About Manjimup-Bridgetown Times

Manjimup-Bridgetown Times

The Manjimup-Bridgetown Times is a regional newspaper published for Manjimup and Bridgetown in Western Australia's South West. Published since 1997 and owned by Seven West Media, the Times serves the timber and farming districts of the southern forests: the tall-timber country, the horticultural valleys, the historic mill towns. The paper's lineage runs through the district's earlier titles — the Manjimup & Warren Times (1927–1971), the Manjimup Mail and Jardee-Pemberton-Northcliffe Press (1927–1946) — the newspapers of the timber and Group Settlement era. The ACMA Register of eligible news businesses lists mbtimes.com.au as the paper's domain.

Overview

Manjimup and Bridgetown — the southern-forests towns, the timber centres, the truffle and avocado country, the gateway to the karri forests — are the Times' patch: the weekly (or regular) paper for the Warren-Blackwood district. The paper covers the shires' affairs, the timber industry's fortunes, horticulture, tourism, community events and sport. As a Seven West Media regional title, the Times is the southern forests' paper within the state's biggest media group.

History

The Manjimup-Bridgetown Times was established in 1997 — the modern masthead for a district with a long press history. The Manjimup & Warren Times (1927–1971) served the timber towns through the Depression, the war and the post-war expansion; the Manjimup Mail and Jardee-Pemberton-Northcliffe Press (1927–1946) covered the Group Settlement districts — Pemberton, Northcliffe, Jardee — the soldier-settler valleys carved from the forest. The 1997 Times consolidated the district's press tradition into the Seven West Media regional stable: the southern forests' paper, published from the twenty-first century's media group.

Content

The Manjimup-Bridgetown Times covers the Warren-Blackwood: the timber industry — the native-forest debates, the plantations, the mills — horticulture (truffles, avocados, apples, wine), the shires of Manjimup and Bridgetown-Greenbushes, tourism (the forests, the tall trees, the food trails), community events, and sport. The paper's journalism serves the district's distinctive economy: the forest industries and the food industries, the heritage towns and the new ventures.

Coverage and Audience

The Times' footprint is Manjimup, Bridgetown and the southern-forests districts: Pemberton, Northcliffe, Nannup, Greenbushes, Balingup. Its readers are the district's residents: the timber workers, the horticulturists, the tourism operators, the shire communities, the tree-changers. In the tall-timber country — where the towns are small and the forests are vast — the paper is the district's common reference: the southern forests' news, gathered.

Ownership

The Manjimup-Bridgetown Times is owned by Seven West Media — the National Library of Australia's 2021 catalogue record names West Australian Newspapers, Osborne Park, as the paper's publisher. Within the group's Western Australian regional portfolio, the Times sits among the South West titles: the southern forests' masthead in the state's biggest regional stable.

Digital Presence

The Times maintains its digital presence through the ACMA-registered mbtimes.com.au domain and Seven West Media's West regionals digital platform, with digital editions available online. The district's earlier papers — the Manjimup & Warren Times, the Group Settlement press — survive in library collections; the modern Times carries the masthead forward digitally. Since 1997, the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times has been the southern forests' paper: the timber towns' news, in print and online.

The Timber Districts

The Warren-Blackwood district the Times serves was made by timber: the karri and jarrah forests, the mills, the timber towns — Manjimup, Pemberton, Northcliffe — built around the sawmills and the railways that carried the logs. The Manjimup & Warren Times (1927–1971) recorded the industry's great decades: the Depression-era mill work, the wartime timber demands, the post-war housing boom's appetite for jarrah. The paper's timber coverage continues: the native-forest logging debates, the plantation transition, the mill closures and openings — the district's economic identity, still being negotiated.

The Group Settlement Press

The Manjimup Mail and Jardee-Pemberton-Northcliffe Press (1927–1946) served the Group Settlement districts: the 1920s soldier-settler scheme that carved dairy farms from the karri forest — the settlers from Britain and Australia, the brutal clearing work, the communities built in the bush. Jardee, Pemberton, Northcliffe: the settlement towns, each with its hall, its school, its paper's dateline. The Press's 1927–1946 run covered the settlements' making: the land opened, the farms established, the towns incorporated. The Times inherits that press tradition: the district's valleys, still the paper's patch.

The 1997 Masthead

The 1997 establishment of the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times consolidated the district's titles into the modern regional masthead: Manjimup and Bridgetown — the two shire centres — joined in one paper. The timing caught the district's reinvention: the timber industry's contraction, the horticultural boom (truffles, avocados, the wine districts), the tourism emergence (the forests, the food trails). The Times' 1997 masthead has covered the southern forests' transformation: from timber towns to food-and-tourism destinations, the district remaking itself.

The Food Bowl

Manjimup's emergence as a food region — the truffles (among the Southern Hemisphere's finest), the avocados, the apples, the wines — gives the Times its gourmet beat: the harvests, the festivals, the producers, the chefs. Bridgetown — the heritage town on the Blackwood, the winter rainfall, the gardens — gives the paper its historic centre: the 150-year-old town, the agricultural shows, the community events. The paper covers the district's dual economy: the forests and the food, the heritage and the innovation.

The Tall Trees

The southern forests — the karri giants, the Gloucester Tree, the Valley of the Giants — are the Times' natural cathedral: the tourism coverage, the environmental debates, the forest-management politics. The paper sits at the centre of Western Australia's forest wars: the conservation campaigns, the industry's defence, the government's decisions. The Times' reporting — local, sustained, knowledgeable — is the district's forum for the debate that defines it: what the forests are for.

The District's Forum

The Manjimup-Bridgetown Times' role — the shires' agendas, the industry news, the community events, the sport — makes it the Warren-Blackwood's institution: the paper the district reads to know itself. The NLA's 2021 catalogue record — West Australian Newspapers, Osborne Park, publisher — places the paper in the state's media infrastructure: the southern forests' news, produced for the district, distributed through the group's network. From the 1927 Group Settlement press to the ACMA-registered mbtimes.com.au, the district's paper has served the tall-timber country for a century.

Bridgetown's Heritage

Bridgetown — founded in 1868, among Western Australia's oldest inland towns — gives the Times its heritage dimension: the 150-year-old streetscapes, the Blackwood River, the agricultural show, the winter festival. The town's history — the orchardists, the timber getters, the railway — is the paper's backstory: the district's European settlement, recorded in the earlier titles and carried forward. The Manjimup-Bridgetown hyphen joins the timber capital to the heritage town: the district's two poles, one paper.

The Shires' Paper

The Shires of Manjimup and Bridgetown-Greenbushes — the paper's civic mandate — give the Times its democratic function: the council agendas, the planning decisions, the community consultations, the rates. In the small towns of the southern forests — where the shire is the government that matters — the paper's civic coverage is the community's window: the decisions that shape the towns, reported for the townspeople. The Times' 1997 masthead has covered the shires through the forest debates, the industry transitions, the tourism growth: the district's democratic record.

The Digital Forests

The mbtimes.com.au domain — ACMA-registered, the paper's digital address — carries the Times to the district's exiles: the former timber workers, the tree-changers' families, the tourists planning the forest trip. The West regionals digital platform gives the paper the group's digital infrastructure: the southern forests' news, online, searchable. Since 1997 the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times has been the Warren-Blackwood's paper: the timber towns' news, the food bowl's chronicle, the tall forests' forum — in print and on the screen.