Carlton is not new to news!

It is Sunday night and the tabletop has been put on the billiard table. The cutting boards and scalpels are out, and the lay-out sheets are in place.

The galleys for the typesetter are waiting to be cut up, and the photo bromides are ready to be cropped. The production team volunteers are arriving to layout the first edition of City Alternative News (CAN).

The team was at work to edit, publish and distribute the first edition of CAN on September 4, 1980. The front-page article on the community’s takeover of the North Carlton Railway Station for a neighbourhood house had been written and the team was editing other articles born of the local community.

Unlike The Melbourne Times, which had become timid over time, CAN was prepared to take on the rich and powerful in council and in government and backed a local voice for Carlton. In October 1997 CAN ended its local independent news reign as a result of the Kennett Government annexation of North Carlton to the City of Fitzroy and then to the City of Yarra. For almost two decades CAN had reported and reflected on local and city-wide issues and initiatives and sought to make those responsible accountable and inform the local community.

Now CAN is back. The CAN archive (1980 - 1997) has been digitised and can be sourced through the City of Yarra website. CAN is a treasure trove of memories, histories, stories, struggles and successes and reminds us that local democracy needs us to be informed and be involved. CAN provided a tool and a voice and remains worthy of a read.

The launch of CAN Digital will take place on September 4, 2026 in the Carlton Library, Rathdowne St from 6.30pm to 8pm in celebration of its role in the community. Margaret Simons, freelance journalist, author and academic at the University of Melbourne, will launch CAN Digital at 6.45pm. For those interested in attending please email [email protected]

But Carlton is not new to local news! In the 1870s the Carlton Advertiser and Trade Advocate was published followed by the Carlton Gazette and The Advertiser through to 1900. In 1970 the Carlton Business and Property Owners’ Association published the Carlton News and in 1971 it morphed into The Melbourne Times, which was distributed throughout Carlton and surrounding suburbs. The paper focused on the threats to Carlton including the Housing Commission Victoria, University of Melbourne, Country Roads Board, Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, the Melbourne City Council and the Anglican Church. In 2001 The Melbourne Times was taken over by the Melbourne Leader, a News Corp paper, thus losing its independence.

But the independence and local legacy returned with the publication of Docklands News in 2003 by independent publisher, Hyperlocal News. This was followed by their publication of Southbank News, CBD News, North West City News and Inner City News, the latter covering East Melbourne, Carlton and Parkville.

The Melburnian, to be published in September this year, will replace all of the five existing local newspapers including the Inner City News. The Carlton community will continue to be provided with local news along with news from across the City of Melbourne.

The Melburnian will hit the letterboxes and mailboxes of homes and businesses across the city and is by design a move to deliver local news and local democracy. Carlton will never be without news!

Martin Brennan is the co-founder of City Alternative News and a former City of Melbourne councillor. •