About Westender

Westender

Overview

The Westender is a community newspaper for West End, the inner-city Brisbane suburb on the Kurilpa peninsula south of the Brisbane River, in postcode 4101. Published since 1992 as a local print and, later, online journal, it is one of the longest-running community newspapers in Brisbane; its publisher, Kerrod Trott, has described it as the oldest community newspaper in the city. The paper covers the development battles, green-space campaigns, arts scene and everyday community life of West End and its neighbouring suburbs, and it now publishes online at westender.com.au.

The Westender has always been a small, independent operation. According to its publisher, it has never employed a staff journalist; its pages have instead been filled by community contributors and journalism students, in a citizen-journalism model that made it a noted example of hyperlocal media in Australia. For many years it appeared as a monthly print edition delivered to homes across West End and surrounding suburbs, and in recent years it has published primarily online, carrying news, commentary and a well-regarded run of arts and performance reviews. It should not be confused with The West End Magazine, a separate glossy magazine that also serves the 4101 area.

The paper is currently active. Its recent online output, indexed through contributor bylines, includes coverage through 2025 and 2026, among it reviews of the 2026 La Boite Theatre season, a Queensland Symphony Orchestra portrait concert in February 2026, and a June 2026 report on the reopening of the Terminus Hotel on Melbourne Street, South Brisbane.

History

The Westender began publishing in 1992, founded and published by Kerrod Trott as a community paper for West End. It grew with the suburb through decades in which West End changed from a working-class and migrant neighbourhood into one of Brisbane's most contested development zones, and the paper's pages chronicled that transformation. Trott has called it the oldest community newspaper in Brisbane, and the paper is also described as one of the city's oldest community news sites, having established an online presence early for a suburban title.

In the 2010s the paper was published by Trott together with co-publisher Geoff Ebbs. Its model attracted national attention in citizen-journalism circles: Margo Kingston's No Fibs project profiled the Westender as a working example of community media, recording Trott's account that the paper had never employed a journalist and relied on contributions from residents and journalism students. At that time it was mainly an online journal with a monthly print edition. A business directory listing from the print era records the paper at 199 Boundary Street, West End — Boundary Street is the suburb's main street — with a claimed circulation of 20,000 and readership of 48,000, home-delivered across West End, Highgate Hill, South Brisbane, Dutton Park, Buranda, Annerley, Fairfield, Yeronga, Yeerongpilly and parts of Moorooka. Those directory figures are unverified and describe the paper's print-era footprint rather than its present online reach.

Around 2020, editor Jan Bowman took over the paper's editorship from Trott. Bowman, a citizen journalist associated with the No Fibs project, edited the Westender for four years. In a farewell editorial published in early 2024, she reflected on the paper's role as a voice for locals in planning fights and community campaigns, and recorded that in her years as editor the paper had been advertising-free and had always been freely available to readers. The paper has continued publishing online since her departure, with arts and local coverage appearing through 2025 and 2026.

Programming and Content

The Westender's defining subject is the future of West End itself. Development and planning coverage runs through its history: the paper has reported and campaigned on the Kurilpa precinct, the riverside renewal area whose temporary local planning instrument (the Kurilpa TLPI) allowed taller development than residents expected, and on major projects such as the West Village development on the old Peters ice-cream factory site at Mollison Street. Bowman's farewell editorial recalled a newsroom culture in which planning schemes and council "gobbledygook" were translated into plain language so residents could respond to consultations, and in which every development approval was scrutinised for what it meant to the suburb.

Environment and public space are equally central, from campaigns over green space and tree cover to coverage of the proposed green bridges linking West End with Toowong and St Lucia — a project the paper followed from announcement through the funding disputes that put it in doubt. Housing affordability, renting and the suburb's social diversity are recurring themes.

Alongside this advocacy-flavoured local reporting, the Westender carries a substantial arts and culture file. Its recent reviewers have covered La Boite Theatre at Kelvin Grove, including the productions Whitefella Yella Tree in late 2025 and Antigone opening the 2026 season; Queensland Symphony Orchestra concerts; Brisbane Festival and BEMAC events; exhibitions at the Woolloongabba Art Gallery; and Christmas cabaret at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Local hospitality news, such as the June 2026 reopening of the Terminus Hotel, a South Brisbane landmark dating to the 1880s blighted for years by fire and neglect, rounds out a mix that is equal parts council-watch, community noticeboard and cultural review.

Audience and Reach

The Westender is written for the residents of West End and the surrounding Kurilpa and South Brisbane neighbourhoods, a readership with a strong tradition of activism around planning, heritage and public space. In its print era, a business directory records, it was delivered monthly to homes across a wider arc of inner southern suburbs, from South Brisbane and Highgate Hill to Yeronga, Fairfield and parts of Moorooka, with a claimed readership of 48,000. Those figures come from a commercial directory listing of unknown vintage and should be treated as the paper's own historical claims rather than audited numbers.

Today the paper's reach is principally online and free. During Bowman's editorship it carried no advertising, and it has always been freely available, a model sustained by the publisher and community contributors rather than by a cover price or paywall. Its articles are indexed by journalist databases such as Muck Rack, which records its contributors' recent work, and its reporting is cited and republished by community and citizen-journalism outlets, including No Fibs, which has carried its editorials.

Digital Presence

The Westender publishes at westender.com.au, the latest home in an online presence that, by its publisher's account, made it one of Brisbane's earliest community news sites. The site carries the paper's news, opinion and arts coverage on a rolling basis; recent stories recorded in 2026 include February coverage of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, June coverage of the Terminus Hotel's reopening, and July 2026 arts listings for a Woolloongabba Art Gallery exhibition running into August 2026, demonstrating a publication still actively maintained well into its fourth decade. Its farewell editorial by Bowman was also republished on the No Fibs citizen-journalism site, and contributor Kerry McGovern's Westender reviews are collected on her Muck Rack author page, giving the small community title a visibility in media databases beyond its own website.

Ownership and Organisation

The Westender is an independent community newspaper. It was founded in 1992 and has been published by Kerrod Trott, with Geoff Ebbs serving as co-publisher during the 2010s. It is not part of a media chain and has never operated as a commercial metro title; its publisher has stated that it has never employed a staff journalist, relying instead on community contributors and journalism students, an organisational model that has made it a reference point in Australian discussions of citizen journalism.

Jan Bowman edited the paper for four years from around 2020 until early 2024, a period in which it operated without advertising. Since then it has continued to publish online under its existing community model, with contributors such as arts writer Kerry McGovern producing regular reviews and local reports through 2025 and 2026.

Contact and Availability

The Westender is available free online at westender.com.au, where its current news, opinion and arts coverage is published. A business directory listing records the paper's historical office address as 199 Boundary Street, West End, Queensland 4101, and its phone number as +61 7 3844 6394; that listing dates from the paper's print era and is reproduced here as directory information rather than a confirmed current contact. Readers interested in the suburb's other print title should note that The West End Magazine, published at westendmagazine.com, is a separate quarterly glossy and not connected with the Westender.