Queanbeyan’s “working” Printing Museum showcases a miniature of John Gale’s first newspaper The Golden Age (1860) being printed on a foot-pedal, hand fed small press that the John Gale family would have used as part of their commercial printing business – as well as other larger printing presses like the cumbersome ‘Chandler & Price, Hand Fed Platen Press’ c1900 and the Linotype Model 14, with its hot metal crucible, which was the heart of the publishing business.
By 2031 Queanbeyan’s population is predicted to escalate to 68,970 people who will own 46,880 vehicles to clog the Queanbeyan road network.
1
It was winter in a country town that pretended to be a city.2
The wind whistled and the lightning flashed and the rain beat down on the corrugated roof.
Occasionally a wisp of wind came down the chimney and stirred the blackened wood in the fireplace – until finally there was a last sparkle of red and then nothing – only blackness.
We first meet Mrs West (1823-1913) in The Queanbeyan Age newspaper after she dies aged ninety years. We meet her and get to know her only as Mrs West, which is the beginning of her life after death.
Not everyone went to church on New Years Eve as The Queanbeyan Observer observed, “many indulged in hilarious pastimes, some of a highly reprehensible character for which it is likely the chief actors will yet be called to account”.
Six months after the March 10, 2001, unveiling of the large bronze sculpture of John Gale, a controversy erupted in Queanbeyan (Sister City of Canberra) when a Queanbeyan City Council, councillor declared, that John Gale (1831-1929) was not the Father of Canberra, and insisted that the title belonged to Sir Austin Chapman.
But Sir Austin Chapman MP declared:
“... if any man were entitled to be known as the Father of Canberra, it was veteran Queanbeyan journalist John Gale.“ 1
* More information? Go to the menu at the top and click on the Father of Canberra page.