About Sunraysia Daily

Sunraysia Daily

The Sunraysia Daily is a daily newspaper published in Mildura, in north-western Victoria's Sunraysia region — the Murray River irrigation district. First published on 2 October 1920, it is one of the historic regional dailies of Victoria: formed by the amalgamation of three irrigation-era papers, owned for a century by the Lanyon family's Elliott Newspaper Group, and since 2024 part of Australia's Today newspaper group. It publishes four days a week from its Deakin Avenue premises in Mildura.

Overview

The Sunraysia Daily is the daily paper of Sunraysia — the great Murray River irrigation district of north-west Victoria and south-west New South Wales, the land of the Chaffey brothers' irrigation colony, the dried-fruit blocks, the citrus groves, and the vineyards. Mildura is the district's regional city: the centre of the irrigation economy, the Murray River tourism, and the cross-border community that looks as much to Wentworth and Buronga as to Melbourne.

The district the Daily serves was made by irrigation: the Chaffey brothers' 1887 colony turned Mallee scrub into the fruit blocks of Mildura, Merbein, Red Cliffs, and Robinvale — the dried-fruit capital, the citrus and wine-grape districts, and in recent decades the almond boom. The paper has chronicled the irrigation century: the soldier-settler blocks, the water politics of the Murray-Darling Basin, the droughts and the allocations, the harvest labour forces, and the export markets. The Menindee fish kills, the Basin Plan buybacks, the almond plantings — the district's defining stories are written in water, and the Daily is their daily record.

The paper operates from premises in Deakin Avenue, Mildura, where more than 60 staff work to put the newspaper together. It is one of the few remaining regional dailies of inland Victoria — a daily paper for an irrigation district.

History

The newspaper was formed by the amalgamation of three newspapers: the Mildura Cultivator (established 19 May 1888), the Mildura Telegraph and Darling and Lower Murray Advocate (established 9 May 1913), and the Merbein Irrigationist (established 5 November 1919). Its first editor was Harry J. Stephens, and the first edition was produced on 2 October 1920.

In 1924, after a period in receivership, the Daily was acquired by New Sunraysia Daily Pty. Ltd., a syndicate of several leading Country Party figures including R. D. Elliott, Ethel Page (wife of Country Party leader Earle Page), and Percy Stewart. Elliott assumed control and later incorporated it into his Elliott Newspaper Group — the Elliott Provincial Newspaper Group, which grew to include the Castlemaine Mail (1932), the Shepparton Advertiser (1935), The Guardian of Swan Hill (1938), the Western Evening News (1938), The Albury Banner (1940), the Yarrawonga Chronicle (1943), the Cobram Courier (1944), the Maryborough Advertiser (1945), the Cohuna Farmers' Weekly (1947), and the Wangaratta Chronicle (1949).

The Lanyon family's connection to the paper dates to 1920 — with the merger of the three founding titles — and the ownership of James Lanyon, and of his son Charles Dudley (CD) Lanyon, who joined the business as company secretary, the first of several family members to do so. CD drove the expansion that took the group across Victoria and interstate, into newspapers, radio, and television. CD's son, William Russell (Bill) Lanyon, continued the legacy, serving as executive chairman until his death in 2013. Ross Lanyon — who led the company in recent decades with his brother Jamie — said the family had "always seen ourselves as custodians, not just owners."

From its first publication in 1920 until 14 September 2007, the Daily was published in broadsheet format — one of Australia's last remaining regional broadsheets, according to the Australian Newspaper History Group — changing to tabloid size the following day. Editor Lyall Corless, a former Sunraysia Daily cadet who returned to his Mildura roots in 2007 with experience on some of Australia's biggest metropolitan mastheads, led the format change. Kieran Iles, formerly of the Mount Gambier Border Watch, became editor in January 2009. Australian entertainer John-Michael Howson was employed at the Sunraysia Daily as a cadet reporter early in his career.

The Daily escaped near death in 2020, announcing its closure after advertising collapsed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With reduced staff and government JobKeeper and Public Interest News Gathering support, it was able to resume four-day publication the following year.

In 2024, Australia's Today newspaper group acquired Elliott Newspaper Group's newspaper interests: ENG directors Ross and Jamie Lanyon announced the transfer of the four-days-a-week Sunraysia Daily, along with the Swan Hill Guardian, Gannawarra Times, Broken Hill Times, and North West Farmer, in a deal closing on 1 September. The deal followed Today's acquisition of the Hamilton Spectator and Portland Observer and its revitalisation of The Bunyip and the Border Watch, and its 2023 launch of Centralian Today in Alice Springs.

Content

The Sunraysia Daily covers the daily life of the Sunraysia district. Its journalism spans:

• Irrigation news: the Murray-Darling Basin, water allocations, the irrigation industries — dried fruit, citrus, wine grapes, table grapes, almonds — and the water politics that define the district.
• Cross-border news: Mildura, Wentworth, Buronga, Gol Gol, Merbein, Red Cliffs, Robinvale — the Victorian and New South Wales towns of the district.
• Horticulture: the harvests, the labour force, the export markets, and the industries of the irrigation blocks.
• Sport: the Sunraysia Football League, cricket, and the district's clubs.
• Community: the schools, the river tourism, the events, and the social record of the district.

Coverage & Audience

The Sunraysia Daily is a daily newspaper (publishing four days a week) serving the Sunraysia region of north-west Victoria and south-west New South Wales, published in English, in print and online. Its audience is the residents of the irrigation district — the horticulturalists of the blocks, the townspeople of Mildura and the river towns, and the cross-border community — who rely on the paper for the district's daily news, water and irrigation coverage, and community record. In a district where the river is the economy and the water allocation is the weather, the daily paper is essential infrastructure: the market reports, the water news, the community forum, in print four days a week and online daily.

The Elliott group's regional role extended beyond Sunraysia: its ENG Media launched the Broken Hill Times — the new weekly for the far-west New South Wales mining city, filling the void left by the closure of the 130-year-old Barrier Daily Truth in April 2021 — with editorial and production staff in Argent Street, Broken Hill. The Broken Hill Times, along with the Guardian, Gannawarra Times, and North West Farmer, transferred with the Sunraysia Daily to the Today group in 2024.

Ownership

The Sunraysia Daily is now part of Australia's Today newspaper group, following the 2024 acquisition of Elliott Newspaper Group's newspaper interests by SA Today — the Lanyon family's fourth-generation handover of the paper they had owned since 1920. The Today group also publishes the Hamilton Spectator, Portland Observer, The Bunyip, Border Watch, and Centralian Today, among its regional titles.

Digital Presence

The Sunraysia Daily operates online at sunraysiadaily.com.au — its official website — extending the daily's reach across the irrigation district and beyond. The paper's digital presence complements its four-day print edition published from Deakin Avenue, Mildura.

For Sunraysia, the Daily remains what it has been since 1920: the irrigation district's own paper — the daily record of the Murray's blocks and river towns, from the Cultivator era to the Today group, still publishing from Mildura.