This paper’s fearless first editor

HENRY Thomas was appointed as the McIvor Times’ first formal editor by the original shareholders.

He was an early McIvor goldfield’s pioneer, arriving in 1853, and he championed many of Heathcote’s early institutions including the Borough Council, the Mechanic’s Institute, the racing club, and the local Masonic and Forester’s lodges.

Competent, energetic and outspoken, he was renowned for an honest and fearless approach coupled with great wit and a penchant for stirring up divisions within the community while pressing home his own convictions.

An early editorial from 2 July 1863 defended this partisan approach.

“A NEWSPAPER without a policy is much the same as a carpenter without tools, or a township without houses; and is almost as useful as an Editor without brains; and although such things are to be found occasionally, they rarely fulfil the functions for which they are intended,” he wrote.

The sly dig at McIvor News editor and direct competitor Henry Furze was unlikely to have escaped readers.

After resigning from the McIvor Times in 1868 Henry Thomas began a profitable auctioneering business conducted from Heathcote’s Victoria Hotel.

In 1872 he organised a successful Easter fair in aid of Heathcote hospital which saw more than 2000 people pass through the gate and raised more than £300, or over $52,000 in today’s money.