George Mott Beechworth Pioneer

The district’s first newspaper was the Ovens and Murray Advertiser

It was co-run by George Mott who arrived at Beechworth in 1855 to take up partnership in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser Newspaper which had been started earlier in the year by Francis Nixon at Beechworth on January 6, 1855.

Nixon also started another Beechworth paper, The Constitution and Ovens Mining Intelligence, in 1855.

Mott went on to produce the Border Post (Border Mail) There’s a tradition that Mott brought a small printing press to Albury from Melbourne and was ferrying it across the Murray when the punt sank. He recovered it after a few days.

Mott must have drawn heavily for support from old friends at Beechworth as many of the advertisements in the first issue were from that town, then the largest in the district.

Apart from the difficulty of transporting a heavy printing plant and lots of metal type, Mott also had to import suitable paper (newsprint).

That might explain why the first issue cost one shilling, which could then buy you a pound of bacon or half-a-dozen eggs in Albury.

The Mott family owned and operated the Border Mail until 2005

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