The Melbourne Advertiser was Melbourne's first newspaper. It was published by John Pascoe Fawkner, a co-founder of Melbourne. The premier edition appeared on 1 January 1838 handwritten in ink by Fawkner himself and displayed at his hotel.
Ten handwritten weekly editions were published until Fawkner acquired a wooden press and some metal fount from Launceston. After printing a further seventeen issues he was forced by law to cease due to his failure to register his newspaper. He responded with a legally registered and renamed Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser on 6 February 1839, which became the first newspaper to achieve daily publication in Melbourne on 15 May 1845.
The paper was renamed The Melbourne Daily News and Port Phillip Patriot from 9 October 1848 and then simply The Melbourne Daily News from November 1848 to 30 June 1851.
The Advertiser was first printed from a shed at the rear of Fawkner's Shakespeare Hotel at the corner of Collins Street and Market Street.
The printing press still exists and is stored at the Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne.