The Weekly Times was first published on September 11, 1869, by a group of Melbourne businessmen who owned the now-defunct Daily Telegraph, with the stated aim to be a “journal of literature, sport, agriculture, science and politics”. It is Australia’s oldest rural newspaper, and is known far and wide as the Bible of the Bush. (ref Weekly Times web-site)This magazine is a useful reference tool on the history of the Royal Melbourne Show as well as The Weekly Times.A souvenir edition of The Weekly Times dated Wed. Sept 7 1994. Price $1.10. It marks the anniversary of the first Weekly Times, Sept 11 1869. Inside is a special preview of the Royal Melbourne Show, a history of the show and a history of The Weekly Times. It also contains a brief history of 125 years of rural news. On the front cover is a colourful picture of an older man sitting on a tree stump outside a bark hut. He is reading an early edition of The Weekly Times.weekly-times souvenir-newspaper magazine royal-melbourne-show rural-history