by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

softcover, viii, 90 pages.
Letao Publishing,Albury , 2001.
ISBN 1 876940 03 4   RRP: free download.

Founded in 1856, the Border Post was Albury's first newspaper. The range of verse, from doggerel to bush ballads to literary poetry, was a common art form in the mid 19th century. Some of the letters to the editor, as well as some election announcements and even advertisements were expressed in verse. Prose fiction was expensive and was thus limited. This is well reflected in the pages of the Border Post, which focussed on verse over prose in its offerings.

The Border Post (Albury, NSW) Fiction Index 1856 - 1885 illustrates the wide range of poetry and short fiction offered to the readership, fiction drawn from British, American and Australian papers, magazines and books. The wide scope of the sources used by the Border Post demonstrates the scope of the editors. Far from being a small parochial paper, the Border Post was a major influence shaping the cultural and political development of North-Eastern Victoria and Southern New South Wales.

About the author

Dirk H.R. Spennemann is an Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage Studies at Charles Sturt University (Albury) with a strong research interest in the Pacific. He is the author of numerous academic papers on aspects of Pacific history and heritage with an emphasis on Micronesia and the recent colonial past.

Dirk Spennemann is the co-editor a collection of myths and legends from the Marshall Islands, Bwebwenatoon Etto (Historic Preservation Office, Marshall Islands, 1991), an anthology of Albury poetry and prose, ReCollecting Albury Writing (Letao Publishing, Albury, 2000), and of Handley Bathurst Sterndale's My Researches and Adventures in the Pacific (Mulini Press, Canberra, 2001). His most recent book, Aurora Australis (Historic Preservation Office, Saipan, 2000), covers the German colonial period in the Marianas.

The Border Post Fiction Index 1856-1885  can be obtained free of charge at: http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~dspennem/PDF-Articles/BP_Fiction_Index_1856-85.pdf