About Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly

Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly

Overview

The Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly is a local newspaper serving Sunbury, in Melbourne's north-west within the City of Hume, and the Macedon Ranges communities to its north, including Gisborne, Woodend, Kyneton, Romsey, Lancefield, Macedon and Mount Macedon. It is published by MMP Star Pty Ltd, the company behind the Star Weekly group of newspapers in Melbourne's west and north-west, and it appears on the Australian Communications and Media Authority's Register of Eligible News Businesses in an entry dated 12 December 2025 as one of the company's six registered newspaper mastheads. The paper is also listed among the Victorian member publications of Country Press Australia in the Australian Press Council's masthead list dated September 2026. It publishes in print for its local distribution area and online at sunburymacedonranges.starweekly.com.au.

The paper's footprint pairs two distinct kinds of community: Sunbury, a large and still-growing satellite town of Melbourne with its own identity, its wineries and its commuter population, and the Macedon Ranges, a shire of smaller towns and villages in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. The pairing in the masthead — like the "Sunbury & Macedon Ranges" edition named in health-sector and council records since at least 2021 — reflects the way the district's residents move between the two areas for work, school, sport and services, and it makes the Star Weekly the local paper of record for both.

History

The Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly is a product of the Star Weekly group, whose history runs through two publishing traditions. The first is that of the Star News Group, the family company behind the Star Weekly papers, founded in 1909 by Albert Edward Thomas, whose early titles included the Berwick Shire News and the Pakenham and Cranbourne Gazette; Paul Thomas, of the fourth generation of the family, joined the business in 1992 and became its managing director in 2000, and the company took the name Star News Group in the mid-2000s. The second tradition is that of the Weekly newspapers published for Melbourne's western and north-western suburbs by Metro Media Publishing. In May 2014 those two streams combined: Star News Group's papers merged with Metro Media Publishing's Weekly titles to form the Star Weekly group of suburban newspapers, published through MMP Star Pty Ltd.

The Sunbury & Macedon Ranges edition of the Star Weekly is documented in operation by August 2021, when the North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network recorded that one of its articles had first been published in the Brimbank & North West and Sunbury & Macedon Ranges editions of the Star Weekly on 3 August 2021. No governing record consulted for this profile fixes the exact date on which this particular title was created, and no founding date for the title itself is asserted here. The district had earlier been served by other local papers, among them a Leader title — the Sunbury/Macedon Ranges Leader was presenting a junior sports star award in 2015 — so the Star Weekly's edition established the Star group's presence in a district with a long local-newspaper tradition of its own. In December 2025 the title stood, as it does now, among the six mastheads registered to MMP Star Pty Ltd on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses.

Programming and Content

The Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly is a community newspaper whose content is built around the local life of its coverage area: Hume City Council and Macedon Ranges Shire affairs, planning and development in one of Melbourne's growth corridors, schools, community organisations, local business and extensive coverage of district sport, from Sunbury's football and cricket competitions to the Gisborne and District Cricket Association. Its journalists are tracked by media-monitoring services under the masthead: Gladys Barreta's reporting for the paper in 2025 included scrutiny of Victoria's new bail laws, a wildlife carer's backyard sanctuary, and community events across the district such as the Ballan Autumn Festival, while Jennifer Pittorino is also profiled as a Star Weekly journalist working across the Brimbank & North West and Sunbury & Macedon Ranges titles.

The paper's news judgement is visible in the stories other institutions pick up. Hume City Council's Sustainability Taskforce minutes of 18 November 2025 discussed, as a document before it, the Star Weekly article of 27 August 2025 titled "Residents Fight Back", the paper's report of community opposition to a proposed waste-to-energy plant between Bulla and Sunbury — coverage of a contested local planning question that the council itself treated as part of the public record of the debate. District sport receives the same close attention: its cricket reporting from the Macedon Ranges, including premiership coverage from Malmsbury, circulates through the clubs and associations it covers.

Audience and Reach

The paper's audience is the population of Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges — a combined district of a large metropolitan-fringe town and a rural shire, joined by the Calder corridor. No audited circulation figure for this title is published in the sources consulted for this profile, and none is claimed here. The paper's current standing is better evidenced by its regulatory and civic records: MMP Star Pty Ltd's entry on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses, dated 12 December 2025, lists the Sunbury Macedon Ranges Star Weekly among its six registered newspaper mastheads; the title appears in the Australian Press Council's September 2026 list of Country Press Australia publications in Victoria; and the Victorian Electoral Commission's report on the 2024 Hume City Council election records that the council nominated the Sunbury & Macedon Ranges Star Weekly among the newspapers for its public notices — the formal channel through which statutory information reaches local voters.

That paper-of-record role is continuing. The agenda of Hume City Council's meeting of 14 July 2025 records that a public notice required under the Local Government Act was published in the 4 February 2025 edition of the Star Weekly, and the council's November 2025 taskforce minutes cite the paper's August 2025 reporting. Councils and electoral authorities use mastheads with established local distribution to satisfy their obligations to inform residents, and the Star Weekly's appearance in both the 2024 electoral record and the council's 2025 papers shows it filling that role for Sunbury and the ranges.

Digital Presence

The paper publishes online at sunburymacedonranges.starweekly.com.au, the website recorded against the title in its publisher's ACMA register entry. The site forms part of the Star Weekly group's shared online platform, under which each of the group's mastheads maintains its own local edition; stories from the Sunbury & Macedon Ranges edition are indexed by media-monitoring services under their journalists' bylines. The Star Weekly titles are published by MMP Star Pty Ltd from Unit 6/109 Thomsons Road, Keilor Park, the operating base recorded for the company. The current print publication day for the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges title is not stated in the governing records consulted for this profile, and no day is asserted here; readers can confirm the current schedule through the paper's website. What the record does establish is continuity: a title documented in 2021 remains, in 2025 and 2026, a registered news business, a listed Country Press Australia publication and a newspaper used by its local councils for official notices, with its own dedicated local website.

Ownership and Organisation

The Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly is published by MMP Star Pty Ltd (ABN 46 168 220 399). The company's ACMA register entry, dated 12 December 2025, lists six newspaper mastheads: the Sunbury Macedon Ranges Star Weekly together with the Wyndham, Brimbank North West, Maribyrnong Hobsons Bay, Northern, and Melton Moorabool Star Weekly titles. The contact recorded for the company on the register is Paul Thomas, who can be reached on 03 5945 0666 or at paul.thomas@starnewsgroup.com.au. MMP Star is the corporate vehicle of the Star Weekly group, formed in May 2014 from the merger of the Star News Group's papers and Metro Media Publishing's Weekly titles. Behind that structure stands the Thomas family's Star News Group, founded in 1909 by Albert Edward Thomas and renamed in the mid-2000s; Paul Thomas, who joined the business in 1992 and has been managing director since 2000, is the fourth generation of the family to run it. The group operates from Unit 6/109 Thomsons Road, Keilor Park, in Melbourne's north-west, within the same broad region its newspapers serve. The Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly is thus a locally focused masthead produced within a family-owned suburban publishing group whose registered titles cover Melbourne's western and north-western growth corridors.

Contact and Availability

The Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Star Weekly is available in print across its distribution area in Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges, and online at sunburymacedonranges.starweekly.com.au. Its publisher, MMP Star Pty Ltd, is based at Unit 6/109 Thomsons Road, Keilor Park, Victoria. The contact recorded for the publisher on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses is Paul Thomas, telephone 03 5945 0666, email paul.thomas@starnewsgroup.com.au. Whether the paper is distributed free or sold, and its current print publication day, are not stated in the governing records consulted for this profile and should be confirmed with the publisher or through the paper's website. The public business email field for this profile is intentionally left blank, in line with the directory's policy.