He told Parliament: “While other newspapers are dying off, the Torch is still going strong. It’s now the only local newspaper in the local community.
“The Torch was started by Les Engisch, and today, it’s still owned and run by Les’s family. Les’s grandson, John Engisch, is the owner and managing director, and his great-grandsons, Trent and Christian Engisch, are the general manager and projects director, with their Aunty Pam also part of the team.
“The Torch has covered every major event in town over the last 100 years, from the visit of the Queen 40 years ago and the burning down of the council, to the elevation of a Bankstown boy who became the Prime Minister of Australia. In April 1955, the Torch made the news itself when the building where the Torch was published was firebombed.
“Torch had to shut briefly because of Covid-19, but now they’re back and hopefully, they’ll keep going for a long time to come; the Torch and the Engisch family are as much a part of Bankstown as Paul Keating or Steve Waugh or Bryan Brown and they’ve been around for much, much longer.”
Thanking Mr Clare, John Engisch said it was interesting that in 100 years, Torch has only had three chairmen and five editors.
“My grandfather said in the first issue that Torch would be the mouthpiece of the community and we’ve never stopped doing that,” Mr Engisch said.
Trent Engisch said: “It’s a huge honour to be a fourth generation director and we look forward to celebrating with the community once the pandemic is over.”
Christian Engisch added: “Every decade has seen many changes in the newspaper publishing game; there’s changes right now and we’re adapting as always.”
