AustLit

A journalist, printer, editor, newspaper owner and author, George England Hooke is thought to have begun his career in as a journalist in the early 1870s. In October 1875 he purchased the Sydney printing business of John E. Kelly. One of his first known orders was the program for Garnet Walch's pantomime Beauty and the Beast. The following year Hooke moved his printing plant to Tamworth in north-western New South Wales where he set up the bi-weekly newspaper The Tamworth Observer and Northern Advertiser. It operated under his ownership until 1889, at which time he was forced to divest all interests in the business, including 'printing plant, type, machinery, goods and chattels' and property, under a warrant and writ to sell by auction (Maitland Mercury 25 June 1889, 4).

Hooke remained in the Tamworth district for several years before moving to Grafton where he took up an interest in preserving. He later moved to Molong, situated at the foot of the Macquarie Ranges, 30 kilometres north-west of Sydney, to take up the position of editor of the Molong Express. Hooke's publications include Australian Fruit Preserving: A Practical Treatise on the Best Methods of Preserving Fruits and Vegetables Grown in Australia; with Instructions for Making Jams, Jellies, Marmalades, Conserves (19–?).