About Queensland Farmer Today (Southern Queensland)

Queensland Farmer Today (Southern Queensland)

Overview

Queensland Farmer Today (Southern Queensland) is the original, southern edition of Queensland Farmer Today, the Today News Group's free monthly agricultural newspaper for Queensland primary producers. The southern edition was the title's first: it launched on 28 October 2021, ahead of the Central Queensland and Wide Bay edition that followed in 2022, and it remains a separately identified edition — the Australian Press Council's September 2026 constituent publications list names "Qld Farmer Today – Southern Qld" as a distinct entry alongside its Central Queensland and Wide Bay counterpart.

The edition serves the farming districts of southern Queensland: distributed from Toowoomba to Roma and between Proston and Goondiwindi, it takes in the Darling Downs, the Southern Downs, the Western Downs, the Maranoa and the South Burnett — the grain, cotton, cattle and horticultural country of Queensland's south. It is written for farmers rather than a general readership, carrying agricultural news, livestock and sale reporting, cropping and grazing coverage, rural workforce and agribusiness stories, and publishes continuously online at queenslandfarmertoday.com.au, where stories dated through 2026 — including extensive southern-district reporting — appear under the title.

History

The southern edition was born directly from News Corp Australia's 2020 withdrawal from regional Queensland print. When News Corp ended the print editions of scores of country papers in 2020, its Rural Weekly — the statewide agricultural paper staffed by journalists who covered farming across Queensland — disappeared with them, leaving the state's producers, including those of the Darling Downs and the south, without a dedicated printed farming newspaper.

The Today News Group, formed in 2020 by Star News Group managing director Paul Thomas with Damian Morgan and Bruce Ellen to restore local papers in markets abandoned by the metropolitan chains, announced Queensland Farmer Today in October 2021. Industry journal GXpress reported the plan: a monthly free newspaper in two editions, "with the first – for southern Queensland – launching on October 28", and a Central Queensland and Wide Bay edition planned for the following year. The group said the paper would be printed at the former News Corp print facility in Rockhampton acquired by the publishers of its CQ Today masthead, and director Damian Morgan said the launch answered strong demand from farmers to read a printed newspaper of agricultural news, with a team that included agricultural news professionals who had previously produced the old Rural Weekly. At launch the group claimed that, with more than 30,000 copies distributed through its Today newspapers and drop-off points, the title already had the largest circulation of any agricultural newspaper in Queensland — the publisher's own claim from 2021, recorded here as such. The Central Queensland and Wide Bay edition followed in 2022, making the southern edition the senior of the title's two regional editions.

Programming and Content

The southern edition's content is the agriculture of the Downs and the south. Grain and cotton country around Dalby, Toowoomba and Goondiwindi, the cattle districts of the Southern Downs and Maranoa, and the mixed farming and peanut country of the South Burnett set its agenda: livestock markets and stud sales, cropping and pasture management, grazing land practice, drought and flood recovery, rural workforce questions, agricultural research and the energy and land-use debates of the Surat Basin.

The title's website shows that southern coverage continuing through 2026. In August 2026 it reported more than 250 energy stakeholders gathering in Dalby for the 2026 Surat Basin Energy Summit, reinforcing the Western Downs' role in Queensland energy; it carried stud and store cattle sale reporting from across the south, including the Bunya Droughtmaster Bull Sale at the Coolabunia Selling Complex near Kingaroy, the Red Angus sale at the Dalby Regional Sale Centre, the Brisbane Valley Santa Gertrudis sale at Toogoolawah and the Silverdale Droughtmaster genetics sale; and it covered the region's rural culture and sport, from Allora's Olympic shot-put medallist Matt Denny's golden day in Glasgow to the record field at the Historic Leyburn Sprints on the Southern Downs and the Kumbia siblings' podium finishes at the Australian Whipcracking National Championships. Earlier southern items include the Kingaroy Sportsfishing Club's annual Tag-a-Toga event at Lake Boondooma near Proston, and the title's February 2026 reporting of the AgriFutures Australia and federal agriculture department initiative on rural workforce pressures, which examined regions including Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. Content is shared across the title's website and editions, with the southern edition directed to the districts it serves.

Audience and Reach

The audience is the primary-producer population of southern Queensland: grain and cotton growers on the Darling Downs, cattle producers across the Southern Downs, Western Downs and Maranoa, and the mixed farmers of the South Burnett, together with the agribusiness, agency and services sector that supports them. Toowoomba, the edition's nominal home city, is the commercial hub of the Downs and host to FarmFest, one of Australia's largest agricultural field days; Roma, Dalby, Warwick, Kingaroy and Goondiwindi anchor the districts the edition circulates through.

No independently audited circulation for the individual southern edition has been published, and none is asserted here. The publisher's launch-era figures were title-wide: in October 2021 the Today News Group claimed more than 30,000 copies distributed through its Today newspapers and strategic drop-off points, and described Queensland Farmer Today as claiming the largest circulation of any agricultural newspaper in Queensland. Those are the group's own claims from 2021, presented as such; the southern edition's continuation is evidenced by its separate listing in the Australian Press Council's September 2026 constituent publications and by the title's current website reporting.

Digital Presence

The southern edition shares the title's website, queenslandfarmertoday.com.au, which publishes agricultural news continuously — dated stories were sighted through August and September 2026 — and hosts the paper's digital editions; the ACMA register's content link for the title points to the site's digital-editions page. The website's privacy statement is issued in the name of Star News Group, reflecting the centralised digital publishing and back-office systems Star provides to the Today titles. National advertising for the title is handled through Regional Media Connect, the Melbourne-based sales house whose advertising guide lists Queensland Farmer Today among its publications.

Ownership and Organisation

Queensland Farmer Today is part of the Today News Group, the group of related regional publishing companies developed from 2020 by Paul Thomas, Damian Morgan and Bruce Ellen on the infrastructure of Star News Group — the Thomas family's Melbourne-headquartered group founded in 1909, of which Paul Thomas, a fourth-generation newspaperman, is managing director; Thomas is also managing director of Today News Group. On the ACMA register of eligible news businesses, Queensland Farmer Today is registered to South Burnett Today Pty Ltd (ABN 64 641 796 349) — the first company established under the Today model, and the group company based in the South Burnett, within the southern edition's own footprint — together with Burnett Today, Maranoa Today, Western Downs Today and the Goondiwindi Argus, in a registration dated 12 December 2025 naming Paul Thomas as contact. By 2026 the wider Today group had grown to 69 news mastheads across Australia.

Contact and Availability

Queensland Farmer Today (Southern Queensland) is published monthly and distributed free across the Toowoomba, Darling Downs, Southern Downs, Western Downs, Maranoa and South Burnett districts through the Today News Group's newspaper network and drop-off points. It is available online at queenslandfarmertoday.com.au, including digital editions of the printed paper. National advertising enquiries are taken by Regional Media Connect on (03) 8387 5500.