra- souvenir booklet; September 20-26, 1937" also states that 'The Castlereagh' was produced as a four-page weekly, but the papers held at the State Library, Sydney, (which were digitised in 2012 and made available on Trove) show that the first issue in 1905 was 12 pages long. The final issue available on Trove is 'Vol. 3 - No. 51', published on Friday 20th December, 1907. It is 17 pages long, including a 4 page Christmas supplement. By this stage, the masthead bore a subtitle 'The Castlereagh: Circulating throughout Gilgandra, Curban, Collie, Gular, Armatree, Tooraweenah, Balladoran & Mundooran Districts'.

According to the authors of "Back to Gilgandra- souvenir booklet; September 20-26, 1937", on May 11, 1906, P.J. MacManus and J. Foley, formerly of the "Orange Leader" assumed control of "The Castlereagh". Later Foley disposed of his interests.

A rival newspaper, 'The Castlereagh Liberal' was established in 1910 by the Farmers and Settlers Association, under the management of Mr. P.J. Donelly, who was later succeeded by Mr. A.E. Perkins. 'The Castlereagh Liberal' was printed for approximately one year before commercial pressures forced its owners to sell up. In 1911, the plant and goodwill were sold to the editor Mr. A.E. Perkins, who continued to print a paper under 'The Castlereagh Liberal' masthead.

In 1915, the masthead changed to 'Gilgandra Weekly' with a short note underneath, reading "with which is incorporated 'The Castlereagh Liberal'". The volume and issue numbers continuing in sequence from those first published on 'The Liberal'.

In 1921, the 'Gilgandra Weekly' was purchased by Mr. H.E.O. (Harold) Campbell, who began his career as an apprentice on the 'Gilgandra Weekly' in 1914, and went on to own many regional papers.

In 1925, 'The Castlereagh' was purchased from Mr. P.J. MacManus by Harold Campbell. From 1925-29, the 'Gilgandra Weekly' and 'The Castlereagh' were both printed, with 'The Castlereagh' providing more hard news content, and the 'Gilgandra Weekly' more like a tabloid newspaper in content. In November 1929, the titles were amalgamated and produced under a combined masthead. 'The Castlereagh' tag was dropped in the 1940's and the paper became known as 'The Gilgandra Weekly'.