There's a really nice website that allows for searching historic newspaper articles in Australia for the period 1803-1954, at
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/. I couldn't resist browsing through those that referenced AE, of course.
I'll list the text of several news stories from 1937-1939 whose contents caught my eye, because they don't ring a bell from my years of browsing the vast contents of the Tighar website. Nothing in them seems particularly significant -- more amusing (or poignant) than anything else. To my knowledge, the fellow named Eric Hanner didn't get to claim Putnam's $20,000 reward offer; maybe it's still available for Ric to grab!
Here they are:
The Canberra Times — Thursday, July 1, 1937
MRS. PUTNAM HELD UP
LAE (New Guinea), Wednesday.
Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam postponed her departure owing to the absence of weather reports from Howland Island.
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The Canberra Times – Friday, July 2, 1937
MRS. PUTNAM'S FLIGHT
HELD UP
NEW YORK, Thursday.
The United Press announces that Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam postponed her departure from Lae, New Guinea, until Friday owing to a broken fuel lead.
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The Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania – Saturday, July 3, 1937
WHY AVIATRIX WAS
DELAYED
Papers Did Not Comply
With Regulations
DARWIN, July 2.
Officers of the Federal Health Department have admitted that Amelia Earhart, the American aviatrix, and Capt. Noonan, her navigator, had been "grounded" for 10 hours after their arrival at Darwin because her papers did not comply with Australian regulations.
The hitch occurred because of the provision which demands that all visitors to Australia must have vaccination certificates, endorsed by the Government Health Officer of the country of origin. Amelia Earhart's papers had been granted by a leading American doctor. Immediately it was found that her papers were not in order, the airport health officer communicated with Canberra, and received permission to accept her certificate.
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The Sydney Morning Herald – Saturday, July 17, 1937
AMELIA EARHART PUTNAM
So she, who was a bird, took a bird's flight
Into the darkness of the plumy night --
Fluttered a little while, then, broken, fell
With helpless wings outspread, where none can tell.
A silver gull that flashed its little space,
Skimming the sea and sky with agile grace --
A vibrant thing of swiftness and delight,
Caught in the sudden snare of endless night.
--Stephanie Dale.
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The Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania – Monday, July 26, 1937
Reward For Amelia Earhart
SAN FRANCISCO. July 24.
Mr. Putnam has offered a reward of 20,000 dollars (£4,000) for information definitely clearing up the mystery of the disappearance of his wife, Amelia Earhart. The reward will be payable for the recovery of any of the contents or part of the aeroplane revealing her fate.
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The Sydney Morning Herald – Monday, May 15, 1939
KIDNAPPING OF
PUBLISHER.
Mr. G. P. Putnam.
THREAT OVER ANTI-NAZI BOOK.
BAKERSFIELD (Cal.), May 14.
(A.A.P.)
Mr. George Palmer Putnam, publisher, husband of the late Amelia Earhart, was found bound and gagged in a vacant house early yesterday morning.
He told the police he had been kidnapped from his Hollywood home the previous night by two men speaking German.
Mr. Putnam recently announced that he had received a letter threatening him with death unless he desisted from publishing the anti-Nazi book, "The Man Who Killed Hitler."
He told the sheriff that the men knocked him unconscious in his garage, and drove him off in his own automobile.
Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam, the well known United States airwoman, was lost in the Pacific during a flight round the world in July, 1937.
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The Sydney Morning Herald – Monday, October 16, 1939
SEARCH FOR LOST FLIER.
HONOLULU, Oct. 15. (A.A.P.)_
Eric Hanner will leave tomorrow in the 55ft schooner Valkyrie to search for Amelia Earhart Putnam, who was lost with her navigator Captain Noonan, while flying the Pacific in 1937. Hanner's cruise will take him a year.