In 1920 the Herald and Weekly Times paid £46,000 for a block of land at the corner of Flinders and Exhibition Streets, and constructed this magnificent, heritage listed, neo-classical office and news printing facility.
The Herald and Weekly Times Building housed the Herald and Weekly Times newspaper from its construction in the 1920's until the 125 year old afternoon broadsheet publication stopped publication on Friday October 5, 1990, after its circulation had fallen from a peak of almost 600,000 to a little over 200,000. The next day its sister morning publication, The Sun News Pictorial was published for the last time, both to be replaced by a new newspaper, the Herald Sun, on the morning of October 8.
Since 1993, the Herald Sun has been printed at the HWT Print Centre at Westgate Park, Port Melbourne, whilst editorial, advertising and administrative staff have called the HWT Tower in Southgate home since December 1995.
The Herald and Weekly Times building was then converted into luxury apartments, while still retaining many of its heritage features including the radio towers and the signage. It has since become the foundation to a new office tower.
"Stop the presses" is supposedly the catch cry heard when "late breaking news" worthy of making it to the paper was coming in, and literally meant to stop the printing of the newspaper so that it could be amended, edited or added to with the important news ready to hit the streets the next day. Today that term, for both newspapers and journalists, could be a more ominous call as the age of the internet has seen many newspapers fall due to declining readership.
The rumble of the presses may be gone forever from here, but a new rumble can now be heard. The rumble of cachers! Somewhere around the back of this building, in an unnamed alley, you will find what you are looking for; a 200ml Sistema container with a little bit of room for swaps. Good luck!
Please note: there are reports that there is often a lot of rubbish around ground zero, as well as the odd dead pigeon. Let me assure you, it was not this way when the cache was originally hidden.
Your choices are:
- go there with the knowledge that the area may not be too nice.
- practice some CITO on your adventure.
- don't go there.