Tag Archives: Tasmania

Digitised Australian Newspapers

Have just found this website and thought you may enjoy having a look around aswell!

So, do you have ancestors in Australia, if you do, have a look.  The date range of the newspapers and magazines starts around 1800 and goes up to the mid – late 1900’s – but there are big gaps. A seperate page lets you see at a glance what the coverage is.

What did my couple of minutes mooching find ? I searched for convict, sorry but the first thing that came to mind and I found this :-

John Horace Hays an habitual criminal who escaped from Yatala labour prison near Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon has so far succeeded in eluding the systematic efforts of the police to recapture him (Northrn Territory Times Tuesday April 15 1930.

And, our Outlands correspondent writes :- Mrs Arthur Turner of Oatlands had received the sad news that her husband, Private Arthur Turner, had died of wounds in France.  Much sympathy is felt for her and the little children (The Mercury, Hobart, Saturday 27 January 1917.

Also, there is mention of Baden Powell in one of the 1900 issues where is in South Africa.

I did searches for a few family names that I know were in Australia and did come up with some interesting information.

But, and most things have a ‘BUT’ don’t they and so does this site, very good as it is.  The niggle is that the information, the pages have been scanned using possibly OCR and as we know if the print is off a little an ‘o’ can become an ‘e’ or an ‘a’ can become an ‘o’ and some letters are left blank.

But, yes there is another one and quite a good one this time – the site gives you the option to edit the text translation, now isn’t that good and makes it easier for people who follow you to find the family or entry they want.

The site is quite easy to work your way round, and probably like me, you will wander.

Well done, Australian Trove, and I look forward to visiting again and finding lots of empty years being filled in.