Practice Primary Source Report on the Australian Journal
By Phoebe Hamilton
Circulation
The Australian Journal began as a weekly magazine in 1865 becoming a monthly by 1869 (Osborne, 2017, p. 227).
The magazine was released across city and country Australia and New Zealand, and internationally to readers in the UK, Canada, USA, South Africa, India and Malaya (Osborne, 2017, pp. 228-229).
Editor
R. G. Campbell was the editor of the Australian Journal for thirty years from the year 1930 (Osborne, 2017, p. 228). He became editor after being hired to write A Detective Story (Osborne, 2017, pp. 227-228).
Originally a teacher, Cambell was a freelance journalist who submitted short stories under various pseudonyms in the 1920’s (Osborne, 2017, p. 227).
During Cambell’s tenure, sales rose from 30,000 to 54,000 copies per issue during the 1930’s, and reached a peak of 120,000 copies (Osborne, 2017, p. 228).
Fig. 1 R. G. Campbell,
editor of the Australian Journal, 1926–1955.
Louise Campbell Private
Collection. From Osborne, Roger. ‘An Editor Regrets’
R. G. Campbell’s Australian
Journal, 1926–1955
Implied Reader
The magazine was read by a wide variety of readers – men, women, and children – for entertainment purposes (Osborne, 2017, p. 228).
It was a “magazine for every member of the family, the Australian Journal offered a broad mixture of editorial and advertising content” (Osborne, 2017, p. 229).
Contents
The magazine was an important venue for short story writers. In its early years some of these authors were Adam Lindsay Gordon, Henry Kendall, Marcus Clarke and the writer of detective stories (and first editor of the “Detective’s Album”), Mary Fortune “Waif Wander” (Osborne, 2017, p. 227).
In the 1930s to 1950s some of the authors who regularly contributed were Myra Morris, Jon Cleary, Robert Close, and Xavier Herbert (Osborne, 2017, p. 230).
During its publication the Australian Journal printed more than 795 short stories written by various authors; with “Rex Grayson” (1924-1955) being one of its biggest contributors having 205 short stories recorded as being published (Osborne, 2017, 239).
The Australian Journal was important for the world of freelance writers, and many of its contributors were prominent and respected authors of their time.
Advertising within the magazine tended to focus on house-hold products, and included many illustrations and pictures.
Format
During Campbell’s editorship issues contain between 100 and 200 pages.
The short stories were tailored to a specific formula and were required to be within 2,000 and 3,000 words in length (Osborne, 2017, p. 234).
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