GNOWANGERUP STAR NEWSPAPER

HOT METAL ENDS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
From Perth, David Marsh writes

An 88-year era in Western Australian newspapers ended with the closure of the Gnowangerup Star, which published its last edition on Thursday, 26 June 2003. The paper, the last family owned regional newspaper in WA and the only newspaper in the State that was still being produced by hot metal, served the small town of Gnowangerup, 356km south-east of Perth, and its district since 1915. The paper’s owner, Margaret Walker, 81, attributed the Star’s closure to increasing overheads and dwindling local support for their business. Another reason was the decision several years ago not to adopt new technology to compete with the less expensive desktop printing of sheep stud programs, sporting fixtures and business stationery.

THE GNOWANGERUP STAR OFFICE          #1

OWNER MARGARET WALKER THE GNOWANGERUP STAR          #2
 

The paper was started by Augustine Walker who landed in Esperance (on a boat) from South Australia, tossed his swag on a friendly teamsters wagon and set out northwards. On arrival in Norseman he found work with the local printer, which led to a apprenticeship in the trade. After Norseman he worked at York, Greenbushes and in Narrogin under E.S Hall of the 'Observer'.
A printer by trade, he responded to interest shown by the communities of Gnowangerup and Ravensthorpe, who wanted someone to start a newspaper in their towns. He decided to move to Gnowangerup and transported a printing press, which was built in 1872. Augustine Walker moved intoTallent's old butchers shop. The Gnowangerup Star and Tambellup-Ongerup Gazette was launched with its first issue on 21 August 1915. It sold for a price equivalent to about half the price of a loaf of bread.  The town already had a newspaper – the Gnowangerup Times, an off-shoot of Katanning’s Great Southern Herald, which had begun in 1912. However, the Times folded in March 1918. The Star changed its name to the Gnowangerup Star, with its first edition of the new masthead published on 31 January 1942. The Star began with a circulation of 150 in 1915 and rose to a peak of 1,000 in the mid-1970's, but in recent years its circulation decreased to between 600 and 800.

Augustine Walker’s son, Isaac, who was generally called Zic, was born in 1914 and started working at his father’s newspaper in 1930, before taking over as editor in 1944, a position he held until his death in 1998. Isaac and Margaret married in 1941 and became joint proprietors of the Star three years later. They had two sons, Rod and Bill. Bill worked for the Star for 33 years, a few years longer than Rod, who completed his printing apprenticeship on the newspaper.

Rod did most of the reporting and took all of the photographs. Bill and Isaac printed the paper. Margaret Walker was the Star’s finance controller until she had her second hip replacement in 1994. “Margaret is the brains of the operation,” Bill Walker said in an interview in 1996. “She did the books and still provides the commonsense.”

In contrast to most newspapers, country and city, from the newspaper’s inception the Walkers have never covered local court cases. Mrs Walker said: “I got into trouble many years ago when we had a police officer here who wanted us to put all the court cases in the paper. I said 'no’, because the community is too small. Every week they were having drunk and disorderly charges, and they were mainly Aborigines. I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business if someone is in court for speeding, or something like that. They have to pay their penalty. In a small town it’s only food for gossip. There is enough dobbers that go around now with things. If it’s anything worthwhile it goes before a Magistrate and that’s reported in the [Great Southern] Herald [at Katanning] or the Albany Advertiser. But I don’t believe in seeing a lot of mothers and fathers distressed over their children. A lot of people like something to happen to someone else, as long as it’s not them. It gives them a topic of conversation.”

Mrs Walker said that the Star’s circulation had begun to decline during the recession in the early 1980's. “During the recession people started leaving the district,” she said. “In the Jerramungup land settlement, the average farm was about 3,000 acres. Over the years those farmers found they couldn’t make a living and they had growing families with nowhere to go, so they sold out to their neighbour. Then he found he couldn’t work on 6,000 acres, so he sold out to a bigger one. The population fell in half, though in Gnowangerup the population stabilised.”

The Gnowangerup Star was published every Thursday. As soon as one issue was printed, it was time to start on the following week’s paper. In the 1996 interview, Zic Walker said: It takes us a week to print one issue. We start on the next paper as soon as we finish the last issue. The deadline for editorial is Tuesday afternoons, though advertisements will be accepted later. We close the paper on Wednesday morning, because our circulation goes down as far as Bremer Bay, which is 120 miles away. It arrives on road transport. If we miss the mail by five minutes on Wednesday, it doesn’t get down to Bremer Bay until the next mail run - could be next Tuesday. We can post a paper on Wednesday at dinner time and a chap in Perth can read it on Thursday.
 

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THE GNOWANGERUP STAR          #3
 

 THE GNOWANGERUP STAR          #4
 

THE GNOWANGERUP STAR          #5
 

 THE GNOWANGERUP STAR          #6
 

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The Gnowangerup Star was housed in the same building that it occupied when it was established 88 years ago. But the building has grown considerably – not in width, because it’s on a narrow block – but in depth. “We used to be in one room,” Zic said. “But as the paper’s grown, we’ve built one building onto a building and onto another building. It’s only 14 links wide, but is the full length of the block. We are restricted by width. Once we put the wrong date on the paper. We went through every paper and hand-stamped them again . . . again with the wrong date.”

In the last few years, Mrs Walker operated the front desk, telephone, and the fax machine (the most advanced piece of technology in the office). “I sit here all day, receive the faxes and take them to Bill,” she said. “He does the printing and brings it back to me for proofing.” Bill then set the copy on a 1930's linotype machine, writes headlines and printed up to 800 copies, each usually consisting of eight pages, on a flatbed press designed in 1876.

The Star won several awards over the years, including a Certificate of Appreciation from "Gnowangerup Sporting Clubs” (September 1995), commendation from the Country Press Association for “Outstanding contribution to community advancement” (August 1993) and the award as Western Australia’s most improved country newspaper (1970).
 

Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.

References:                 Article:      David Marsh
                                                 Glen Oliver
                                                 Interview of Issc (Zic) Walker with J. A. Genoni.

                                  Image:     

Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2023