{{Short description|Newspaper in Brisbane, Queensland}} {{italic title}} {{other uses}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} '''''The Boomerang''''' was a weekly newspaper published in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Lukin, Gresley | title=The Boomerang | year=1887 | publisher=Alfred Walker, for the Boomerang Newspaper Co | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/6218080 | access-date=15 September 2015 | archive-date=17 January 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117004207/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/6218080 | url-status=live }}</ref>
== History == ''The Boomerang'' was a short-lived radical, illustrated, weekly newspaper, published in Brisbane, Queensland, in the late 19th century.
It's subtitle, in boomerang-shaped letters, promised, like the boomerang, to be 'true to the skilful hand that flings it forth. It flies in whirling circles to its destined mark'.<ref name=":0" />
''The Boomerang'' was established by journalist, trade unionist and Utopian, William Lane in 1887, publishing its first issue on 19 November.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/1893-the-new-australia-colony-collection/index.html |title=1893 The New Australia Colony Collection |first=Stephen |last=Thompson |work=Powerhouse Museum Migration Heritage Centre |date=February 2013 |accessdate=4 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313203303/http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/1893-the-new-australia-colony-collection/index.html |archive-date=2018-03-13 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217734764 |title=News of the Day |date=22 November 1887 |newspaper=Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertiser |access-date=4 October 2017 |issue=3899 |location=Queensland, Australia |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=17 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117004153/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/217734764 |url-status=live}}</ref> It published stories, poetry, cartoons, social and sporting notes, reflecting a time of growing interest in radical ideas and politics.
Notable contributors included cartoonist E. H. Murray,<ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=12 December 1918 |title=The Letters of Lionel Lynx. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72188543 |accessdate=16 April 2025 |newspaper=The Worker |location=Queensland, Australia |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=29 |issue=1441}}</ref> Annie Lane (nee Macquire, wife of William Lane), writing under the pen name ‘Lucinda Sharpe’, orator and unionist Gilbert Casey, Indigenous rights activist Carl Feilberg, poet and journalist Zora Cross, who worked for the paper for three years,<ref>{{Citation |author1=Adelaide, Debra |title=Australian women writers : a bibliographic guide |page=42 |year=1988 |publisher=Pandora |isbn=978-0-86358-148-9}}</ref> editor Gresley Lukin, writer and literary critic A. G. Stephens, agricultural writer, journalist and socialist, Alfred Yewen<ref>{{cite web |last=Campion |first=Edmund |date=1990 |title=Yewen, Alfred Gregory (1867–1923) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/yewen-alfred-gregory-9211 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214205629/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/yewen-alfred-gregory-9211 |archive-date=2017-02-14 |access-date=11 November 2018 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University}}</ref> and Henry Lawson (under pen name of ‘Joe Swallow') who contributed a column entitled ‘Country Crumbs’.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Raymond |title=History of Queensland |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780521545396 |pages=119}}</ref> Leading radical feminist intellectual Leontine Cooper wrote both short-stories and essays for it.<ref>https://Austlit data base www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/search2/page?query=leontine+cooper+boomerang&token=FNsxjKc&facetSampleSize=0&facetValuesSize=0&blendMax=y&count=50</ref> A second key Queensland based feminist Elizabeth Grace Neill, journalist and writer and later senior labour advocate, was on the staff.<ref>''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'', https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2n5/neill-elizabeth-grace</ref> A.G. Stephens also worked as a sub-editor, but left in 1891 to become editor and part proprietor of the ''Cairns Argus''. James Drake, future Attorney-General of Australia, was a shareholder, writer and joint editor.<ref>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Gibbney|first=H. J.|year=1981|id=A080361b|title=Drake, James George (1850–1941)|accessdate=19 October 2007}}</ref>
In 1891, Lane was approached to be the editor of ''The Worker'', a newspaper being established by the local labour unions. As a consequence, Lane sold ''The Boomerang'' to Lukin. Lukin published the newspaper until 9 April 1892 after the company was voluntarily wound up.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article187260485 |title=Letters to the Editor |date=11 November 1946|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=4 October 2017|location=Queensland, Australia|page=2 |via=National Library of Australia|archive-date=17 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117004153/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/187260485|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116969771|title=Odd Notes |date=15 September 1917|newspaper=The Mirror|accessdate=4 October 2017|issue=12|location=New South Wales, Australia|page=14|via=National Library of Australia|archive-date=17 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117004153/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116969771|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=The boomerang|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18289662|year=1887|publisher=W. & F. Pascoe Pty. Ltd|accessdate=4 October 2017|archive-date=17 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117004144/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18289662|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76639695|title=Local and General News |date=16 April 1892|newspaper=Warwick Argus|accessdate=4 October 2017|issue=2116|location=Queensland, Australia|volume=XXVII|page=2|via=National Library of Australia|archive-date=17 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117004154/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/76639695|url-status=live}}</ref>
No connection has been found between this newspaper and the 1894 Melbourne ''Boomerang'' weekly published by Edward Findley.
==Publications== A eulogy by Francis Adams for Danish Australian journalist and Indigenous rights activist Carl Feilberg was published in the journal after his death in late 1887,<ref>Eulogy by Francis Adams, in ''The Boomerang'' 19 November 1887, p.13.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2018/sep/21/wholesale-massacre-carl-feilberg-exposed-the-ugly-truth-of-the-australian-frontier| first= Paul| last=Daley| date=21 September 2018| title='Wholesale massacre': Carl Feilberg exposed the ugly truth of the Australian frontier| website= The Guardian}}</ref> followed by several of Feilberg's short stories.<ref name=works>{{cite web | title=Carl Feilberg: Works by | website=AustLit | url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A92334?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy&restrictToAgent=A92334 | access-date=4 November 2023}}</ref>
==Access== A hand-written index to ''The Boomerang'' is held by the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, and all issues (from No. 1 (Saturday, 19 November 1887) to No. 230 (Saturday, 9 April 1892)) are held in the Library, both on paper and microfilm.<ref>{{cite web | website=State Library of Queensland catalogue |title = The Boomerang| url=https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?&context=L&vid=61SLQ_INST:SLQ&search_scope=Everything&tab=All&docid=alma997665564702061 | access-date=4 November 2023}}</ref> The microform version is available for use at some other libraries.<ref>{{cite web | title= Boomerang (Brisbane, Qld.)| website=State Library of Victoria catalogue | url=https://find.slv.vic.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?&context=L&vid=61SLV_INST:SLV&docid=alma9910340733607636 | access-date=4 November 2023}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma997665564702061 ''The Boomerang''.] No. 1 (Nov. 19, 1887) - no. 59 (Dec. 29, 1888). [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/ State Library of Queensland]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boomerang, The}} Boomerang Category:1887 establishments in Australia Category:Newspapers established in 1887 Category:Defunct newspapers published in Queensland