Chinese Australian Herald 廣益華報

The Chinese Australian Herald 廣益華報 was the first major Chinese language Newspaper in Australia.

The Chinese Australian Herald 廣益華報 (Guangyi huabao) was the first major Chinese language newspaper in Australia. Published in Sydney, it first appeared on 1 September 1894. The Chinese Australian Herald was founded and run by G.A. Down, J.A. Philip and Sun Johnson (孫俊臣 Sun Junchen), a bilingual Chinese intellectual who was the newspaper’s editor (another Chinese editor had been involved in establishing the paper, but he died in 1896). The Chinese Australian Herald was published every Saturday, had a circulation of up to 1,000 and was distributed throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. The final issue of the Chinese Australian Herald was published on 25 August 1923.

The Chinese Australian Herald

Image Courtesy of: Trove

The full run of nearly 1500 issues of the Chinese Australian Herald are digitised and available through Trove. The newspaper published editorials, Australian and overseas news, and advertisements, many of which were for European-run businesses in Sydney. Drawings and photographs were used to illustrate both news stories and advertisements.

Source: Bagnall, K (2015) Early Chinese Newspapers in Australia: Trove Presents a New Perspective on Australian History, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, Vol 7, 2014-15, pp.160-164