Saturday, November 8, 2025
Our History
‘Race For Local Football Pools’ announced the first front-page of the Observer, as it hit the streets on Sunday, September 14, 1969. The newspaper, in its first edition, speculated that British football pools organisation, Littlewoods, could mount a challenge to operate football lotteries based on the big English pools. Tattersalls held the monopoly for gambling…
Read More about Our First Edition of the Melbourne Observer
Our History
IPEC transport magnate Gordon Barton published the first issue of the Melbourne Sunday Observer on September 14, 1969. It was Melbourne’s first regular Sunday newspaper. (Michael Michaeledes, who ran the Greek newspaper Torch , officially took the honours by publishing the Sunday Post, which lasted for seven editions. Dern Langlands started his weekly Postscript Weekender newspaper in August 1969….
Read More about Gordon Barton. Proprietor. 1969-1971
Our History
The first issue of the Sunday Observer (Sep. 14, 1969) was critiqued by The Canberra Times. Newspaperman Rohan Rivett (picturede) assembled the report. He was the elder son of Sir David Rivett, and his wife Stella (née Deakin). He was a grandson of the former Prime Minister of Australia, Alfred Deakin, and of the Rev. Albert Rivett (1855-1934), a…
Read More about ‘Features, sport, but no scoops’