Port Phillip Gazette
The Port Phillip Gazette was the second newspaper published in Melbourne, in the then Port Phillip District and what is now Victoria, Australia. It was first published by Thomas Strode and George Arden in 1838. The title was revived for a short-lived Melbourne literary magazine in 1952. History. The first issue of the "Port Phillip Gazette", a four-page weekly, appeared on 27 October 1838. From 1 January 1840, it was published bi-weekly, and in 1851, it became a daily newspaper. George Arden became the sole proprietor in 1841 but lost it to his creditors  in 1842. It was later edited and published by Thomas McCombie, who became editor and part proprietor in 1844. It became a daily as the "Times" in about March 1851, with William Kerr as editor. Kerr had previously been editor of the "Port Phillip Herald" (1840–41) and the "Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser" (1841–51) newspapers. The "Times" ceased publication on 30 June 1851. The "Gazette" introduced copperplate printing to Victoria in 1839. The introduction of lithography in Victoria in 1840 is also attributed to the "Gazette". Revival. The title "Port Phillip Gazette", deliberately archaic and with a correspondingly vintage  copperplate-style masthead, was revived for a literary quarterly in 1952. Edited by Desmond ('Des') Fennessy, it was published by Rising Sun Press, and came out in six 64-page issues over 1952-6, with a cover price of 2/6d. Tim Burstall mentions in early 1954 that Fennessy ‘was proud of it in a quiet sort of way.’ The editor promoted as policy that; "We do not intend to publish the sort of stuff we think you want to read. We will publish what we want to read ourselves and can't find elsewhere." It attracted positive attention, though with  some conservative detractors. Its style was described in the Melbourne "Age" in 1954 as "a sensible, sophisticated tone, still a trifle imitative of the "New Yorker" but with an accent that is unmistakably Australian," while "The Sun" recommended it as "sleekly modern in its style, which is modelled without apology on that of "The New Yorker"'s notes of metropolitan life The writing is amusing, provoking, intelligent and at times almost brilliant. The magazine adopts no pretentious poses, grinds no political axes, and is unselfconciously Australian in its flavor. There are some refreshing sections of literary, art; theatrical and film  criticism." The fifth issue contained a short story by David Martin, an article by Gordon Gow on television in the United Kingdom (before it had been introduced in Australia), a Vincent Buckley critique of some "Bulletin" poets, some notes on America under the heading "Behind the Cellophane Curtain," by Neil Clerehan, "Capital Punishment", dealing with affairs in Canberra, particularly the Senator Kennelly incident in the Labor party, and the supposedly dark sources of some A.L.P. funds and telephone "tapping," alongside reviews of books, films, plays and art exhibitions.   Australian poet Kenneth Slessor provides an insight into the contents of Vol . 2, No. 1: "It is gratifying to find that this ominously intelligent little Australian quarterly, with its occasional reminder of "The New Yorker" (which it resembles on the scale of a Peruvian shrunken head), has survived its first year, a period during which most of its kind in Australia generally expire. The current issue, on the contrary, is very much alive, with short stories, humor, critical reviews of paintings, plays, books and films, and a ferocious attack on contemporary values in Australian poetry."The magazine offered contributors a fair rate at a time when other such publications were expecting them  gratis, or at 10/6 per 1000 words. J. P. (Jack) McKinney served his apprenticeship in journalism on the “Port Phillip Gazette,” and later worked on the Melbourne “Herald,” subsequently freelancing for the next 35 years The last number of the "Port Phillip Gazette" quarterly was that of Autumn 1956.