About Southern Highland News

Southern Highland News

Overview

The Southern Highland News is a weekly newspaper published in Bowral, New South Wales, serving the Southern Highlands district of the Wingecarribee Shire. Published by Australian Community Media (ACM), it is the district's newspaper of record — the only paid newspaper in the Southern Highlands, published every Saturday, and the heir to a newspaper lineage that stretches back to the Mittagong Mail of 1885. The paper serves the villages and towns of one of Australia's most distinctive regions: the cool-climate highlands halfway between Sydney and Canberra, home to the Bradman Museum, the Tulip Time festival, historic Berrima, and some of the country's most celebrated country real estate.

Its digital home is southernhighlandnews.com.au, where its journalism appears as a daily digital news service alongside the Saturday print edition.

History

The Southern Highland News was launched in 1958 by Stan Lord, who founded it to compete with the established newspapers of the region. Mac Cott was the founding editor. But the paper's lineage — and the reason ACM describes it as "servicing these towns since 1883" — runs through the four historic "Mails" of the Highlands.

The story begins with The Mittagong Mail, first published in 1885 by Daniel Beer. In 1886 Beer sold the paper to J. C. Murphy, who renamed it The Southern Mail and built a small newspaper empire: The Robertson Advocate in 1887, The Moss Vale Record in 1888, and The Mittagong Express in 1891. By 1924 all four papers were owned by Hector Lamond, who renamed them The Robertson Mail, The Moss Vale Mail, and The Mittagong Mail — the four Mails, as they were known.

In 1960 the consolidation that created the modern paper took place. Stan Lord had sold his newspaper interests to his nephew, Colin Lord; the proprietor of the four Mails, Hector Spence Lamond, sold them to Lord; and Lord — who already owned The Mittagong Star — folded the Star into the Mittagong Mail and then incorporated all four Mails into the Southern Highland News in 1961. In three years, the Highlands' scattered press became a single district newspaper.

The paper is now published by Australian Community Media, the country's largest regional publisher, formed from the Fairfax regional assets. Sections of the paper have been digitised through the National Library of Australia's newspaper program, and the district's even older press history — the Bowral Free Press of 1883, the Wollondilly Press of 1906 — survives in the National Library's Trove archive.

Content

The Southern Highland News covers the full range of community-newspaper journalism for the Highlands. Local news leads: the Wingecarribee Shire Council — one of the most politically turbulent councils in the state, suspended and placed under administration in 2021 amid extraordinary dysfunction — state politics, and the development battles of a district where Sydney's money meets country-town planning controls. The paper's highly regarded Community News section is a particular strength, in ACM's own account.

The Highlands' particular character shapes the coverage. Tourism is central: the Tulip Time festival in Bowral each spring, the Bradman Museum and International Cricket Hall of Fame (the district's most famous son is Don Bradman, who grew up in Bowral), historic Berrima — the remarkably preserved Georgian village — and the national parks that ring the district. Real estate is the other great subject: the Southern Highlands' country properties, village cottages, and estate homes constitute one of the most valuable rural property markets in Australia, and the paper's property coverage is essential reading. Agriculture — the cool-climate wine, beef, and horticulture of the district — completes the rural beats, alongside sport, schools, and community life.

The district's villages each have their own identity — Bowral the commercial centre, Moss Vale the administrative town, Mittagong the industrial village, Bundanoon, Robertson, Burrawang, Exeter, and Sutton Forest — and the paper's journalism moves between them, the shared civic forum of a scattered shire.

Cricket's greatest name is the Highlands' greatest story. Don Bradman, universally regarded as the finest batsman the game has known, grew up in Bowral, and the Bradman Museum and International Cricket Hall of Fame in the town is a place of pilgrimage for cricket lovers worldwide. The Southern Highland News has been the custodian of the Bradman story for generations — covering the museum's founding, the tributes on his birthdays and the mourning at his death in 2001, and the endless stream of cricketing visitors to the town. Tulip Time, the spring festival that fills Bowral's Corbett Gardens with tens of thousands of blooms each September and October, is the paper's other great annual subject: the festival of a district that markets its cool-climate beauty to the cities, and the News covers it as both celebration and civic stocktake.

Coverage and Audience

The Southern Highland News serves the Wingecarribee Shire and the broader Southern Highlands — from Yerrinbool, Bargo, and Balmoral in the north to Marulan, Tallong, and Wingello in the south, taking in Robertson and Wombeyan Caves. Published every Saturday, it is the only paid newspaper in the district, and ACM describes it as the district's biggest-selling newspaper for many years.

The audience is the Highlands community in its distinctive mix: the long-established farming and village families, the Sydney and Canberra commuters who have made the Highlands a dormitory of the cities, the retirees and tree-changers drawn by the cool climate and country lifestyle, and the weekenders whose country houses fill the district on Saturdays. The paper's Saturday publication suits that rhythm — the weekend paper for a district that comes alive on weekends.

Ownership

The Southern Highland News is owned and published by Australian Community Media (ACM), Australia's largest regional and community newspaper publisher. The paper's ownership history traces the consolidation of the Highlands press: from Daniel Beer's Mittagong Mail of 1885, through the Murphy and Lamond newspaper empires, through the Lord family's 1958 founding and 1961 consolidation, through the Fairfax Regional Media era, to ACM.

ACM's brand material presents the paper as the voice of the community since its first issue — "since its first issue in 1883," in the company's account, folding the lineage of the district's earliest papers into the modern title's heritage. The paper operates from Bowral, at 28 Wingecarribee Street in the town's commercial heart.

Digital Presence

The Southern Highland News' digital home is southernhighlandnews.com.au, where its journalism appears as a daily digital news service within ACM's regional digital network, supported by digital subscriptions. The paper is active on social media, where Highlands news — council dramas, property stories, festival coverage — reaches the district's digitally connected audience, including the Sydney and Canberra commuters who read the Highlands' news from the cities.

Historical sections of the paper have been digitised through the National Library of Australia's newspaper program, and the district's nineteenth-century press — the Bowral Free Press from 1883, the Wollondilly Press from 1906 — survives in Trove's free archive. Death and funeral notices from the paper's 1996–2010 editions have been indexed by family-history researchers, a reminder of the community newspaper's role as the district's book of record. For the Southern Highlands, the News remains what Stan Lord founded in 1958 and what the four Mails built before it: the district's newspaper, in print on Saturdays and online every day — the voice of Bowral, Moss Vale, Mittagong, and the villages between.