As part of the 175th anniversary of The Examiner, the public was invited to vote for our top 20 news stories. To count down to the publication, we will be sharing those that didn’t rate. Here is number 25:
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A guiding hand behind the scenes of decisions that shaped the future of Australia, John West can be regarded as one of Launceston’s most influential people.
West was a 29-year-old Congregational reverend who moved to Tasmania, then called Van Diemens Land, to take up a position with one of the colony’s independent churches.
However he was thwarted from the position because the current minister decided not to vacate his role and remained there for 35 years.
QVMAG director Jon Addison has become a local expert on the man that helped found The Examiner newspaper and directed a campaign that resulted in transportation being abolished after Federation in 1901.
“John West was a non conformist…no one is really sure why he came to Tasmania but the best theory is that he wanted to develop a moral crusade and wanted to find somewhere he would have the most impact,” Mr Addison said.
“He was a very charismatic man...he was a very good writer, you find that you begin to believe in the things that he’s saying just because he is such a good writer.”
In the 1840s West became the Minister for the St John’s Square Church and later moved to Milton Hall, which was built for him.
As part of that role he used his influence in the community to begin a campaign against transportation and convictism.
Part of his campaign was to also be involved in the establishment of The Examiner newspaper in 1842. Mr Addison said he believed West wrote the first editorial for the newspaper and many after but it was hard to determine for sure because West did not sign his name to any articles.
“Each newspaper represented the views of different interests, The Examiner was there to represent the views of the independents. That’s why there were so many different newspapers.”
However the work of West’s campaign was noticed by the monarchy in Britain who decided, because of the move away from military government and free labour caused in part by the Victorian gold rush, that they would end transportation and move to a state democracy.
Because of factors that include the Victorian gold rush convictism became untenable and West’s campaign was the impetus for change.
The Examiner’s special publication for its 175th birthday will be available at the end of March.