Text Source: Hoch, Isabel. 2008. Pages 21, 31 Wikipedia Between the Bougainvilleas. 2004. Page 12
The newspaper was initially published under the name The Western Champion from 1879 to 1891 by J. Monahan and William Henry Campbell. It started life in Blackall on 21 June 1870, financed by Mr Monahan, a stock and station agent in Blackall, and for the first few months the ‘Champion’ was published under the ownership of Monahan and Co.
The proprietors of the Western Champion newspaper moved their plant from Blackall in 1887 when it became clear Barcaldine would become a centre for the west. The editor, William Campbell was an outspoken and influential man, and he changed his loyalty to Barcaldine with the move. Initially the paper operated from rented premises then in 1890 land was purchased and a building constructed for the steam driven machinery. In 1892, a more attractive paper replaced the old type of paper (a single sheet folded in four).
A Ladies’ Column was included in the Champion in 1904, with fashion notes, recipes and household hints – a sign of the changing times.
nla.news-page7509988 Ladies’ Column WC 26Dec1904
In 1906 the newspaper proprietors installed an oil engine at its printing works after bore water had corroded its steam engine bought from Smellie and Co. at the Brisbane Exhibition in 1890. The new Wilson motor ran on benzine and it too was purchased at the Brisbane Exhibition. The Wilson engine served the newspaper until 1920 when it began to back fire at alarming intervals and frighten passers-by and was supplanted by a General Electric motor.
From 1892 to 1922 the newspaper was published by William Henry Campbell, Charles John James and Frederic Robert James under the name The Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts, and then under the name The Western Champion from 1922 to 1937 by William Henry Campbell, Charles John James and Frederic Robert James.
After its originator, W. M. Campbell died in 1919, the business was carried on by the James brothers, C. J. and F. R., and their respective sons. F. R. James died in July 1926 and his obituary stated,
The Champion will miss Mr. Fred, a quiet scholarly man who died in harness.
C. J. James died in 1930 and both the younger men within the next five years. Their widows decided to offer the business for sale but only the equipment found buyers. It was divided between the Longreach Leader, the Blackall Barcoo Independent, and the Emerald Chronicle.
The newspaper ceased publication in 1937 and Barcaldine has a valuable historical record preserved in bound copies from 1892 to 1932.
The Central Queensland Herald of 25 February 1937 had this report on the cessation of the Champion:
‘WESTERN CHAMPION’
Cessation of Publication
It is with deep regret I have to chronicle the closing of ‘The Western Champion,’ which step was found necessary owing to a combination of circumstances. For very many years the ‘ Champion’ has been a force in the life of Western Queensland. It was on June 21, 1870, that the journal was launched on the troubled sea of public opinion. Notwithstanding the stormy weather occasioned by the conflicting winds of political opinion, and the hidden reefs of carping criticism, the little vessel returned safely to port. The proprietors were full of faith, never doubted, and were rewarded in a manner which left no regrets for the past. The first move for the birth of ‘The Western Champion’ was in Cooktown at the end of 1878, when the late Hon. W H. Campbell arrived there as a representative of Melbourne papers to write up the New Guinea gold discovery. He was also to make pen and pencil sketches for ‘The Sketch/’ Melbourne. But when he reached Cooktown the bubble had burst, like others before it. He then went to the Lower Palmer caught the fever, and nearly died. Recovering from the sickness, he returned to Cooktown, and while awaiting instructions from Melbourne he assisted at the ‘Herald ‘ where the late Mr C. J. James was employed. One evening Mr Campbell and Mr James were alone and the former gentleman spoke in glowing terms of the possibilities for a successful paper in Far Western Queensland, with Blackall as its headquarters. Mr James agreed to the scheme. In those days many papers were started by public subscription, and Mr Campbell hoped to promote the ‘Champion’ on similar lines. He left for Blackall to do the preliminary canvassing, and as a means of paving the way for the publication of a newspaper the partners issued and posted the following circular to everybody on the electoral roll and to the managers of all stations over an area of 1000 miles of Blackall:
Prospectus of ‘The Western Champion,’ Blackall and Tambo’ Chronicle,’ Springsure, Aramac, and Charleville ‘Advertiser.’
The projectors of the above-mentioned journal appeal to the squatters and business people of the Mitchell district to cooperate in the establishment of a thoroughly representative and conservative newspaper. The growing importance of the western towns demands the introduction of a local press, in which the requirements of the district may be advocated, its general interests furthered, its illimitable resources developed, and emigration to the far vest, with all its accompanying advantages to previously settled districts, may be encouraged and stimulated. There is a great future for Western Queensland, and should our efforts in endeavouring to establish a local newspaper meet with that assistance which we confidently anticipate, our utmost energies shall be exerted on behalf of the conservative and pastoral interests of the great and important district it will be our privilege to represent. The very great expense attending the publication of a journal so far distant from the metropolis, and our disinclination to increase the rate of subscription and advertising above the ordinary scale adopted by Queensland newspapers, renders it necessary for us to request the aid of a bonus on the undertaking. This being guaranteed, we shall at once transmit our type and presses to Blackall, and commence publication of ‘The Western Champion.’
When Mr Campbell did arrive in Blackall he found that the ‘subsidy’ idea was a failure, realising only £96, and for some of that the partners had to give subscriptions and advertising. Eventually Mr Monahan, a stock and station agent in Blackall, financed the scheme, and for the first few months the ‘Champion’ was published under the ownership of Monahan and Co. To show the trials of launching a newspaper in those days in a Western Queensland town I quote from the late Mr C J. James’s diary:
‘I must devote some little space in dealing with the inauguration of a journal I helped to found on June 21, 1870, and am still in connexion with (April 17, 1921 — 42 years). What a long period, and how much has happened during that time. I shall deal briefly with the first six months of our existence as journalists. It was a period of real hard graft; has it ever been otherwise with me? Morning after arrival in Blackall I actually was inclined to be homesick, but when I started in the office at 8.30 a.m. I had plenty to take up my attention. My first job was to make large and small first job was to make large and small rollers and adjust the press. It was announced ‘The Western Champion’ would be published on Saturday morning, June 21, so a time of rush commenced. On Wednesday morning the diary read: ‘Feel horribly dissatisfied— homesick, I think. I should not be so, as I am likely to be very comfortable here. We worked up to 10 o’clock every night, and immediately after breakfast in the mornings.’ June 20th: ‘After a most strenuous day I got the last forms on the press by 11 o’clock and I put the first paper on the Tympan and ran it in, while Mr Monahan, senior of the firm, pulled the lever. I folded the copy carefully and presented it to Mr Monahan amid the cheers of the assembled multitude — about 50 of the leading townspeople. We then liquored up — champagne was drunk, speechifying, etc. Thus was the ‘Champion’ launched. We did 500 copies, and a second edition of 140 was run off on Monday. As money was needed the subscription was fixed at ‘The Champion a Year for a Note,’ a rate which held good until January 1, 1921, when the great increase in cost of paper and production generally compelled an increase to 22s. 6d. per annum. In 1879 the price of single copies was the same as the price of drinks — 1s., — but when drinks were reduced to 6d. the ‘Champion’ followed suit, and it was ample for a 4-page demy, although solidly set.”
Early in 1887 the plant was transferred to the new El Dorado — Barcaldine. Immediately the opening of the line to Barcaldine became an accomplished fact the great ‘rush ‘ set in, and the ‘ Champion ‘ joined in, the proprietors purchasing a wooden building from the late Mr A. H. Parnell. Business began to improve immediately, and in March of the same year there was a two-page supplement added to the size. The list of subscribers continued to increase, and in 1890 a super-royal folio wharfdale machine was installed. This machine was capable of printing four pages at a time whereas the old press printed only one. Then came the 1891 strike. Mr Campbell, the editor, was a man of definite opinions and his writings were vitriolic. He did not spare the unionists, and became the most popular man in the west with the strikers. The old union office was only 14 ft away from the ‘Champion ‘ machine room, and while the strike leaders were in conference next door the press would be running off hundreds of copies opposing their every action. As time went on the old wooden building was replaced by a more modern structure. The three original partners lived to see the old slush lamps and candles discarded for electricity and a lintoype installed. They blazed the track in all matters of progress to the district for over 40 years. Then the Grim Reaper stepped in. The Hon. W.H. Campbell was laid to rest on June 17. 1919. Partnership matters had hardly been fixed up when another of the firm, in the person of Mr Frederic Robert James, died. With the demise of the only remaining original member, Mr C. J. James, the business passed into the hands of his sons, Messrs F. R. James and W. D. James. On January 17, 1934, the former died, and only last December the latter also passed away. The decision of the widows to cease publication of the newspaper is a distinct loss to the town and district it has served so faithfully’.
