About Sentinel-Times

Sentinel-Times

Overview

The Sentinel-Times — published under the full masthead South Gippsland Sentinel-Times — is the weekly newspaper for South Gippsland and the Bass Coast in Victoria, produced from Leongatha. Despite an inventory listing describing it as bi-weekly, the newspaper's own printed statement of publication, carried in its editions, is unambiguous: "The South Gippsland Sentinel-Times is published on Tuesdays." It is a paid weekly — the edition of Tuesday 17 March 2026 carried a cover price of $2.00 across some sixty pages — and media directories likewise classify it as a weekly published on Tuesdays. Its cover carries the strapline "Covering South Gippsland and Bass Coast", and its pages serve Leongatha, Korumburra, Wonthaggi, Inverloch, Foster and the smaller towns of the district. Since the closure of its long-standing rival, the Great Southern Star, in 2020, the Sentinel-Times has been the surviving print newspaper for much of South Gippsland. It publishes in print and on its website, sgst.com.au, and Australian Associated Press's submission to the parliamentary inquiry into regional newspapers classified it as a print title.

History

The newspaper's own published history traces two parent papers. The Korumburra Times was started by George Mitchell on Thursday, 7 July 1892, serving the coal and dairying township of Korumburra in the Strzelecki foothills. The Wonthaggi Sentinel was started by Hector McCrimmon on Saturday, 11 June 1910, the year after the State Coal Mine opened at Wonthaggi and the town sprang up to house its miners. For decades the two papers reported neighbouring districts — Korumburra's dairy country and Wonthaggi's mining community — before their titles were combined in the South Gippsland Sentinel Times. A local conservation society's newspaper cuttings file on Phillip Island holds the Wonthaggi Sentinel to 1 March 1973 and the combined Sentinel Times from 8 March 1973, evidence consistent with the amalgamation taking effect in the early 1970s. The combined paper settled in Leongatha, the district's principal service town. In March 2020 the paper's local rival, the Great Southern Star, published its last edition; its permanent closure was announced on 14 May 2020, leaving the Sentinel-Times as the district's principal print voice. The Star's closure prompted a short-lived online venture, The Paper – South Gippsland News, launched by former Gippsland Times leader writer Matthew Dunn in May 2020, but it was the Sentinel-Times that continued as the district's established print newspaper. It has continued to publish through the decade since, with full Tuesday editions sighted throughout 2025 and 2026.

Programming and Content

The Sentinel-Times is a full-service country weekly. Its front pages in early 2026 led on the issues pressing a rural community: the February–March 2026 petrol supply crisis, the threatened closure of a Leongatha health service, the Korumburra Show and the standard of service on the town's mail routes. A February 2026 front page ranged from an inquiry after a train derailment to the opening of a new Rail Trail Medical clinic intended to fill a local service gap, and the paper gives prominent space to community fundraising, agricultural shows and Coast Guard safety campaigns in the Bass Coast towns it also serves. Its website carried breaking local news on Saturday 17 October 2026, when the paper reported earthquakes felt in Leongatha and Korumburra and the district's Biketoberfest motorcycle event the same day. Planning and development coverage is extensive — a proposed McDonald's for Wonthaggi, the replacement of the Kernot pedestrian bridge, coastal erosion works at Silverleaves on Phillip Island and a contested pedestrian crossing on Murray Street, Wonthaggi all featured in October 2026 reporting. Sport coverage spans Gippsland League football, where it reported the Leongatha Parrots' coaching change, local cricket and community events. Council decisions from both the South Gippsland and Bass Coast shires, court and police news, school events, farming, real estate and classifieds fill out editions that regularly run to sixty pages. Statutory deadlines printed in the paper — display advertising closing at 3pm on Fridays and classifieds at noon on Mondays — reflect a weekly production cycle built around its Tuesday publication day.

Audience and Reach

The Sentinel-Times serves the population of South Gippsland Shire and Bass Coast Shire and their towns: Leongatha, Korumburra, Wonthaggi, Inverloch, Cowes, Foster, Grantville, Poowong, Fish Creek, Meeniyan and Mirboo North among them. No audited circulation figure for the title appears in the public records sighted for this profile, and none is asserted here. When the Great Southern Star closed in 2020, Nationals MP Danny O'Brien cited party research suggesting that readership of The Star and The Sentinel in South Gippsland was higher than would be expected elsewhere — a politician's claim, but one that reflects the paper's standing as a primary local information source in a district with no daily newspaper of its own. Its membership of Country Press Australia, the industry body for independent country newspapers, and its listing among the associated publications of Australian Press Council constituent bodies confirm its place in the recognised country press.

Digital Presence

The newspaper's website, sgst.com.au, publishes its stories online and has offered readers the complete weekly edition in page format: the paper previously explained to readers that there was no separate download of the online publication as such, but that whole weekly publications could be accessed in PDF format on any mobile device or desktop. Full print editions of the paper dated across 2025 and 2026 are hosted there as complete PDF editions, documenting an unbroken Tuesday publishing schedule. The paper maintains a Facebook presence under the name SG Sentinel Times and an X (Twitter) account, @sentineltimes, and uses its Facebook page to circulate front pages and breaking items between editions. The cover price stood at $1.50 in September 2022 before rising to the $2.00 recorded in March 2026. Its journalists' work is tracked by media-monitoring services, which recorded its October 2026 online reporting, confirming the website remains in daily use between print editions.

Ownership and Organisation

The Sentinel-Times is an independently published country newspaper based in Leongatha; it is not part of the ACM, News Corp Australia or Star News Group chains, and no parent company is recorded for it in the industry registers sighted for this profile. Its editorial operation is locally staffed: the paper's own masthead in its March 2026 editions names Rick Koenig as editor, with journalists Andrew Paloczi, Chloe Kent, Nicole May, Tayla Kershaw and Trent Westaway reporting for the paper, and display and classified advertising handled in-house to the deadlines printed in each edition. An earlier masthead, from September 2022, named Holly McMaster as advertising manager. The paper's staff produce both its print edition and its website from Leongatha, covering two shires. A trade news item has referred to journalist Chloe Kent as having been promoted to editor, but the paper's own 2026 masthead names Koenig in the role, and this profile follows the masthead.

Contact and Availability

The South Gippsland Sentinel-Times is published from Leongatha, Victoria, each Tuesday, and is sold at news outlets across South Gippsland and the Bass Coast at a cover price of $2.00 (March 2026). Its website is sgst.com.au, where current stories and full editions can be read, and it can be followed on Facebook as SG Sentinel Times and on X as @sentineltimes. Advertising deadlines printed in the paper are 3pm Fridays for display advertising and 12 noon Mondays for classifieds. Public business contact details are published in the newspaper's own masthead in each edition.