Gresley Lukin

Who was Gresley Lukin?

Gresley Lukin was an Australian public servant, newspaper owner, company manager and newspaper editor, most prominently the part-proprietor of the Brisbane Newspaper Company from November 1873 to December 1880, then and still the leading journal in Queensland under the name the Courier-Mail.

Lukin was born on the at Launceston, Tasmania on 21 November 1840, son of the brewer George Lukin and his wife Mary Anne, née Wilkins, and he died at Wellington, New Zealand on 12 September 1916. Lukin followed his elder brother George Lionel Lukin to Queensland in 1865, where he came to work as a clerk and public servant. He became chief clerk of the Queensland Supreme Court in 1871 but resigned in November 1873 after purchasing a third share in the Brisbane Newspaper company. Although Lukin took on the position as editor-in-chief of the Courier, he was in fact working the journal's 'managing editor', only occasionally being engaged in the practical editing and writing. The old Irish radical, William Augustine O'Carroll, was the de facto daily editor of the Courier during Lukin's entire period as managing editor.