A little history
The "Talking Gazette" (often referred to locally as the Blue Mountains Talking Gazette) was established in 2003 in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, as a free community resource. 
Conceived by local resident Thelma Murphy OAM in conjunction with the Springwood Neighbourhood Centre, the service was created to provide news and information to residents who are blind, have low vision, or experience impairments that prevent them from reading the standard local newspaper.

Thelma had a good reason for starting The Talking Gazette being that a good friend had Motor Neuron Disease and could no longer hold or turn the pages of The Blue Mountains Gazette.  Her friend felt disconnected from the community she loved and missed all the local news and events that the local paper provided.

Thelma, a great mover and shaker, went about canvassing local community groups to raise the much needed funds to start the project and worked with the management of the Springwood Neighbourhood Centre Cooperative Limited to raise the funds needed.  There was also the need to investigate how, what and where the project would work and so too became the need to enlist volunteers.  These were needed to not only narrate the articles in the paper but also to produce the original audio cassette, duplicate it and distribute to those who signed up to receive the recording each week.

Early Beginnings and Production
The project began as an entirely volunteer-led initiative, with community members acting as rotating narrators to read articles, community notices, and local features from the Blue Mountains Gazette.  Even today, volunteers from the Springwood Neighbourhood Centre record articles to produce the digital media each week.  Early editions were distributed to clients on cassette tapes, allowing listeners to stay connected to their local community.
The first mail out was in March 2005.

Thelma Murphy OAM - 1923-2020