First Melbourne Newspaper Facsimile Edition

Fawkner, John Pascoe., The Melbourne Advertiser Port Phillip Australia, No.1, Written for, and Published by, John P Fawkner, and dated January 1st 1838, Lithographed., The first number of the first Melbourne newspaper, here reproduced in a scarce nineteenth-century facsimile edition., [Melbourne: Peter Alcock and George Robertson, 1869.], Not surprisingly, copies of the original issues are of the utmost scarcity, accordingly, this rare facsimile edition was printed in 1869 by Peter Alcock and sold by Robertson as a tribute to Fawkner, the pioneering publisher of the Port Phillip district. Fawkner, who some years previously had been an innkeeper in Van Diemen's Land, by all impressions was a man of indefatigable industry and enthusiasm. He perceived the need for a circular newspaper in the newly established colony and not easily discouraged by the lack of moveable type, press and a printer to work it, Fawkner proceeded nonetheless with handwritten bulletins. Differences in the script between the handful of extant copies indicate that Fawkner had an assistant to help him with this task., Ferguson notes that numbers 1-9 of The Melbourne Advertiser of January and February 1838 were handwritten, and that numbers 10-17 were typeset. It was at that stage that the publication was suppressed by Captain Lonsdale 'as Fawkner had not complied with the provisions of the Newspaper Act which required him to forward recognisances and swear an affidavit in Sydney.