Australian Newspaper Plan
Search and Rescue Campaign
Preserving for Permanent Access
What is the Search and Rescue campaign?
In early 2008, the Search and Rescue Campaign was launched by the Australian Newspaper
Plan (ANPlan) libraries to:
 recruit the help of the public in finding newspapers which are missing from the collections of the ANPlan libraries;
 raise public awareness of the role of libraries in collecting, preserving and providing access to Australian newspapers.
Conceived by the National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) Public Programs and
Communications Working Group (PPCWG), the Search and Rescue campaign has been a joint publicity campaign of the ANPlan libraries.
Further information about the campaign
In support of the campaign, the Communications and Marketing Branch of the National
Library of Australia (NLA) has produced media resources .
On 12 March 2008, the Tasmanian Minister for Education and Skills, David Bartlett, launched the ANPlan Search and Rescue campaign in Tasmania.
A list of newspapers from all states and territories which are known to be missing is available on the NLA’s ANPlan website .

Search and Rescue: The Australian Newspaper Plan , Gateways, April 2008.

Wanted: Queensland’s Missing Newspapers

Australian Newspapers—Searched and Found!
, Gateways, June 2009
The Search and Rescue campaign has resulted in a very high level of interest from both the media and the public. Media coverage of the Search and Rescue campaign in print, radio, television and the Internet, has been extensive.
There have been many enquiries and offers of assistance with newspapers from members of the public. The campaign is demonstrating that the public are willing to work with libraries to ensure ongoing access to newspapers. Many have also contacted the libraries to offer significant non-newspaper material – ephemera, monographs and magazines.
A significant proportion of newspapers found to date were not previously known to exist. www.nla.gov.au
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Australian Newspaper Plan
Search and Rescue Campaign
What newspapers have been found so far?
VIC Spring Creek Advertiser and
Rodney Standard (1868-9)
TAS
TAS
The examiner: north-west (1 Jan
1968 - 30 Apr 1969)
This newspaper from the central Victoria region published in the late 1860s has been donated to the State Library of Victoria
(SLV). This newspaper was known to have existed in the 1860s but no copies of it had ever been sighted by Library staff or by leading historians of Victorian newspapers. The volume covering 1868-69 was found in the archives of a local newspaper office in Heathcote.
Five bound volumes of this newspaper have been found and acquired by the State
Library of Tasmania (SLT). It was not previously known that this edition existed.
TAS
Weekly Courier ((17 Jul 1913 and 29 Oct 1914))
Butterfly (Nov 1869; Apr-Aug
1870)
Colonial Record (1839)
Colonial Times (1825-1857)
Cornwell Chronicle (1935-1845;
1847-1880)
Emu Bay Times and North West
& West Coast Advocate (1898-
1899)
Hobart Town Courier (1827-
1859)
Illustrated Tasmanian Mail
(1921-1935)
In 2008 the Archives Office of Tasmania
(AOT) combined with the Heritage
Collections section of the State Library of
Tasmania to form the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO). As a consequence of this merger, a number of titles formerly on the 'missing' list that were in AOT are to be incorporated into the one Newspaper collection in TAHO.
This is a transitional process.
QLD
Monitor (1894-1920)
Morning Star (1891-1894)
North Western Advocate
(Devonport) and the Emu Bay
Times (Burnie) Tasmania (1900-
1911)
Tasmanian (Oct-Dec 1834)
Weekly Courier (1901-1935)
Barcoo Independent (15 Nov
1902; 3 Apr 1906; 12 Oct 1907;
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QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
QLD
Australian Newspaper Plan
Search and Rescue Campaign
15 Oct 1910; 22 Oct 1910; 23
Dec 1916; 9 Oct 1926)
Daily Record Rockhampton (9
May 1907)
Warwick Daily News (19 Jun
1914; 4 Dec 1945)
Longreach Leader (3 Jan - 5 Dec
1930 & Sep 1955)
Gympie Times (25 Apr 1992; 2
May 1992; 13 Feb 1992; 19 Dec
1995; 15 Apr 2005)
Barfly
Cassowary Times
Courier Mail (15 Aug 1945)
Mackay MidWeek (14 Nov
1984-23 Dec 1986)
Marlin Coast Gazette
Muckay Mockery (1966-1999)
Son of Barfly
Suburbia (29 Apr 1941)
Norwester: A monthly budget of
sense and humour (May 1926)
Donated from Longreach Shire Council
Library.
Donated by Gympie Library
This newspaper was previously unknown to exist. Copies of this newspaper were found rolled up inside the brick wall of an old building in Townsville which was being renovated. The rolls were labeled with the names of businesses to which the newspapers were meant to be delivered.
One was labeled "Terminus Hotel,
Ingham", and the other "Royal Oak Hotel,
Townsville". It is possible that these are the only surviving issues. Following their arrival at State Library, the newspapers were carefully unrolled by the library's
Conservation staff, with the result that they can now be read. The Norwester vol. 1 no.
2, May 1926 is 32 pages long and the size of a magazine. It contains Humour; Trade and Progress; Motors and Motoring; Stamp
Collecting; Children's Page; Digger Doings;
Ladies Page; Editor's Page; Clippings from here, there and everywhere; Cartoons; www.nla.gov.au
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Australian Newspaper Plan
Search and Rescue Campaign
WA
NT
NSW
NSW
NSW
SA
ACT/
NSW
Kanowna Democrat (1896)
Army News (1941-1946)
Vema (Greek newspaper; 1971-
1990)
Wagga Wagga progress weekly
(Vol. 1, no. 7; May 22, 1969)
Sugar valley community news
(Mar. 1992-Mar. 1996)
Western Weekly News (April-
Oct 1902)
Braidwood dispatch and mining
journal (1858-1860)
Illustrations; etc.
Issues missing from Australian libraries’ collections were borrowed from the
Australian War Memorial for microfilming
Borrowed for microfilming by the State
Library of NSW (SLNSW)
Five issues and one part issue donated to the State Library of South Australia (SLSA)
Donated to the NLA
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