About Wyndham Star Weekly

Wyndham Star Weekly

Overview

The Wyndham Star Weekly is a free suburban weekly newspaper serving the City of Wyndham, the local government area in Melbourne's west and south-west centred on Werribee. It is one of the six Star Weekly mastheads published across Melbourne's western and northern growth corridors by MMP Star Pty Ltd, the Star Weekly arm of the Thomas family's Star News Group. The paper covers the suburbs of one of Australia's fastest-growing municipalities, including Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Point Cook, Tarneit, Truganina, Wyndham Vale, Manor Lakes and Werribee South. Its current operation is a matter of public record: MMP Star Pty Ltd is entered on the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Register of Eligible News Businesses with the Wyndham Star Weekly named among its six newspaper mastheads, the title appears in the Australian Press Council's constituent publications list of September 2026, and a physical print edition dated 7 October 2026 was in circulation at community centres in Wyndham in October 2026.

History

The Wyndham Star Weekly belongs to the Star Weekly stable created in 2014, when Star News Group and Metro Media Publishing combined their Melbourne community newspaper interests and the Star Weekly brand was formed in May of that year. In January 2015 trade reports recorded that Fairfax Media had acquired the final 50 per cent of Metro Media Publishing Holdings, and reported the venture's titles — The Weekly Review magazines and the Star Weekly newspapers — reaching around one million households a week across Melbourne and Geelong. The Wyndham title serves a municipality whose growth has been the defining local story of the past two decades: former farmland and market gardens around Werribee have been converted into some of Melbourne's largest new housing estates, and the paper has been the free weekly chronicle of that transformation for the Wyndham community. No separate founding date for the Wyndham edition itself is published in the governing records consulted for this profile, and none is asserted here; the documented starting point for the title is the formation of the Star Weekly group in 2014. The paper's parent, Star News Group, is one of Victoria's oldest family newspaper companies: it traces its history to 1909, when Albert Edward Thomas founded its first paper in Berwick, and it was renamed Star News Group in August 2005. In December 2022 Australian Community Media acquired fourteen Star News Group titles, while the Star Weekly mastheads continued under MMP Star. The Star Weekly papers are produced as a single network from the group's Keilor Park office, with shared production and localised editions for each municipality — the structure that allows a distinct Wyndham edition to be published for Werribee and its neighbouring suburbs while drawing on the resources of the wider Star organisation. The Wyndham edition's territory has been transformed within the paper's own lifetime: estates at Tarneit, Truganina, Point Cook and Manor Lakes that were farmland when the Star Weekly group was formed in 2014 are now among Melbourne's most populous new suburbs, and the Wyndham Star Weekly is the free local paper of record for the communities that have grown up in them.

Programming and Content

The Wyndham Star Weekly covers the local government, community and sporting life of the City of Wyndham. Star Weekly describes its own approach, in the group's directory listings, as celebrating the community it serves — going beyond headlines to cover everything from council news and community events to sports results and feel-good stories — and the Wyndham edition applies that formula to its municipality: Wyndham City Council decisions and services, school and community-group news, local sport, and the planning, transport and services issues that dominate a fast-growing outer suburb. The edition dated 7 October 2026, for example, carried a campaign article headlined "Free senior PT push", about the push for free public transport for seniors — a typical Star Weekly story, in which a state-wide cost-of-living issue is reported through its effect on local residents. Content is produced by the Star Weekly newsroom and published both in the weekly print edition and on the title's website, where stories are organised for the Wyndham community.

Audience and Reach

The Wyndham Star Weekly is a free newspaper, distributed in print across the City of Wyndham and available to pick up at community facilities: the October 2026 edition was promoted as available in community centres and other places where the community gathers across Wyndham. Its audience is the population of the municipality — one of the largest and fastest-growing in Victoria, with Werribee as its civic and commercial centre and vast newer estates at Point Cook, Tarneit, Truganina and Wyndham Vale. No title-specific audited circulation figure for the Wyndham edition is published in the governing records consulted for this profile, and none is claimed here; the only quantified reach claim in the title's history is the trade reporting of January 2015 that put the combined Star Weekly and Weekly Review distribution at around one million households a week across Melbourne and Geelong at that time. The title is one of six Star Weekly editions through which MMP Star covers Melbourne's west and north, alongside the Brimbank & North-West, Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay, Melton & Moorabool, Northern and Sunbury & Macedon Ranges editions.

Digital Presence

The paper's online home is wyndham.starweekly.com.au, the Wyndham section of the Star Weekly website, where its reporting is published in digital form alongside the other Star Weekly editions; the same address is the content link recorded for the title on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses. Star Weekly titles maintain a presence in press directories such as Muck Rack, which carries the group's own description of its community-focused editorial approach. Readers who miss the print edition can follow the title's council, community and sports coverage through the website, and community organisations in Wyndham also promote individual editions and stories through their own channels, as happened with the 7 October 2026 edition.

Ownership and Organisation

The Wyndham Star Weekly is published by MMP Star Pty Ltd (ABN 46 168 220 399). The ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses records MMP Star's registration dated 12 December 2025, with six newspaper mastheads: the Brimbank & North-West Star Weekly, the Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay Star Weekly, the Melton & Moorabool Star Weekly, the Northern Star Weekly, the Sunbury & Macedon Ranges Star Weekly and the Wyndham Star Weekly. The parent company behind the title is itself on the federal register: Star News Group Pty Ltd (ABN 98 238 557 339) is recorded on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses with seventeen mastheads across its Star Mail, Star Journal and other community titles. MMP Star is the Star Weekly company associated with Star News Group, the family newspaper group headquartered at Pakenham and led by managing director Paul Thomas, the fourth generation of the Thomas family in the business. The register names Paul Thomas as MMP Star's contact. Star News Group itself dates to 1909, publishes the Star Mail and Star Journal community titles in Melbourne's east and south-east in addition to the Star Weekly papers in the west and north, and its titles are constituent publications of the Australian Press Council, whose September 2026 list includes the Wyndham Star Weekly.

Contact and Availability

The Wyndham Star Weekly is available free in print across the City of Wyndham, including at community centres and similar public venues, and online at wyndham.starweekly.com.au. Its publisher, MMP Star Pty Ltd, produces the Star Weekly titles from the Star Weekly office at Keilor Park. The ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses lists the publisher's contact as Paul Thomas, telephone (03) 5945 0666, email paul.thomas@starnewsgroup.com.au. The Star News Group head office is at Pakenham, Victoria.