Numurkah Leader

History The Numurkah Leader was first published in 1895. Current owners, the Morris family, have now run the paper for three generations. The Morris brothers, Klon and Tom, purchased the Leader in 1908, and The Standard shortly afterwards. For a while they continued to publish the two papers under their original titles and, after carefully drawing the public back together again, and with the shortage of newsprint during the war years, they amalgamated the two under the name of the Numurkah Leader in 1917. It was published from the same premises which the Leader occupies today. Klon and Tom worked as a team in the early days, Klon concentrating on the editorial content and Tom having the responsibility of production. A second generation of Morris’ joined the firm when Tom’s son Brian was taken onto the staff. He married Lorna Kirne of Strathmerton in 1949. When Klon decided to retire in 1955, Brian and Lorna bought his share and a father and son partnership continued to run the paper. In 1962, Tom had a heart attack and was forced to retire, and Brian and Lorna became sole proprietors when they purchased Tom’s share. Disaster struck in June 1967, when Brian died very suddenly, leaving Lorna with a family of five children, the youngest only five months old, a huge debt, and a complex business of which she had no knowledge which required her constant attention. Two years later the third generation of the Morris family, Tony, entered the firm. Business began to pick up and, in 1975, Tony entered into a partnership with his mother. The year 1979 was a big one when the Leader went “off-set”. This meant most of the equipment, both for the setting up of the newspaper and the commercial printing, was replaced by sophisticated equipment. Staff re-training was necessary as well as some reconstruction of the building. Steady progress in both divisions was made and further upgrades of the plant were undertaken. In 1984 Lorna’s second son, Terry, began his apprenticeship in the commercial printing division. He later transferred to Kyabram Free Press to gain experience in a larger plant before returning to the Leader in 1988 and becoming a partner in 1989. With enthusiasm, careful planning and years of hard work, things went well for the Leader until the early hours of Wednesday morning, April 8, 1987, when the town’s worst fire gutted the premises and completely destroyed all equipment. Devastated, Lorna and Tony were encouraged to get going immediately. The building was cleared, rebuilt and completely operational within eight weeks and the Leader never failed to publish its weekly edition. In fact, in the entire 100 years of Morris ownership, never has a single issue been missed. A third child of Lorna’s, Beverley (Hutchins), joined the Leader team in 1986 and a real family affair began. In 1998, the matriarch herself, Lorna, retired and Tony, Terry and Beverley took over as joint proprietors of the company. The highlight of this 10-year partnership was when the NumurkahLeader won the Victorian Country Press award for Best Newspaper in Country Victoria, for a circulation of 3000 or less, in 2006. The Numurkah Leader now operates from modern premises with first-class conditions and top-class computerised equipment, and will continue to cover a wide and varied range of issues in a fair and responsible manner.