At the end of this month, The Bingara Advocate and the Warialda Standard will merge to become the Gwydir News.
The merger does not mean that either of the current papers is leaving town or closing. Both offices, 38 Hope Street Warialda and 34 Maitland Street, Bingara, and telephone numbers will remain unchanged. For the past three years, the accounts have been run from the Bingara office.
Because Council and several sporting organisations, and our State parliamentary representative cover both towns, indeed all parts of the Gwydir Shire, duplication has been taking place.
The merger will give local businesses and community organisations a much louder advertising and news voice, and readers will naturally have more news. The only change will be that there will be one paper instead of two.
The Gwydir News will continue to be distributed throughout the Gwydir Shire and beyond. The name Gwydir News was chosen for much the same reasons as the Council chose that name leading up to the amalgamation in 2004. The Gwydir Highway runs through Warialda, and the Gwydir River runs through Bingara.
The Bingara Advocate was started by Samuel Dickson in 1934. His son, Rex, continued as editor until 1979 when Rob and Jennifer Lewis bought the Advocate. They sold to the current owner, Nancy Capel in December 1995.
The actual age of the Warialda Standard, which started as the Warialda Standard and Northern Districts Advertiser, is not clear. The Warialda Standard office, along with all its archives, was destroyed by fire in the 1970s. Old news items can be found on The National Library of Australia website Trove: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title1159
It was purchased by current owner, Nancy Capel in June 2015.
The Editor of The Gwydir News will be Laura Carroll. Manager is Nancy Capel, and Kerry Mitchell will handle the classified Advertising. Anne Brien will remain in charge of accounts.
Advertisements and news items can be lodged at either office. The Warialda Standard and Bingara Advocate email addresses will, for the time being, remain in place. Readers will be advised when the new email addresses and website are up and running.
