AustLit

The Fremantle Journal and General Advertiser is the first newspaper to be published in Western Australia. The 27 February 1830 issue, stated by the reviewer in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (29 April 1830): 2 as the first issue, is a single hand written sheet probably copied a number of times. The review gives the price of the newspaper and describes the content noting that the Fremantle Journal is hand written and that the '... leading article is a brief and becoming entré, bespeaking the candid consideration of the public, intimating that the embryo journal was patronised by the Lieutenant Governor, and stating that a supply of printing materials was expected soon from London.' The reviewer also observed that the editor gave an opinion on the 'usefulness of newspapers'.

According to A. C. Frost the Western Australia Gazette continues the Western Australia Gazette and General Advertiser. Like the Western Australia Gazette and General Advertiser the Western Australia Gazette was larger than Gardner's previous newspaper the Fremantle Journal and General Advertiser, was handwritten and included a 'Poets' Corner'. Frost states that it is not known whether the Gazette and its immediate predecessor were separate from or a continuation of the  Fremantle Journal. Both Gazettes are catalogued separately from each other and from the Fremantle Journal in library records.

A. C. Frost, 'Early Western Australian Newspapers', Early Days, vol. 9, part 1 (1983): 77-78