The Border Watch


The Border Watch is an Australian newspaper based in Mount Gambier, South Australia, owned by the Scott Group of Companies. Published Tuesday through Friday, the paper services Mount Gambier, the South Australian Limestone Coast, and parts of Western Victoria. It is the oldest and largest regional newspaper in South Australia.

History

The Border Watch was first published on 26 April 1861 by proprietor and editor Andrew Frederick Laurie, aided by his brother Park Laurie and their mother, the widow of the Rev. Alexander Laurie, first Presbyterian minister of nearby Portland, Victoria. It started as a 4-page, single broadsheet weekly in Gambierton, as Mount Gambier township was then known. John Watson joined in 1863 as editor, and he and A. F. Laurie as publisher managed the company for the next 50 years. Laurie was president of the Mount Gambier Racing Club from its inception and Watson was Mount Gambier's first mayor. Laurie and J. Watson founded The Narracoorte Herald in 1875, run initially by Archibald Caldwell and John Baxter Mather, and taken over in 1880 by Mather and George Ash.
The newspaper also incorporated two rivals: the biweekly Mount Gambier Standard, and the South Eastern Star, which had been run by James Fletcher Jones. It also owns and prints the weekly newspaper The Pennant, which services Penola and district, and the South Eastern Times at Millicent.

Awards

It won the "Best Newspaper" category in the South Australian Country Press Awards in 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2018.

Controversy

In 2006, prominent editorial staff resigned or took leave due to the perceived interference of the newspaper's then owner, Allan Scott.