About The Pennant

The Pennant

The Pennant is a weekly newspaper published in Penola, South Australia — the paper of the Penola district and the Coonawarra wine region, the paper of the terra rossa and the town of Mary MacKillop. It was first published on Thursday, 25 July 1946, leading with a story about plans to upgrade Penola's Memorial Hospital. After 74 years of publishing, the newspaper — along with its sister publication the South Eastern Times — was discontinued on 21 August 2020. After an 18-month hiatus, it was relaunched in March 2022 with funding, purchased by TBW Today Pty Ltd, a company owned by a group of experienced publishers. The SA Country Press directory lists penolapennant.com.au as its website.

Overview

Penola is the major town of the Coonawarra — one of South Australia's most productive wine-growing areas, and one of the world's great Cabernet Sauvignon regions. The Coonawarra's story begins with the Bindjali people, for whom "coonawarra" meant honeysuckle; the first vines were planted by John Riddoch at Yallum in 1890, and he built his three-gabled winery in 1891. The region's fame rests on the terra rossa — the bright red soil on a shallow limestone ridge, a strip just 15 kilometres by 2 kilometres north of Penola, one of the notable terroirs of the New World. Only the Redman family of Rouge Homme kept making table wine through the hard years; fortunes changed when Samuel Wynn bought the original Riddoch cellars in 1951, and — led by Wynns and Penfolds — Coonawarra led the transformation of the Australian wine industry from fortified wines to conventional table wines. The region grew rapidly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s, and today holds around 5,000 hectares of vineyards, retaining its crown as Australia's top Cabernet Sauvignon region. Penola shares with Robe the distinction of being the oldest town in the South East of South Australia. The town is famous as a hugely important location in the life of Mary MacKillop, Australia's first saint. The town is home to the Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre, the Woods MacKillop Schoolhouse, and Petticoat Lane; its notable people include the poets John Shaw Neilson, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Will H. Ogilvie — the Border Watch published Ogilvie's first poem in Australia on 22 April 1893, when he was at nearby Maaoupe Station — the explorer Larry Wells, and the Antarctic explorer John Riddoch Rymill, born in Penola, who named his ship Penola. The Pennant has been the district's paper since 1946: a paid community newspaper published every Thursday, with a particular emphasis on local sports, community events and human interest stories.

History

Founded by W. Erwin Thiele, 1946

The Pennant was founded by W. Erwin Thiele, who felt that a publication to service the town and local areas was needed after a "lack of communication from Mount Gambier and Naracoorte was evident" — the classic country-paper founding: the district's news, not the big towns'. It was first published on Thursday, 25 July 1946, leading with a story about plans to upgrade Penola's Memorial Hospital — the district's hospital, the district's paper, from day one. Kenneth Victor Dohnt, a New Zealander, assumed control of the paper in 1950 and maintained it until his death in 1971 — twenty-one years at the helm, the paper's second great proprietor. It was then controlled by Lyle Shurdington, a local and long-time employee, and in October 1978 it was taken over by South East Telecasters, whose major shareholder was Allan Scott, of the Scott Group of Companies — the transport magnate's media arm, and the beginning of the Scott era.

The Scott years

Along with The Border Watch, the Pennant was most recently owned by the Scott Group of Companies. Under the supervision of The Border Watch, it was published every Wednesday, and its head office for local advertising and editorial content was at 81 Commercial Street East, Mount Gambier — the south-east's press centre, where the Border Watch's resources kept the Pennant publishing. At the time of its 2020 closure, it had a circulation of 1,000.

Closure and relaunch

After 74 years of publishing, the newspaper — along with its sister publication the South Eastern Times — was discontinued on 21 August 2020. However, in March 2022 the newspaper was relaunched with funding after an 18-month hiatus — the district getting its paper back. It was purchased by TBW Today Pty Ltd, a company owned by a group of experienced publishers — the same company that publishes The Border Watch, the Mount Gambier paper that supervises the Pennant's production. The SA Country Press directory lists the relaunched paper as published on Thursdays, with an audience of 3,000, a cover price of $2.50, an office at 1/1 Commercial Street, Mount Gambier, news editor Elisabeth Champion, and the website penolapennant.com.au — the Pennant back in the district, every Thursday, under new ownership.

Content

The Pennant covers the Penola district agenda: the Coonawarra wine region — the vintages, the winemakers, the terra rossa, the cellar doors, the region's crown as Australia's top Cabernet Sauvignon country; the farming districts — the sheep, the cattle, the grain; the town's Mary MacKillop heritage — the Interpretive Centre, the schoolhouse, Petticoat Lane, the pilgrims who come to the town of Australia's first saint, the MacKillop story the paper has told since 1946; and the community life of Penola and the district's towns. The paper has a particular emphasis on local sports — the Penola football team in the Kowree-Naracoorte-Tatiara Football League, the Penola Racing Club's thoroughbred meetings, the cricket in the Mount Gambier & District Cricket Association, the netball — community events and human interest stories. Council affairs, courts, schools and community events round out the offering — the Wattle Range Council, the district's courtrooms, its schools and its fetes, all in the district's paper, every Thursday.

Coverage and Audience

The newspaper advertised itself as "Circulating extensively throughout the Penola District Council Area, embracing Kalangadoo, Coonawarra, Nangwarry, Comaum, Glenroy, Monbulla and Maaoupe; and the South-East generally" — the district's towns, the wine villages, the farming localities, and the south-east beyond. Its readers are the district's vignerons and farmers, the small-town businesses, and the Penola community — the people of the Coonawarra and the town of Mary MacKillop, the people the paper was founded for in 1946, and the people who got it back in 2022.

Ownership

The Pennant is published by TBW Today Pty Ltd. Its ownership lineage runs from W. Erwin Thiele (1946) — the founder who saw the district's need — through Kenneth Victor Dohnt (1950–1971) and Lyle Shurdington — the long-time employee who became the paper's controller — to South East Telecasters and the Scott Group (1978–2020), and to TBW Today (2022).

Digital Presence

The paper maintains a website and social media channels for Penola district news and reader engagement; the SA Country Press directory lists penolapennant.com.au as its website — the relaunched Pennant online as well as in print, every Thursday. Its archive — from 25 July 1946 to the present, with the 18-month hiatus of 2020–2022 — documents the Penola district's transformation: the wine region's rise from Riddoch's 1890 plantings to the table-wine revolution and the present day, the town's MacKillop heritage, the tornado of 2010, and the life of the south-east, week by week, for nearly eighty years — the district's paper, back where it belongs, every Thursday.