Australasian Post

The Australasian Post, commonly called the Aussie Post, was Australia's longest-running weekly picture magazine.

Australasian Post
Cover of the Australasian Post for 29 January 1953.
FrequencyWeekly
Year founded1864
Final issue2002
CountryAustralia
Based inMelbourne
LanguageEnglish
ISSN0004-8437

History and profile

Its origins are traceable to Saturday, 3 January 1857,[1] when the first issue of the publication Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle (probably best known for Tom Wills's famous 1858 Australian rules football letter) was released.

The weekly publication was based on the format of Bell's Life in London, and was produced by Charles Frederic Somerton in Melbourne, with a Sydney version having been published since 1845.[2]

In 1864, the weekly newspaper The Australasian was launched in Australia and New Zealand in a similar format to the Bell's Life papers, but with much less sport content. As a result, the local papers Bell's Life in Victoria and Bell's Life in Sydney were gradually phased out of publication.

On Saturday, 4 January 1868, the last Melbourne issue appeared (no. 504), while the last Sydney issue (No. 731) came out on Saturday, 31 December 1870 (no. 731).[3] The Australasian adopted locally based editions during the transition.

Editors

Transition to Post

The final edition of The Australasian appeared on 6 April 1946, published by the Argus and Australian Limited, 365 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne,[9] with an announcement that "Next week, this magazine becomes The Australasian Post in an entirely new format, with modern enlarged content."[10]

The Australasian Post was read by millions at the height of its popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and featured a uniquely Australian mix of scandal, sensationalism, human interest stories, fashion, politics, culture and entertainment, being the staple of barber shops across the country.[11]

One of its features was its focus on Australiana, with pages of jokes and cartoons, including the Ettamogah Pub series by cartoonist Ken Maynard.[12][13]

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the magazine's covers and content included illustrations and stories focused on sex and nudity.[14]

In 1982, the Sun News-Pictorial features editor Feyne Weaver was appointed Australasian Post editor: he immediately doubled the number of articles in the magazine and, while keeping the bikini-clad cover girl, got rid of all the "tit 'n' bum" inside. The circulation rose to an all-time high, overtaking the then market leader People before Weaver resigned in mid-1984 to move to the United States.

Post's trademark bikini-clad cover girl began to look old-fashioned in the late 1980s, and it suffered a rapid decline in popularity. The execution was stayed momentarily when knockabout Herald Sun columnist Graeme "Jacko" Johnstone took the helm, took the bikini girl off the cover, and focused on its knack for telling uniquely Australian stories. The magazine was renamed Aussie Post in 1997, but it was not enough and it closed its doors on 2 February 2002, after 138 years.

At the time of its last edition, it was the longest-running continuously published magazine in Australia.

References
  1. National Archives of Australia
  2. Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer (NSW : 1845 - 1860) at Trove
  3. Bell’s Life in Sydney, final issue Publication, 31 December 1870, at Trove
  4. Woods, Carole. "Haddon, Frederick William (1839–1906)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 25 October 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  5. Jordens, Ann-Mari (1976). "Smith, James (1820–1910)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 25 October 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  6. "Gullett, Henry (Harry) (1837–1914)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 25 October 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  7. Hurst, John. "Watterston, David (1845–1931)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 25 October 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  8. Chisholm, Alec. "Chisholm, Alexander Hugh (Alec) (1890–1977)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 5 May 2020 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  9. Publishing note page 3 The Australasian, 6 April 1946, at Trove
  10. Announcement: Next Week page 12 The Australasian, 6 April 1946, at Trove
  11. Murphy, Wayne Lawrence & Murdoch University. School of Humanities. Master of Arts in Literature and Communication Programme (1990). In Reading Post a study of the general interest magazine, Australasian Post. Murdoch University, Murdoch, W.A
  12. Maynard, Ken (1978). In Ken Maynard cartoons: A nostalgic look back on Ken's cartoons as appearing in Australasian Post. K. Maynard, Palm Beach, Qld
  13. Maynard, Ken & Northover, Robin (1990). In Tales from the Ettamogah Pub: Australasian Post. Southdown Press, Melbourne
  14. Australasian Post at Paper World (commercial site). Accessed 2 May 2017
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