Morning tea marks start of Manning River Times exhibition at Cundle Museum

Former editors and staff, as well as representatives from the community, corporate and civic sector, attended the function at which Times senior journalist, Mick McDonald outlined the Times' history.

The exhibition featuring historical photographs and newspaper memorabilia continues to Friday, May 31. The museum is open daily from 10am to 3pm.

The museum is home to the Manning River Times bound copies dating from the early 1950s up to 2014.

The first issue of the Manning River Times came off the press on January 8, 1869. Six days earlier Charles Boyce and George Buckleton swore before Henry Flett JP that they were "the first proprietors, printers and publishers of the Manning River Times, to be printed at Taree each Friday."

Charles Boyce came to the North Coast with his brother, Thomas Burnham Boyce in the 1860s. The Boyce brothers were born in London and came to Australian in 1849. Both were apprenticed in the printing trade.

The Times was first set up in an old cottage in Manning Street somewhere near where IGA now stands. After some time a move was made to a cottage facing Manning Street where Saltwater Wine now stands. Charles sold the Times to his brother on December 1, 1885.

The Times made its only move from Manning Street in 1895 when Thomas Boyce brought the property of a newspaper that has closed down, the Manning River Independent.

It remained there until 1899 when it moved into the building at the corner of Manning and Albert Street, which was its home for the next 117 years. In 2016, the Manning River Times moved into a modern, purpose-designed office in Victoria Street, opposite Fotheringham Park.

In 1951 the Times and Taree's other newspaper the Northern Champion amalgamated and the Times circulation went up to about 4000 copies an edition, the highest circulation of any tri-weekly in NSW. In 1961, the frequency of issues was stepped up to four a week, with the Thursday edition morphing into the Chronicle Extra, later to become the Manning Great Lakes Extra, in 1985.

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