How to find newspapers

How to find current, historical and online newspapers

National

You can find a full listing of all current and historic electronic newspapers under the A-Z databases page. Below are some of the highlights. The most comprehensive listing of newspapers is on our catalogue- just enter the title you are looking for and select 'journal or newspaper titles' from the drop down option.

A.C.T

Canberra Times up to 1986 is available on Trove,  as well as seven other ACT titles.

Newspapers on microfilm. Includes Canberra Times from 1926. Onsite access only. Interstate newspapers on microfilm are kept in storage and can be ordered daily.

New South Wales

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

West Australia

Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald is mostly all available online.

1831-1842: The Sydney Herald via  Australian Newspapers Collection (1831-2000),
1842-2000: via Australian Newspapers Collection (1831-2000),
1842-1954 is on Trove
1955-1995 (Feb) is on the Sydney Morning Herald Archive 
1986-current Access Australia 2021 - mostly text only. Full-image format available for recent major newspapers.
1996 Aug 1: Proquest Newsstream (articles only; not classifieds, BDMs or images)
1996-2006: for full text/ images use SLV microfilm
2006- today: Sydney Morning Herald Digital Editions  

 

Locating newspapers on Trove

Tim Sherratt has developed a map which pinpoints newspaper titles that have been digitized on Trove. It's very handy to see what areas and time periods have been covered across Australia.

Newspaper circulation in Australia

Newspaper circulation in Australia, 1932-1977 provides figures and tables covering newspaper ownership, market shares, circulation and prices for all of Australia, spanning 1933-1976.

Australia's press: control and circulation, 1974-75 includes capital city newspaper and magazine circulation, a listing of who owns which publications and a table of advertising expenditure.

Australian newspaper history

You can find lots of information about Australian newspapers through the work of the Australian Newspaper History Group. You can view the some of the results of their research online including:

In these resources, you can find out more about newspapers and their staff over the decades.

Two hundred years of Sydney newspapers : a short history/  Victor Isaacs and Rod Kirkpatrick
This digitised booklet offers an overview of the history of Sydney newspapers and includes circulation comparisons, timelines and an extensive bibliography.

News websites

Finding articles

Use the News articles search in catalogue to find results across millions of news articles from hundreds of newspapers. Text only, no pictures or ads.  To find articles in popular Australian newspapers, combine one or more of the ISSNs below with your search terms:

Newspaper ISSN
The Advertiser (Adelaide) (1996— ) 1039-4192
The Age (Melbourne) (1991— ) 0312-6307
The Australian Financial Review (2003— )      0404-2018
The Australian (1996— ) 1038-8761
The Courier Mail (Brisbane) (2001— ) 1322-5235
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) (2001— ) 1836-0203
Herald Sun (Melbourne) (2001— ) 1038-3433
The Mercury (Hobart) (2001— ) 1039-9992
The Sydney Morning Herald (2001— ) 0312-6315

 

For example
To find: Type in:
articles about AFL in The Age  0312-6307 AFL
articles about AFL in two or more papers      (0312-6307 OR 1038-3433) AFL

 

The content is uploaded weekly so for the most recent articles on a topic, it's best to go to the individual database. For more search tips and information about using our catalogue, please visit the Using our catalogue help pages.