In the days before Trove had digitised any local newspapers Wodonga Historical Society was always excited when old newspapers came our way. When Norma McGrath donated a complete year of Wodonga and Towong Sentinel we were thrilled, and 100 years after publication we recorded extracts to provide a social history of the time.
In 1907 the paper was a broadsheet, printed weekly and consisted of four pages. Page one made up entirely of advertising and public notices. The news from the preceding week commenced on page two. There were no headlines, with subjects being separated by nothing other than start of a new paragraph.
4th January 1907 editions tells us Wodonga Councillor Hickling took exception to the hours at which the sanitary contractor performed his work. He said that he and other dairy farmers were compelled by law to conform to the laws of sanitation, and if a dead fly was found in the cream they were threatened with all sorts of pains and penalties. As they drove along in their cream carts through Wodonga, they frequently encountered the sanitary contractor with his lorry – sometimes stuck at the railway crossing. The feeling of the Councillors was that the contractor should get to work earlier in the day, and he will receive a hint accordingly.
Dr. H. H. Schlink who recently completed a brilliant medical course by coming out fourth on the honor list in his final examination at the Sydney University, has gained the position of resident medical officer at the Prince Alfred Hospital, the principal hospital in Sydney. (Herbert Schlink was knighted in 1954, the only Wodonga born to have received that honour).
Mounted-Constable Carruthers of Barnawartha, has made several successful raids on duck-shooters. Half-a-dozen men will be proceeded against on a charge of illegal duck-shooting, and others who were detected with under-sized fish in their possession are to be prosecuted.
Sergeant Simpson, having been appointed cab inspector for the Shire of Wodonga, requires that all vehicles shall carry lights between sunset and sunrise. All offenders against the by-law will be prosecuted. Cyclists will do well to remember that a bicycle is a vehicle within the meaning of the Act.