The Barrier Truth started life in early 1898 as a weekly one-page news sheet, printed in Adelaide. This changed on September 10, in that same year, when it became an eight-page newspaper, printed locally in Broken Hill by Thomas Nicholls.
In the centre of today’s edition, you’ll find a reproduction of that first newspaper from 125 years ago, which we’ve been able to create from files held at the National Library of Australia. It tells the stories of a young town, full of energy and opportunity, growing so quickly that it hadn’t yet established formal street addresses – businesses advertising their wares had to describe their location as being two doors down from the corner or across from a well-known pub.
Now owned by the members of unions in the Barrier Industrial Council, even back then it described itself as a Labor Weekly, read by hundreds who subscribe to no other journal. The Barrier Truth, as it’s become known again in recent years, has been through many changes and incarnations but we’re still here, serving the community of Broken Hill, when many other regional newspapers around Australia can no longer say the same.
To those who have supported us for many years and to our many new subscribers, we say thank you.
