Would anyone know when the Wyong Advocate started please? I am interested in the years 1889 to abt. 1937. I also suppose it is only available to look at in NSW? I ask this because I live in Caloundra Qld. but I would be most interested to find out where it is available to read on film I presume. Cheers Sally Flynn

Hello Sally, You asked if anyone knew when the Wyong Advocate newspaper began. The first year you are interested in, l889, is far too early, for no township as such existed then on the present site of Wyong. The advent of the Great Northern Line railway between Homebush (Sydney) and Waratah (Newcastle) at that very period initiated more settlement around the stations. In 1988, the year before he died, the late Wyong historian Edward STINSON, who was a member of a pioneering family of Yarramalong, gave me some details of the early newspapers. He said that "Wyong's first newspaper was 'The Wyong District Record' of around 1908. The office was in the Wyong Coffee Palace which was destroyed by fire about 1913 at the corner of the present Pacific Hwy and Church Street. "About 1914 someone established 'The Wyong Herald' which was of similar size to 'The Sydney Morning Herald' and this was published until about 1920. "It was around the latter date that L.C. (Lyall) REEVES established 'The Wyong Advocate', a paper which continued into modern times [some slight name changes?]. "In the 1920s, R.B. TAYLOR subdivided his extensive land at The Entrance, Tuggerah Lakes, a move which resulted in the rapid expansion of the little town. This also led to Mr REEVES bringing out another paper about 1932, called 'The Entrance Guardian' which concentrated on The Entrance township itself, and which went under the same ownership as 'The Wyong Advocate'. "For some years in the 1930s, a small paper named 'The Wyong Mirror' was published, and at the same time a paper started at Morisset, called 'The Morisset Times'...." [ends] Perhaps some Listers can add to these details. All newspapers held by Mr STINSON at the time of his death went to the State Library of NSW for copying onto microfilm. Gosford City Library holds copies of this film for public access, however it must be stressed that the issues are fragmented in date, and overall are very limited in number. Possibly a copy of the mf is also held by Wyong Museum and Historical Society. I have often thought that if anyone owns odd copies of old district newspapers, it would be doing the public a favour if they could be donated to local archives, or lent for copying if not already on mf. 'The Gosford Times' newspaper commenced publication in 1885 as an advertising medium, and continued until 1962 until incorporated in 'The Central Coast Express'. Only a few copies of the Times prior to 1897 are held by the State Library of NSW and Gosford City Library on microfilm, but the ensuing years are generally available except for several important exceptions (I think 1908 is missing altogether, and papers from around the Second World War period were of such poor quality paper than many of the issues went dark brown and disintegrated into acidic flakes in storage). What issues have survived from the teens of the 20th century have large gaps in some years. Many issues were destroyed in a fire long ago in Gosford. You would need to check with the State or Gosford library to see if the years you want are extant. 'The Gosford Times' covered a wide area of Brisbane Water district and included Woy Woy Peninsula, the ocean beaches and hills areas as well as some news of Wyong etc (I think here of the annual Pioneer Dinners reports from 1915 onward - full of local history). Later, the Wyong papers covered the settlements around that area thoroughly, including Tuggerah Lakes. For anyone vitally interested in events prior to any of these local papers being established, it is not a bad idea to check out microfilmed files in the State Library of NSW of 'The Sydney Mail', ' Town and Country Journal', and 'The Maitland Mercury' - the last two (available on mf at Gosford) often being very productive. Look for items under the sub-headings 'Brisbane Water Notes' or 'Gosford Notes'. Ship launchings and wrecks will often be found in the daily Shipping Notes in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' - and these were copied in 'The Maitland Mercury' the following day. The Shipping Notes in early issues occasionally listed ship passengers by name on their arrival in Port Jackson. Looking for things can take up a great amount of time in scouring each issue around the date you have in mind - and sometimes you will find that the information you want was not published for many weeks after the particular event you have in mind (this fact leads to some of those jubilant shouts of "Eureka!" heard sometimes in libraries). Hope this will be of some help. Best wishes, Gwen