Osborne, Roger (2026) The History of Printing in Cairns. Cairns Historical Society Bulletin, 752. pp. 1-5.

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Abstract

The history of printing can be broken up into three primary categories: book work; periodicals (e.g. newspapers and magazines); and job printing for government, business, education, and society. Since the fifteenth century, when Johannes Gutenberg initiated European printing history, the basic principles of the printing process remained unchanged until the middle of the twentieth century. From the 1950s, photographic and computer technologies began to influence the printing industry and the human work that was necessary to set type, apply ink, and exert the pressure needed to transfer ink onto paper. The history of printing in Cairns falls at the tail-end of that longer history, beginning in the late 1870s, and continuing to the present day, evolving with rapid changes to technology in the twentieth century to increase speed, scale, and quality in the printing process. These evolutions have brought us to the post-print era we are currently living through as digital technologies drive the production of print and deliver content to our computers and phones. This article provides a brief history of printing in Cairns by describing the main developments and biggest players in periodicals, job printing, and book work. Whether you are reading this article in print or on screen, the technologies that brought these words to you would have been unimaginable to the first Cairns printers. Nevertheless, Cairns printers have often been early adopters of new technologies that produced the print that organised, informed, educated, and entertained Cairns citizens for the last one hundred and fifty years.

Item ID:	93580
Item Type:	Article (Scholarly Work)
Keywords:	Cairns; printing history; publishing history
Related URLs:	Publisher
Copyright Information:	© 2026 The author.
Date Deposited:	28 Aug 2026 00:06
FoR Codes:	47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4705 Literary studies > 470528 Print culture @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1302 Communication > 130204 The media @ 50% 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology @ 50%
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