The Castlereagh (Gilgandra)

{{Short description|Former newspaper in New South Wales}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = The Castlereagh | logo = | image = | caption = | type = Four-page weekly | format = Broadsheet | owners = Harold Campbell | founder = | publisher = | editor = | chief_editor = | associate_editor = | managing_editor = | news_editor = | campus_editor = | campus_chief = | opinion_editor = | photo_editor = | seniorstaff = | staff_writers = | founded = {{Start date|df=yes|1904|12}} | political_position = | language = | ceased_publication = | relaunched = ''The Gilgandra Weekly'' | headquarters = | circulation = | sister_newspapers = | ISSN = | oclc = | website = }}

'''''The Castlereagh''''', also published as ''The Gilgandra Weekly and Castlereagh'' and ''The Gilgandra Weekly'', was the first newspaper published in Gilgandra, New South Wales, Australia. It was an English language paper, published weekly in broadsheet format.<ref name="castlereagh">{{cite web|title=The Castlereagh|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title224|work=Trove Digitised Newspapers|publisher=National Library of Australia|accessdate=27 November 2012}}</ref>

==Early history== The first issue of the newspaper (''The Castlereagh Vol. 1 – No. 1'') was published on Friday, 13 January 1905,<ref name="castlereagh" /> following its establishment in December 1904.<ref name="backtogilgandra">"Back to Gilgandra – Souvenir Booklet; September 20–26, 1937". H.E.O. Campbell on behalf of the Sub-committee, 1937, p.33.</ref> The paper's first publishers were John Alfred Porter and Thomas Crouch.<ref name="castlereagh" />

thumb|Cover page of ''The Castlereagh'', 13 January 1905

The ''Back to Gilgandra – Souvenir Booklet''<ref name="backtogilgandra"/> states that ''The Castlereagh'' was produced as a four-page weekly, but the first issue of the newspaper was 12 pages long. The last digitised issue of the paper which is available via Trove, is Vol. 3 – No. 51, and was published on Friday, 20 December 1907. It was 17 pages long and included a four-page Christmas supplement. By this stage, the masthead bore the subtitle "Circulating throughout Gilgandra, Curban, Collie, Gular, Armatree, Tooraweenah, Balladoran & Mundooran Districts".<ref name="castlereagh" />

==J.Foley== According to the authors of "Back to Gilgandra – Souvenir Booklet" September 20–26, 1937,<ref name="backtogilgandra"/> on 11 May 1906, P.J. MacManus and J. Foley, formerly of the ''Orange Leader'', assumed control of ''The Castlereagh''. Later, Foley disposed of his interests.<ref name="backtogilgandra"/>

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

==Gilgandra Weekly== In October 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 continued in sequence from those first published on ''The Liberal''.<ref name="gilweekly">"The Gilgandra Weekly: Special edition: 100 years of The Gilgandra Weekly". 28 June 2011, p.4.</ref>

In 1921, the ''Gilgandra Weekly'' was purchased by 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 newspapers.<ref>Kirkpatrick, Rod. ''Country Conscience: A History of the New South Wales Provincial Press, 1841–1995''. Infinite Harvest Publishing, 2000, p.292.</ref>

==P.J. MacManus== In 1925, ''The Castlereagh'' was purchased from P.J. MacManus by Harold Campbell. Between 1925 and 1929, the ''Gilgandra Weekly'' and ''The Castlereagh'' were both printed, with ''The Castlereagh'' providing more hard news content, while the ''Gilgandra Weekly'' became more like a tabloid newspaper in content. In November 1929, the titles were amalgamated and produced under the combined masthead of ''The Gilgandra Weekly and Castlereagh''. ''The Castlereagh'' tag was dropped in the 1940s, and the paper became known as ''The Gilgandra Weekly''.<ref name="gilweekly"/>

==Digitisation== Issues of ''The Castlereagh'', ''The Gilgandra Weekly and Castlereagh'', and ''The Gilgandra Weekly'' have all been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program of the National Library of Australia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/selected_newspapers |title=Newspaper Digitisation Program |publisher=National Library of Australia |accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{Trove newspaper|224| The Castlereagh|Gilgandra, NSW: 1905–1907}} * {{Trove newspaper|410| The Gilgandra Weekly and Castlereagh|NSW: 1929–1941}} * {{Trove newspaper|411| The Gilgandra Weekly|NSW: 1942–1955}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castlereagh, The (Australia)}} Category:Defunct newspapers published in New South Wales Category:Newspapers on Trove