page_title: Bulletin Building, Rockhampton
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bulletin Building, Rockhampton / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles Hardie Buzacott,
context_page_description: Bulletin Building is a heritage-listed printing house at 162-164 Quay Street, Rockhampton, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Roy Chipps and built in 1926 by R Cousins & Company. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 December 2005.
context_section_description: Constructed in 1926, the Bulletin Building was built by R Cousins & Company, to a design by prominent Rockhampton architect, Roy Chipps. A purpose-built newspaper office, the Bulletin Building was constructed when an earlier building on site was demolished. Established in 1861, The Morning Bulletin remains as Rockhampton's oldest newspaper.
  The Morning Bulletin earned a dominating position among the city's press is largely due to a long line of distinguished editors beginning with its founder William Hitchcock Buzacott and his brother, Charles Hardie Buzacott between 1861-1880. From 1880 and 1911, William McIlwraith and John Blair were the proprietors of the newspaper. In 1911, McIlwraith and Blair were followed by three generations of the Dunn family company, who carried the Bulletin into the modern age and the subsequent competition of electronic media.
  Since 1861 the Bulletin's only name changes has been the dropping of "Northern Queensland Advertiser" from the title and in 1873 its emergence as the Morning Bulletin.
  The original home of The Morning Bulletin was in Quay Street near the Customs House in a timber building owned by John Ward. On 14 August 1862 the Bulletin office burnt down and the presses destroyed. Following the destruction of the first building by fire, the office of The Morning Bulletin was moved to a two-storeyed masonry building in Denham Street.
  The popularity of The Morning Bulletin was such that, from 1873, it began the new year as a daily newspaper. It was the first daily paper, outside of Brisbane, issued in Queensland.
  Following the death of WH Buzacott in 1880, William McIlwraith became the owner of the Morning Bulletin. In 1883, McIlwraith was joined in partnership by John Blair.
  It was during McIlwraith's ownership, in the early 1880s when, with increases in the local population and the circulation of the paper, the Denham Street building became too small to house the growing staff. At this time, the office was moved to a building in East Street. It was from this office in East Street that a larger office in Quay Street was planned in the mid-1920s.
  On 20 December 1910, John Blair died suddenly in Rockhampton. By 11 March 1911, a new era had begun for The Morning Bulletin, following Andrew Dunn Snr's purchase of the newspaper form William McIlwraith. Dunn's son, also Andrew, had joined The Morning Bulletin in 1905. Dunn's employment with the newspaper began a long association which was to last 43 years. Dunn Jnr took over as Managing-Editor of the Morning Bulletin following his father's purchase of the newspaper in 1911.
  Dunn is credited with making The Morning Bulletin and The Capricornian more modern in the sense that there was provided to the reader more popular articles and after several years, a series of articles by staff members using pseudonyms.
  It was during the Dunn family's ownership of The Morning Bulletin that new offices were constructed along Quay Street. The new address of The Morning Bulletin became 162-164 Quay Street from 1927.
  The architect commissioned to design the new building for The Morning Bulletin was Roy Chipps. Chipps trained as an architect in New South Wales, moving to Brisbane in 1917 to commence an architectural practice, forming a partnership with CH Griffin from 1919-22. In 1923, following a move to Rockhampton, Chipps established a thriving practice which operated until 1936, when he was joined in partnership by WC Nichols. Chipps became a non-resident partner in the practice until it dissolved in 1939. The Chipps designed building remains as the office of The Morning Bulletin.
  Capricornia Newspapers Pty Ltd, an Australian Provincial Newspapers subsidiary purchased the property in December 1976.
  Australian Provincial Newspapers is a media company that consists of three divisions - Newspaper, Outdoor Advertising and Radio. The Newspaper division publishes more than 65 titles in northern New South Wales and south and central Queensland. Australian Provincial Newspapers owns a number of newspapers from Mackay to Coffs Harbour along the eastern coastline, an
caption: Charles Hardie Buzacott, 1879
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