Pop-Up Exhibition: Castlemaine Mail Celebrating 170 Years

The first edition of our local newspaper the Mount Alexander Mail came off the press 170 years ago on 6 May, 1854 and the newspaper, now known as the Castlemaine Mail, has been proudly bringing Castlemaine and surrounding districts their local news ever since.

The Mail was originally located at 107 Mostyn Street and operated from that site for 92 years. The paper was initially published as a weekly four-page broadsheet, printed on a hand screw press and sold for one shilling. It later increased to a bi-weekly, then tri-weekly, before expanding to a daily in October 1862 and sold for threepence a copy.

The paper was renamed the Castlemaine Mail in October 1917 – an editorial stating the change was due to the new ownership and "the fact that Mount Alexander was now practically unknown against the well-known name of Castlemaine".

Alongside paintings by Helen Ogilvie, featured above, the exhibition includes original newspapers, photographs, various commercial press publications, etchings, letterpress mastheads and lettering from early print presses.