The history of Australian newspapers started with the SYDNEY GAZETTE , the first newspaper of the country. It was launched on March 5, 1803. The newspaper declared:

Innumerable as the obstacles were which threatened to oppose our undertaking, yet we are happy to affirm that they were not insurmountable. The utility of PAPER in the COLONY, as it must open a source of solid information, will, we Hope, be universally seen and acknowledged. We have courted the assistance of the Ingenious and Intelligent... We open no channel to political discussion or personal animadversion. Information is our only purpose; that acknowledged we shall consider that we have done our only purpose; that acknowledged we shall consider that we have done our duty in an exertion to merit the Approbation of the Public and to ensure a liberal patronage to the SYDNEY GAZETTE.

It was an official publication, set up by Governor Philip King. Initially manuscripts and types were used. It lost its official status only when George Howe, the printer, was granted freedom from censorship.

Many newspapers began their publication, but most of them were short-lived. Among them the important newspapers were DERWENT STAR, HOBART ( 1810), and VAN DIEMEN'S GAZETTE(1814). The Hobart Town Gazette was started as a manuscript newsletter in 1816. It survived to become the TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

In Sydney , a second paper, the Australian was being published during 1824-28. The Monitor was its third newspaper.

The Sydney Morning Herald of 1831 was the most popular newspaper of that time. Its circulation was more than the combined circulation of its three rivals. The Herald went daily in 1840.

In the 1830s , the manuscript newsletter was still in existence. Copies were nailed to trees for public. One of them was the Western Australia Gazette. It was being produced in Fremantle in 1830, and each sheet was selling for three shillings. The Fremantle Journal was another such newspaper came out in 1832.

The first printing press arrived in Western Australia in 1832. It was used to produce the West Australian News. Another successful paper was the Perth Gazette of 1837. It later became the West Australian.

The first newspaper of Victoria was the handwritten Melbourne Advertiser of 1838. Its circulation was only thirty copies. It was published in printed form the following year. Two Port Phillip papers , the Gazette and the Herald, were launched soon. Moreton Bay Courier of Queensland appeared in June 1846. It was forerunner of the Brisbane Courier-Mail?.

Three other notable Australian newspapers were the Melbourne Argus of 1848, the Melbourne Herald of 1849, and the Age of 1854. The Melbourne Argus was published under the editorship of Edward Wilson. David Symes' the Age was considered important for various reasons.