The Federal Standard Printing Works

Main St, Chiltern, Victoria. 3683 Ph: 03 5726 1611

Open: 2nd weekend of each month; Saturday 10.00am to 3.00pm, Sunday 10.00am to 3.00pm. Machinery operates Sunday only. Also open Ironbark Weekend and Easter Sunday.

History:

Established in 1859, this is one of the few substantially intact provincial newspaper printeries remaining from the gold mining era.

Just as the Chiltern area attracted gold prospectors, the first edition of the newspaper appeared on 24 August 1859.

The first proprietors were Felix Ashworth, George Boyer, and George H Mott. Within two years the Federal Standard had incorporated Rutherglen’s first newspaper, The Murray Gazette, Albury’s first newspaper, The Border Post, and The Ovens Constitution at Beechworth. To carry out these tasks, large steam-driven printing machinery was installed capable of producing 2,000 impressions per hour.

The papers published from this building were among the most influential in Victoria and the Riverina, with agencies as distant as London. George Henry Mott’s influence was considerable in the printing business. Many men he employed established papers elsewhere. In a period of 112 years the Mott family owned and published some 45 newspapers either wholly or in partnership.

In September 1859, George Anderson was appointed editor and he and his sons were associated with the destiny of the paper until 1938 when Irvine Benjamin Hicks became owner, publisher and editor. Hicks purchased Yackandandah News and continued to publish it and the Federal Standard up to the time of his death in 1969.

In 1969, Roger J Palmer purchased the property and in 1972, due to its historical and social significance, The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) became owner.

When the building was purchased it had been used as a newspaper and jobbing printing office for over 110 years. The equipment in it was much as you see here today. It is a mixture of printing equipment from the 1870s through to the 1920s. In its heyday, up to five people would have worked under this unlined roof – a very hot workplace in Chiltern’s warm summers and very cold on frosty midwinter days.

The equipment includes two presses, a linotype machine and metal text and graphics in original typecases.

Tours/Booking:

Bus tours by appointment only – phone 03 5726 1611 (Visitor Information Centre) or 03 5726 1280

Getting There: