The Courier-Mail - History

History

The history of The Courier-Mail is through four mastheads. The Moreton Bay Courier later became The Courier, then the Brisbane Courier and since 1933 The Courier-Mail.

The Moreton Bay Courier was established as a weekly paper in June 1846. It became a bi-weekly in January 1858, a tri-weekly in December 1859 and finally a daily newspaper under the editorship of Theophilus Parsons Pugh from 14 May 1861. The recognised founder and first editor was Arthur Sidney Lyon (1817–1861) who was assisted by its printer, the later mayor of Brisbane and member of Queensland Legislative Council, the hon James Swan (1811–1891). Lyon, also referred to as the "father of the Press" in the colony of Queensland, had previously served as a writer and journalist in Melbourne and he would move on to found and edit journals such as Moreton Bay Free Press, North Australian and Darling Downs Gazette. He arrived in Brisbane from Sydney in early 1846 with a plan to establish a newspaper, possibly influenced by Rev. Dr. John Dunmore Lang, who had encouraged Lyon to emigrate to Australia. Lyon then persuaded James Swan, a printer who had previously worked on Rev. Dr. John Dunmore Lang's newspaper "The Colonialist in Sydney. The two men established themselves in a garret of a building on the corner of Queen Street, Brisbane and Albert Street, Brisbane (a building later known as the North Star Hotel).

The first issue of the Moreton Bay Courier, consisting of 4 pages, appeared on Saturday 20 June 1846 with Arthur Sidney Lyon as editor and James Swan as publisher. It was published weekly on Saturdays.

However, after about 18 months of working together, Lyon and Swan continually disagreed on many aspects of editorial policy, including transportation of convicts and squatting, and Lyon took over sole control in late 1847. However, Lyon ran into money problems, allowing James Swan to take sole control. Eventually James Swan sold the newspaper to Thomas Blacket Stephens in 1859.

The Moreton Bay Courier was purchased by Thomas Blacket Stephens in May 1861, and he soon turned it into a daily newspaper, The Courier. In 1864 it became the Brisbane Courier. In June–July 1868, he floated the Brisbane Newspaper Company, and transferred the plant and copyright of the Brisbane Courier to it. He was the managing director until he retired in November 1873, when the paper was auctioned. The Journal was then from November 1873 to December 1880 managed by one of the new part owners, the Tasmanian born former public servant Gresley Lukin (1840–1916), in almost the entire period of which Lukin functioned as 'managing editor' whereas the actual writing and editing was in the hands of the Irishman, William Augustine O'Carroll (1831–1885) with various sub-editors or editors of the 'literay staff' meaning the Queenslander. Most prominat of these were William Henry Traill (1842–1902), the later NSW politician and editor of the famed Sydney journal 'The Bulletin', and the Danish born but English and French educated Carl Adolph Feilberg (1844–1887). Carl Feilberg followed William Henry Trail in the function of political commentator and the de facto editor of the Queenslander from early January to about 1 January 1881, yet he would later succeed William O'Carroll taking position as the editor-in-chief of the Courier from September 1883 to his death in October 1887. Lukin's part-ownership and managing editorship proprietorship changed hands on 21 December 1880 to the former 'Postmaster General' in the first McIlwraith government, Charles Hardie Buzacott (1835–1918), who had previously served as a journalist on the staff and otherwise had a distinguished career as a Queensland newspaper editor and proprietor. John James Knight (1863–1927) was editor-in-chief of the Brisbane Courier 1906-16 and later managing director and later again chairman of all the company's publications.

The first edition of The Courier-Mail was published on 28 August 1933 after Keith Murdoch's Herald and Weekly Times acquired and merged the Brisbane Courier and the Daily Mail (first published on 3 October 1903). HWT controlled the paper until 1987 when it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited. Murdoch also acquired the outstanding shares of Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd.