AGY-1154 | Government Printing Office

Full description

On 21 November 1840 the Governor Gipps announced his plans to establish a printing office "under the exclusive orders and control of the Government". John Kitchen was appointed as Government Printer on 14 December 1840, two free men were also appointed as assistant printers, with 20 convict men and boys allocated as production staff. By 1845 the Acting Government Printer reported to a board of management consisting of the Clerk of the Legislative Council, the Colonial Storekeeper, the Auditor General, and subsequently, the Immigration Agent. The Board of Management was abolished in 1854. The Law of Evidence - Parliamentary Printer's Protection Act, 1849 (13 Vic., No. 16) protected printers producing papers - "Reports, Papers, Votes or Proceedings" - on the authority of the Legislative Council. (1) Once the papers were authenticated by affidavit in a Court any civil or criminal proceedings would be "stayed". (2) The Act also ratified the power of the Governor to appoint a Government Printer. (3)

On 21 January 1857 printing postage stamps was transferred to the Government Printing Office with the Government Printer becoming the Inspector of Stamps (from 1864 the Inspector of Postage Stamps). In 1878 stamped envelopes were introduced and in 1880 perforations divided stamps for the first time. The Government Printer assumed the work of printing railway tickets on 15 June 1867. Throughout the Nineteenth Century the work of the Government Printer expanded with the addition of new branches and production methods that included in -
1857 - Bookbinding
1860 - Perforating stamps and machine numbering
1864 - Stereotyping and electrotyping
1865 - Printing of duty stamps and paper ruling
1867 - Railway tickets printing
1868 - Photo-lithographic and lithographic
1877 - Photo-mechanical
1879 - Parliamentary Debates (printing of "Hansard")
Many of the technological innovations were due to the efforts of the Thomas Richards (Government Printer from 1 June 1859 to 1 November 1886). Richards initiated helio-type or photomechanical printing, introduced a perforating machine and invented a method of drying stamps with heat from gas. His most important invention was an arithmotype bars system for numbering debentures, which was adopted in all colonies and England; he alleged the Bank of England took the patent without acknowledgment. He also encouraged and assisted John Sharkey in his experiments with faster processes for photolithography. (4)

The printing of duty stamps commenced in 1865 and ceased in 1874 with the lapse of the Stamp Duties Acts. (5) The Stamp Duties Act, 1880 (44 Vic., Act No. 3 re-introduced the duty stamp work. With the passage of the Public Service Act, 1895 (59 Vic, Act No. 25) the Government Printing Office became a sub department of the Treasury and was required to report to both the Public Service Board and Treasury. Subsequently a Departmental Board consisting of the Under Secretary to the Treasury, a Member of the Public Service Board, and the Government Printer was constituted under the Public Service (Amendment) Act, 1910 (Act No.21, 1910) to deal with Printing Office salaries and recruitment. During the first twenty years of the Twentieth Century, the Government Printing Office also faced competition from the Railways Department's printing office. (6)

With the opening in 1959 of a new building in Harris Street, Ultimo all of the activities of the Government Printer were accommodated in one building. The Government Printing Office met the printing requirements of Parliament, Government Departments and agencies, plus semi-governmental organisations. Work was also done for Commonwealth departments and instrumentalities, and became one of the largest general printing houses in the Southern Hemisphere. In July 1989 the Government Printing Office was closed and the printing of Hansard and legislation was contracted out to the private sector, while public agencies took the responsibility to make their own arrangements for their printing. Late in 1989 the Government Printing Service was established to assist agencies with their printing requirements.

Endnotes
1. Law of Evidence - Parliamentary Printer's Protection Act (13 Vic., No. 16, 1849) Section 7.
2. Ibid. Section 8.
3. Ibid. Section 6.
4. Edgar Suzanne 'Thomas Richards entry in the Serle Geoffrey & Ward Russell (section Editors) Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6: 1851-1890 R-Z, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1976 p.25.
5. Stamp Duties Act (29 Vic., No. 6 1865) and its continuation acts.
6. Testimony of William Applegate Gullick (Government Printer) the Royal Commission to inquire into the Public Service of New South Wales in the Joint Volumes of Papers presented to the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, Volume IV 1918 pp. 339-340.