Yes, I agree, newspapers are a great resource.
Here's the live links to newspapers covering both Australia and New Zealand. These links are free to search.
National Library of Australia (newspapers from 1803 to 21st century
Trove :
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/search?adv=y (Trove is actually much more than just the newspapers, so you can of course select 'Home' at that webpage)
Ferguson papers (not as user friendly as trove, but some of the newspapers have not yet migrated across to Trove. This link mainly covers the 1840s newspapers, so the decade immediately before the Gold Rushes and immediately after transportation of convicts to mainland Australia had ceased ... ) :
http://www.nla.gov.au/ferg/ National Library of New Zealand:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=p&p=aboutsite&e=-------10--1----0--Google news Archives :
https://news.google.com/newspapers?hl=en This of course covers much more of the globe than Australia. However it's coverage of (The) Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney is the Capital of New South Wales, Australia) extends to about 1989.
Both Papers Past and Trove are ongoing projects, and newly digitised papers are regularly uploaded to both websites.
However, sometimes newspapers can get themselves a tad out of kilter with the facts. I share: There is an article about one of my 19th century ancestors that notes she had "35 children". In fact, she had EIGHT living at the time of the article .... The reporter probably meant to write down 3 + 5 or 3B +5G .... there were 3 sons and 5 daughters alive at the time .... I am fairly sure (based on entries in a family Bible, and on baptismal and burial Early Church Records) my ancestor gave birth to 14 children, and likely had other pregnancies too, but ummm.... not 35
.... She was only 39 when she died.
Cheers, JM
