This Monday The Melbourne Sirius will launch as Melbourne’s newest newspaper. It’s first edition will also be it’s last. The paper is a record of Melbourne’s rich newspaper history listing the name, birth date and death date of every defunct newspaper published in Melbourne between 1838 and now – all 525 of them.

Melbourne Sirius is an artist newspaper (a newspaper made as a work of art) produced by journalist, author and State Library creative fellow Rachel Buchanan during her 2013-14 fellowship.

Rachel discovered the Melbourne mastheads while examining an old State Library card catalogue. It is a remarkable and diverse list containing Welsh, Hebrew and Scandinavian papers – Greek sport only papers, abstinence papers, drug legalisation papers, surfing papers, music papers and many more all produced in central Melbourne. They give an extraordinary insight into the city’s past.

Rachel writes:

‘Melbourne Sirius appears at a historic moment; eight days after the publication of the last broadsheet version of The Age and two days after the launch of The Saturday Paper, a new weekly newspaper being published by Morry Schwartz. Even more significant, perhaps, is the closure of The Age’s print plant at Tullamarine at the end of March. From next month, The Age will be printed at Ballarat.

The paper invites readers to stop and contemplate what this moment might mean for them and for their city. It asks you to read slowly. What other moments are suggested by the long list of dead newspapers and the radical variety in the lifespan, purpose and tone of each of these papers?’

525 copies of Melbourne Sirius will be distributed by Rachel and her two daughters at significant newspaper sites around Melbourne.

Hand out times and places are as follows on Monday 3 March:

  • Herald and Weekly Times (corner Flinders Street and Exhibition Street): 11am – 12pm
  • Herald (Collins St, between Elizabeth and Swanston, outside Nespresso shop) 12.30-1.30pm
  • Argus (corner Elizabeth and La Trobe Streets) 2-3pm
  • Age (corner Spencer and Lonsdale Streets) 3.30pm-4pm
  • Age Media House (corner Collins and Spencer St) 4.30-5.30pm

Don’t miss out on your highly collectable copy of Melbourne newest newspaper.

Find out more.

Do you have a creative idea? The State Library Creative Fellowships are open for applications now.

'Melbourne Sirius' Design: Stephen Banham (Letterbox)

‘Melbourne Sirius’
Design: Stephen Banham (Letterbox)

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