In celebration of the community project, and by way of saying thank you to the donors that made it happen, a regular column based on content from those early editions will be printed in our pages.
We start with Saturday, August 15, 1863.
The digitisation of volumes from 1863 to 1864 was sponsored by Bill Hetherington.
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Early editions of the newspaper we now know as the Deniliquin Pastoral Times were printed under the masthead Pastoral Times and Echuca Moama Chronicle.
It was promoted as the “weekly journal for the Murray, Edward, Billabong, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan and Darling districts” and cost one shilling to purchase.
The Pastoral Times was then a weekly newspaper published each Saturday and dispatched by the Southern and Northern Mails.
You could subscribe to the edition for 10 shillings per quarter, or £2 a year.
August 15, 1863 was volume six of the newspaper, and in those days the front page was dedicated to a classifieds-style selection of ads and notices.
Under the sub-heading of public institutions, the Bank of Victoria announced it would be opening a branch in Echuca “on Wednesday, the 26th instant, for the transaction of general banking business under the management of Mr W Meudell”.
Under the sub-heading of business announcement, Harry Lee advised he had just received a large supply of drapery, clothing provisions, horse-feed and general stores “which he has purchased for cash, at very low prices, and is not selling cheaper than any other house in the district”.
Harry’s Lee’s store was based in north Deniliquin, where he also offered “good accommodation for tenants”.
His ad also promised he would offer “the highest price given for wool, hides, sheepskins and tallow”.
On page two we find the Deniliquin Police Court reports.
Cases on Tuesday, August 11 were held before Messers Lockart and Landale, and were detailed as follows:
“J Writchard, for being drunk and disorderly, was fined 10s.
“There being only two Justices present with the granting of an auctioneer’s licence to Mr Ryan, which was opposed, was postponed.
“A publican’s and billiard licence was granted to Mr James Iron.
“An application by Mr Jago, for a hawker’s licence, was refused on the ground that the court then sitting was not the first ordinary court held in the month.”
On the agricultural front, a disease know as ‘The Scab’ was plaguing the district.
“The Government have stated that the aggregate number of sheep destroyed under the Scab Act since the 20th November 1862, was 26,752, of the aggregate value of £5,136 18s,” one report on scab said.
Another report on the ‘Trial of scab specifics’ reported the trial, under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture “has not been so satisfactory as could nave been wished”.
“Of the seven assumed specifics under trial not one has proved the perfect cure,” the report said.
“Even those that are reported of most favorably have been only partially successful in subduing the disease, but under the circumstances, the result is no other than might have been anticipated.
“It was the intention of the Board to keep each lot separate after dipping, and arrangements in the way of a separate shed room, and paddocks had been provided by Mr Matson, the Secretary of the Board, to carry out the proposed isolation, so that each specific might have been tested on its own merits.
“However, it appears that some of the inventors of these curative preparations, confident of the qualities of their inventions, volunteered that their lots should run with others, no matter how scabby they might be; and as daring is contagious, it is not surprising that the rest followed suit, so that ultimately the whole flock was again run together.
“To this fact we trace the general want of success that has attended the trial in question.”
The digitisation project is being led by the Deniliquin Genealogy Society with support from the Echuca-Moama Family History Group, Deniliquin & District Historical Society, National Library of Australia, State Library of NSW, Deniliquin Pastoral Times, Edward River Council and Trove.
You can search volumes of the local paper online at trove.nla.gov.au.
If you need any assistance accessing Trove, Deniliquin Geneaology Society Society members can help you between 10am and 3pm each Friday at Edward River Library. Library staff can also assist you in accessing Trove.
