Timeline – ANDREW BENT: Father of the Free Press in Australia

The Press Unshackled

4 Jun 20243 Jun 2024

In 2024, as Australia celebrates 200 years of a free press and independent journalism, there are several people we can thank: Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane—who took unto himself perhaps rather…

Paper in mourning

On 19 October 1827 Andrew Bent issued what must surely be one of the most curious newspapers ever printed in Australia—the famous ‘mourning’ issue of the Colonial Times. It was…

James Austin

11 Mar 20228 Mar 2022

Of all the friendships Andrew Bent formed in Hobart Town his bond with James Austin, an original Calcutta convict, ran especially deep. Their relationship appears to have been one of…

Bentfield part 2

11 Aug 20215 Jul 2024

On 19 July 1828 Andrew Bent—who had grown up in the slums of London, spent his entire working life as a printer, and knew next to nothing about farming—became the…

Bentfield part 1

3 Aug 20214 Aug 2021

One measure of Andrew Bent’s early success was the amount of real estate he accumulated. He owned several properties in Hobart Town and two small farms at Glenorchy, one granted…

Benjamin Bent

12 Mar 20217 Jan 2024

Benjamin Bent, the middle of the three Bent brothers, arrived in Australia, like his two siblings, as a transported felon. He had his first encounter with the magistrates, and first…

George Clark

28 Apr 20207 Aug 2022

George Clark was Andrew Bent’s predecessor as Government Printer in Van Diemen's Land. His time as a printer in Hobart Town, from around 1810 to 1815, was relatively short and…

Last days

28 Jun 201928 Jun 2019

DIED ... At the Benevolent Asylum, on the 26th instant, Mr. Andrew Bent, printer, aged 55 years, formerly of Van Diemen's Land. (Sydney Morning Herald 28 Aug. 1851) How had…

Apprenticeship

17 Dec 201817 Dec 2018

How Andrew Bent became so skilled at the printing craft has long remained a mystery. In a memoir of Bent published in the Mercury in 1881 James Erskine Calder…

Philip Street

26 Oct 201826 Oct 2018

Philip Street was convicted alongside Andrew Bent at the Old Bailey on 1 November 1810. Philip's family background helps to explain why he was granted a full pardon for their…