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Established in 1859, the Federal Standard Printing Works is one of the few substantially intact provincial newspaper printeries remaining from the gold mining era.
Just as the Chiltern area attracted gold prospectors, the first edition of the newspaper appeared on 24 August 1859.
The first proprietors were Felix Ashworth, George Boyer, and George H Mott. Within two years the Federal Standard had incorporated Rutherglen's first newspaper, The Murray Gazette, Albury's first newspaper, The Border Post, and The Ovens Constitution at Beechworth. To carry out these tasks, large steam-driven printing machinery was installed capable of producing 2,000 impressions per hour.
The papers published from this building were among the most influential in Victoria and the Riverina, with agencies as distant as London. George Henry Mott's influence was considerable in the printing business. Many men he employed established papers elsewhere. In a period of 112 years the Mott family owned and published some 45 newspapers either wholly or in partnership.
When the building was purchased it had been used as a newspaper and jobbing printing office for over 110 years. The equipment in it was much as you see today. It is a mixture of printing equipment from the 1870s through to the 1920s. In its heyday, up to five people would have worked under this unlined roof, a very hot workplace in Chiltern's warm summers and very cold on frosty midwinter days.
The equipment includes two presses, a linotype machine and metal text and graphics in original type cases.
