Charters Towers:The Northern Miner - Mr Thadeus O’Kane

Charters Towers is a beautiful town in North QLD, inland from Townsville. The central business district’s heritage listed buildings, constructed between1886-1914, have been preserved to a very high standard.

One of the buildings, is the former premises of The Northern Miner. The newspaper was initially established in Millchester in 1872 by James Smith Reid and sold to Thadeus O’Kane in 1876. The business was moved to premises in Gill St, Charters Towers in 1874. The current building was built around the original building in 1903. The publication ceased operations as a print newspaper in Charters Towers in 2020.

In addition to the longevity of the paper was the profile of the owner/editor Thadeus O’Kane. He was passionate about the rights of miners and took affront with many people in positions of authority in Charters Tower. Mr O’Kane was respected by journalist throughout Australia for his “take no prisoners” style of journalism which resulted in him juggling many libel cases throughout his career.

With my body of work I am currently photographing historical artefacts and gathering research to delve into the life of Mr O’Kane. I am sharing my journey of this process through this blog.