Pambula Voice collection:

Collection of artefacts associated with the Pambula Voice newspaper.

The first issue of the Pambula Voice was published by founder William Daniel Pfeiffer on 27 August, 1892. Pfeiffer had previously operated the Moruya Advance, but after this closed down, he moved to Pambula, bringing the printing press with him.

W.  D. Pfeiffer. 

Four years before the Voice’s establishment, gold was discovered at nearby Mt. Gahan and consequently mining news held a prominent place within the paper’s pages for twenty years. Correspondents also reported from all the outlying areas, with weekly columns from Greigs Flat, Nethercote, Lochiel, Millingandi, Towamba and Merimbula to name just a few.

An early photo of staff on front of the Pambula Voice office.

Pfeiffer continued as editor until November 1904 when he sold the business to George W. Hall of Bega. Six years later, Hall sold out to Charles Arthur Baddeley. A tanner by trade, Baddeley employed J. B. Wilkins as manager and editor until, at a later date, Wilkins appears to have purchased the business from his employer.

Sales agreement between G. W. Hall and C. A
Baddeley, for the Pambula Voice business,
dated 22 June 1910.

Employment agreement between Charles Arthur
Baddeley & John Bellamy Wilkins, dated 12
December, 1911.

             







 

Sealing the road in Quondola Street, Pambula, outside the
Voice office.

The disused Pambula Voice office building, C. 1960s.

Eustace Phillipps Olga Smith & Allan George
Snr outside Pambula Voice office late 1930s 

Wilkins continued to run it until his death in 1933 when his son Edgar Claude Wilkins took over. Three years later, the business again changed hands when it was purchased by Eustace Phillipps of Eden. He was to be the last owner of the Voice as it then was.

In 1939, WWII broke out and with it came rationing and increasing shortages, including both labour and the paper supplies needed for the weekly publication. As a result, the Pambula Voice was finally forced to amalgamate with the Eden Magnet in 1941, becoming the Magnet-Voice.

The Pambula Voice collection consists of printing blocks, letters, invoices, photographs and the most compete hard copy collection of the publication in existence (loaned to the State Library of NSW for microfilm copying in about the early 1990s). It is privately owned.

A small selection  of Pambula Voice invoices
ranging in date from 1898 and 1904.

Collection of newspaper printing blocks used to publish the Pambula Voice.

© Angela George. All rights reserved.