The ''Australasian Post'', commonly called the ''Aussie Post'', was

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's longest-running weekly picture magazine.

History and profile

Its origins are traceable to Saturday, 3 January 1857, when the first issue of ''Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle'' (probably best known for

Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of New ...

's famous 1858

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

letter) was released. The weekly, which was produced by Charles Frederic Somerton in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, was one of several

Bell's Life ''Bell's Life...'' was a group of newspapers produced in Australia in the mid-nineteenth century based upon the English publication ''Bell's Life in London''. Most publications lasted a short duration. The subtitles were usually ''sporting ch ...

publications based on the format of ''

Bell's Life in London ''Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle'' was an English weekly sporting paper published as a pink broadsheet between 1822 and 1886. History ''Bell's Life'' was founded by Robert Bell, a London printer-publisher. Bell sold it to William In ...

'', a Sydney version having been published since 1845. On 1 October 1864, the weekly newspaper ''The Australasian'' was launched in

, Victoria by the proprietors of '' The Argus''. It supplanted three unprofitable ''Argus'' publications: '' The Weekly Argus'', '' The Examiner'', and '' The Yeoman'', and contained features of all three. A competitor, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', gloated that as it was printed on coarse heavy paper, its weight exceeded the maximum for concessional postage, adding to its cost to country subscribers. Its format was similar 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). ''The Australasian'' adopted locally based editions during the transition. Well-known writers who contributed to its pages include

Marcus Clarke Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (24 April 1846 – 2 August 1881) was an English-born Australian novelist, journalist, poet, editor, librarian, and playwright. He is best known for his 1874 novel ''For the Term of His Natural Life'', about the co ...

(including series ''The Peripatetic Philosopher'' under the pseudonym "Q"), T. A. Browne as "Rolf Boldrewood",

Ada Cambridge Ada Cambridge (21 November 1844 – 19 July 1926), later known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian writer. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works.Cato (1989) p. v Many of her nov ...

Louisa Anne Meredith Louisa Anne Meredith (20 July 1812 – 21 October 1895), also known as Louisa Anne Twamley, was an Anglo/Australian writer, illustratorSally O'Neill,, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp 239–24 ...

, J. E. Neild, C. H. Spence, and Jessie Couvreur. The ''

Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil The ''Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil'' was a monthly magazine published in Melbourne by ''The Argus'' between 1873 and 1889. History and profile The ''Sketcher'' appeared once a month, starting April 1873. The proprietors were named ...

'', which was founded by ''The Argus'' in April 1873, merged with ''The Australasian'' after its last issue of 26 December 1889.

Editors

Frederick William Haddon Frederick William Haddon (8 February 1839 – 7 March 1906), was an English-born Australian journalist and newspaper editor. Biography Haddon was born at Croydon, England, the son of Richard Haddon, a schoolmaster and landscape artist, and his wi ...

1865 to 1866 * James Smith 1871 to 1872 *

Henry Gullett Sir Henry Somer Gullett KCMG CB (26 March 1878 – 13 August 1940), known as Harry Gullett, was an Australian journalist, military historian and politician. He was a war correspondent during World War I and co-authored the official history of ...

1872 to 1885 *

David Watterston David Watterston (2 January 1845 – 23 July 1931) was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor; he was editor of ''The Australasian'' from 1885 to 1903 and of '' The Argus'' 1903 to 1906. Watterston was born in Balgone Barns, Haddingtonshi ...

1885 to 1903 *

Edward Thomas Fricker Edward Thomas Fricker (17 December 1858 – 4 April 1917) was editor of ''The Australasian'' magazine from 1903 to 1917. Biography He was born in London, a son of William Henry Fricker and cousin of Sir Hereward Wake, Bart., (1852–1916). He was ...

1903 to 1917 *

Alexander Hugh Chisholm Alexander Hugh Chisholm OBE FRZS (28 March 1890 — 10 July 1977) also known as Alec Chisholm, was a noted Australian naturalist, journalist, newspaper editor, author and ornithologist. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists ...

1937 to 1938

Transition to ''Post''

The final edition of ''The Australasian'' appeared on 6 April 1946, published by The Argus and Australasian Limited, 365 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, with an announcement that "Next week, this magazine becomes The Australasian Post in an entirely new format, with modern enlarged content." ''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 In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotion ...

, human interest stories, fashion, politics, culture and entertainment, being the staple of barber shops across the country. One of its features was its focus on

Australiana Australiana includes the items, people, places, flora, fauna and events of Australian origins. Anything pertaining to Australian culture, society, geography and ecology can fall under the term Australiana, especially if it is endemic to Austra ...

, with pages of jokes and cartoons, including the

Ettamogah Pub The Ettamogah Pub is a cartoon pub that was featured in the now defunct ''Australasian Post'' magazine. The cartoonist Ken Maynard, loving empty spaces and having nothing around him, enjoyed an area just outside Albury at Table Top, New South Wa ...

series by cartoonist

Ken Maynard Kenneth Olin Maynard (July 21, 1895 – March 23, 1973) was an American actor and producer. He was mostly active from the 1920s to the 1940s and considered one of the biggest Western stars in Hollywood. Maynard was also an occasional screenwrit ...

. Its "Letters" column was titled "Pillar to Post", a punning reference to the

pillar box A pillar box is a type of free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories, and, less commonly, in many members of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Cyprus, India, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, New Ze ...

method of posting a letter. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the magazine's covers and content included illustrations and stories focused on sex and nudity.
Australasian Post
' at Paper World (commercial site). Accessed 2 May 2017 In 1982, ''

The Sun News-Pictorial ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' (known as ''The Sun'') was a morning daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, from 1922 until its merger in 1990 with ''The Herald (Melbourne), The H ...

'' 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 A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' before Weaver resigned in mid-1984 to move to the United States. Post's trademark bikini-clad

cover girl A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magaz ...

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 The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' 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

{{Reflist, 33em 1864 establishments in Australia 2002 disestablishments in Australia Weekly magazines published in Australia Defunct magazines published in Australia English-language magazines Magazines disestablished in 2002 Magazines established in 1864 Magazines published in Melbourne Magazines published in Sydney