Early development
The story and development of the Yorke Peninsula Country Times over the last 150 years follows a web of newspapers threaded together since the first Yorke Peninsula newspaper appeared as the Wallaroo Times and Mining Journal in 1865.
This first paper was the product of Andrew and David Taylor, who came to Australia from Invercargill, New Zealand, in the same year.
This paper flourished at Elizabeth Street, Wallaroo, until in 1888, due to pressure by Kadina traders, the establishment moved the business to 25 Taylor Street, Kadina. In January 2008 the business then moved to its current modern facilities at 31 Goyder Street with the building being officially opened by Senator Alan Ferguson in November of that year.
The paper was then called the Kadina and Wallaroo Times in deference to the gentlemen traders who probably suggested that they would withdraw patronage if this did not occur.
In 1891 Andrew died, and David continued until his death when Mrs Furner-Taylor headed the business. In 1910 Andrew's son, William F Taylor and James H Pengelley, both of Kadina, entered into a partnership which lasted for 25 years until 1935 when Mr Pengelley died. His son Fred then became a partner.
When William Taylor died in 1945, Fred took control, with Mrs Agnes Taylor maintaining a financial interest until 1962, when the family finally relinquished a 92 year connection with the "Times".
Competition
During these years the Times suffered competition from two other papers, the Plain Dealer and its offshoot the Copper Age, produced by John Southwood and George Spring who found it hard going during the depression years.
Fred Pengelley's long association with the newspaper ended in 1963 when Moonta newspaper proprietors, C.J.G and T.F. Ellis, who ran the People's Weekly, purchased the Kadina business. The Ellises continued to print both newspapers (one in each town) until 1966, when the Moonta paper was incorporated in the Times to become the Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta Times.
Two years later a further change took place when The South Australian Farmer, another Kadina-based newspaper, owned by Mr and Mrs H.W. Tossell of Adelaide, merged with the Times. As a result the newspaper was named the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, with the first edition on September 4, 1968.
In 1970 the publishers purchased the rights to the S.Y.P. News Pictorial, published in Yorketown, which was an amalgamation of the Maitland Watch and the S.Y.P. Pioneer.
The Times Today
The Ellis family still own the Yorke Peninsula Country Times. Michael Ellis is the Managing Editor.
From that first issue in 1968 the Yorke Peninsula Country Times has gone from strength to strength - from a newspaper of 16 pages, to one that gradually increased, with strong support, to a paper which regularly publishes 60 plus pages growing to nearly 100 in the busy Christmas period.
From a small beginning, the print run has steadily forged ahead until more than 8,000 copies stream from the Goss Community press situated at the new premises at 31 Goyder Street, Kadina.
