Ararat Advertiser

It is one of the oldest continuously operating newspapers in Victoria, second in age only to the Geelong Advertiser.

With the Liverpool printing industry facing periodic unemployment and worsening industrial conditions, formally trained printers and stationers Jabez Walter Banfield and James Gearing emigrated to Australia in search of gold.

In May 1855 the trio returned to the central goldfields to invest in a printing plant in Maryborough.

Between 1855 and 1864 Banfield and Gearing were associated with newspaper or printing offices in thirteen towns.

[2] Six months after the death of Nuthall, Banfield bought the newspaper business for £1012 10s when it was auctioned on 20 March 1861.