AustLit

William Fairfax was a printer and newspaper proprietor. He was the nephew of John Fairfax (q.v.), proprietor of the Sydney Morning Herald. During the 1850s and 1860s he lived in Melbourne, where he established himself as a printer, and at one point was connected with the Argus. In the period 1860-1866, he lived in Brisbane, where together with W. C. Belbridge (q.v.) he established the Queensland Guardian, and also ran a printing business. In late 1866 he then moved to Warrnambool, where together with Henry Laurie (q.v.), he ran the Warrnambool Examiner and later established the Warrnambool Standard. In 1877 he moved to Sydney, where he became a partner in the printing firm Foster and Fairfax. He died suddenly in Sydney in 1881.