April 2, 2026
southburnett.com.au celebrated a milestone on Thursday: the 14th year since we swapped to a daily news format as well as our 26th year serving the South Burnett with information about local events and businesses.
During the past 14 years we’ve published more than 27,230 news stories – all of which are still available online – and more than 60,700 photographs.
We have also accepted more than 6931 “letters to the editor” (ie. comments) on stories.
We’ve been active on social media (our Facebook page has more than 11,000 followers), and we also post on X, YouTube and SoundCloud.
Seven years ago when we published our annual “birthday” story, we noted that it had been an exciting – and sometimes exhausting – effort to bring you our region’s local news every Monday to Friday, as well as on weekends whenever big stories break.
That has been amplified in many ways since the death of South Burnett Online founder Dafyd Martindale in September 2024 but we have managed to keep on going with some very valuable help at times from friends in the community.
We previously announced that South Burnett Online would be run in future by a not-for-profit association.
That association, Burnett News Inc, has been in operation for more than 12 months now, establishing the framework which will hopefully keep South Burnett Online alive and thriving for many for years.
The legalities in regards to the transfer of all assets are very close to now being finalised, which will be a relief to everyone who has been involved in this complicated process!
And in the meantime, it has been “back to the future” for SBO.
In January, we moved into Office 5 at the South Burnett Enterprise, which is where Dafyd launched the business so many years ago.
And this week, we secured PO Box 613 for the future use of Burnett News Inc, the same PO Box which Dafyd used right back in the early days of SBO.
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What’s In The Future?
Over the past 14 years we’ve been very proud to receive advertising support from some of the largest businesses, organisations and events in our region.
Like all media, we make our income from advertising.
We still believe we can offer local businesses – especially small businesses who’ve been priced out of the market by other media – inexpensive ways to reach potential new customers.
We’d like to invite local businesses to contact us in regards to advertising, and we would like to invite you – our readers – to become members of the association for just $10 a year.
We want to ensure our region continues to have locally owned, locally run media.
Why? Because country journalism thrives when reporters know the background, the people, the places and the meaning of the stories they report.
In the meantime, thank you once again for your support of South Burnett Online over the past 14 years.
We truly appreciate it!
- Related article: A New Direction For SBO
