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(Note: Plaque is no longer at this site)

South Bourke Standard masthead, May 31st, 1861	Printing Office Ad, South Bourke Standard.

The South Bourke Standard was the first local paper in Hawthorn, editor and printer Apollos Slatterie. He lived and worked, in wood and iron buildings owned by the Cook family, from 1860. The Standard was a 4 page weekly paper costing threepence (2/3 cents) and an advertisement on the front page gave its address as Near Fletchers. The newspaper was published between 1861 and 1873 when Slatterie became Town Clerk, following John Toon. The newspaper remained in the Hawthorn Council archives, providing a unique valuable record of all facets of Hawthorn's history for that period. No other local paper remains in existence from then until the early 1880s. Daniel Cullen, broker, acquired the property in 1881, then year he became a Hawthorn Councillor. He was Mayor 1886/7 and the buildings were later demolished.