This week Sydney Star Observer turned 30, celebrating their ‘pearl jubilee’. The Star will celebrate another major milestone later this year with the publication of the 1,000th issue on December 9.

According to a release from Sydney Star Observer, the newspaper’s founder Michael Glynn emigrated to Australia in 1971 from the USA and published the first issue of the Star on credit, with payment promised for most ads by most of Sydney’s gay venues at the time, and used public buses and a backpack to distribute it on the night of July 6, 1979. The next Monday everyone paid up and Glynn went back to the printers – and the Star’s never missed an issue since.

The publication has had a spectacular history, with some of the breaking stories that the Star has reported include: the first AIDS account, Mardi Gras collapse, Dawn O’Donnell’s death, numerous Oxford St bashings, the Gay Games, the formation of key community organisations ACON and BGF, and the battle over the age of consent.

Scott Abrahams, Publishing Editor of the newspaper said in a statement released today, “The HIV/AIDS epidemic was a key theme for the Star for many years. We have also covered thousands of spectacular celebrations that the community has enjoyed over that time, including the iconic Mardi Gras held in Sydney every year, which celebrated its 30th anniversary just last year.”

Chairman of SSO Media – which publishes Sydney Star Observer and Southern Star in Melbourne – Daniel Bone said in a statement that the company has undergone a significant change in structure since Glynn’s time.

“We have a unique ownership structure among the gay and lesbian publishers in Australia, in that we are owned by the community, and that has been the situation for the past 21 years,” Bone said. “It’s an intrinsic part of our organisation that we represent the community, and we have broken many highly significant stories that
have affected the lives of thousands of gay and lesbian Australians.”