In a small, unassuming shed alongside the paceway track in Penrith, sits a rare and interesting historical artefact with links to the central west.

On a recent visit to Sydney, Orange City Life took the opportunity to visit the Penrith Museum of Printing. Founded in 2001, the museum is dedicated to preserving the history, stories and artefacts of the Australian Printing Industry.

But more than just a static collection of old printing equipment, the Penrith Museum of Printing is a “working museum” with fully functional printing equipment, maintained and worked by enthusiastic volunteers.

Among their collection of linotypes and printing presses, sits the ornate and stately “Columbian Press” with its distinctive cast-iron bald eagle adorning the top lever of the hand-operated machine.

Invented by the American George Clymer around 1813, it was considered a major improvement for printers at the time, allowing large broadsheet newspaper pages to be printed quickly with a single pull of the lever. Major newspapers in cities all over the world were once printed using a Columbian Press. The same model was used to print the Sydney Morning Herald from 1830 until 1852.

But it just so happens that this particular press in the Penrith Museum of Printing collection was once to be found working right here in the Central West.

Manufactured in London in 1841, the press was transported to Australia and carried over the Blue Mountains by bullock cart to Carcoar where, in 1872, it began printing the Carcoar Chronicle. It was in continual service in Carcoar until 1939 when the paper ceased publication.

The press was supposedly left to rust in a backyard until John Fairfax discovered it and had it brought to Sydney in 1973. Restored by engineering apprentices, the press was put on display in Fairfax company’s Pyrmont office until it was donated to the museum in 2017.

The 160-year-old printing press is still very much in working order and was in use at the time of Orange City Life’s visit.

The Penrith Museum of Printing is also home to a Wharfedale press, which served The Nepean Times from 1882 to 1962, and its most recent addition, the 1939 Heidelberg that was used to print the The Don Dorrigo Gazette from 1971 until June 30, 2023. The Don Dorrigo Gazette was the very last letterpress-produced newspaper in Australia.