Walkabout was an Australian illustrated magazine published from 1934 to 1974 (and again in 1978) combining cultural, geographic, and scientific content with travel literature. Initially a travel magazine, in its forty-year run it featured a popular mix of articles by travellers, officials, residents, journalists, naturalists, anthropologists and novelists, illustrated by Australian photojournalists. Its title derived "from the supposed 'racial characteristic of the Australian Aboriginal who is always on the move."
History Ostensibly and initially a travel and geographic magazine published by the Australian National Travel Association (ANTA), Walkabout : Australia and the South Seas was named by ANTA director Charles Holmes. In its first issue of November 1934, the editorial, signed by Charles Lloyd Jones, chair of the board of David Jones and acting chairman of ANTA, proclaimed its aim to educate its readers thus:
This first issue with its cover by internationally known photographer Emil Otto Hoppé set the benchmark, with profuse illustrations by others in the articles; 'Coming Down with Cattle', by Arthur Upfield; 'Undiscovered New Guinea' by editor Charles Holmes; 'The Kimberleys' by Ion Idress, a pictorial section titled '...And The Cities' with four uncredited images; 'Tahiti To-Day' by Charles Chauvel; 'The Maori', by Eric Ramsden; with "Our Cameraman's Walkabout", a pictorial section on the 'British Solomon Islands Protectorate'.
The income the association derived from magazine sales provided for its other activities in promoting tourism, "to place Australia on the world's travel map and keep it there." It was assertively Australian in its ethos but took cues from other popular magazines of the period, such as the United States' National Geographic Magazine which served a similar audience, and Life.
Australian Geographical Society From August 1946, Walkabout doubled as the official journal of the newly formed Australian Geographical Society, founded with a £5,000 grant from ANTA, its banner subscript reading 'Journal of the Australian Geographical Society'.
When the Society disbanded in 1961 it resumed its purpose of promoting tourism and became 'Australia's Way of Life Magazine,' supported by the Australian National Publicity Association and later the Australian Tourist Commission and advertising from shipping lines, state government tourist bureaus, tourist destinations and hotels and, later, airlines.
For the first 25 years Walkabout offices were located in the Railway Building, Flinders Street, Melbourne. From 17 October 1959, the magazine operated from 18 Collins Street, Melbourne, in the then new 12-storey Coates Building (near the corner of Collins and Spring streets), a multi-storey office building constructed in 1958–59. Still standing, it is preserved as of heritage significance. Constructed to the prevailing height limit in a design by John La Gerche during the postwar building boom that transformed Melbourne into a modern high-rise city, the Coates Building is an intact early representative example. Its curtain wall street façade of horizontal rows of framed glazing and vertical mullions in a grid and materials such as aluminium distinguish its Post-War Modernist style.
Editorship Charles Holmes was Walkabout'''s founding managing editor, retiring in August 1957. From June 1936 he was paid £250 per annum and C.S. Weetman was appointed associate editor at £100, with their allowances coming from the magazine's income and being conditional on its profitability. Basil Atkinson was editor until January 1960; then Graham Tucker followed by film critic and photojournalist Brian McArdle (1920–1968) from January 1961. In the following financial year subscribers to Walkabout came from 91 different countries. Under a new banner 'Australia's Way of Life Magazine' (after November 1961), modern dynamic layouts in a larger format of and more lively captioning saw a brief peak in circulation to 50,000 in 1967 in response to more liberal human-interest and cultural content. McArdle consciously emulated the American Life magazine (1936–1972) and the French Réalités (1946–1979). After McArdle's illness and death, John Ross took on the editorship in December 1969 with various others filling the role, and the magazine format was reduced to until it ceased publication in 1974.
Contributors Writers included some of Australia's most significant authors, novelists, journalists, naturalists and commentators:
Western Australian writer Henrietta Drake-Brockman originated the 'Our Authors' Page',Editor, 'Acknowledgment', Walkabout, August 1950, 37. a full-page feature on a leading writer, which was given a leading position in each issue opposite the table of contents between 1950 and 1953.
A book review column ran almost continuously from 1953 to 1971 under the byline 'Scrutarius' (who was journalist H.C. (Peter) Fenton, with perhaps others), totalling almost 200 columns and which reviewed usually four books per issue. Fenton had a background as a multilingual Victorian Railways publicist. The magazine thus provided a showcase of diverse Australian literature to a mostly 'middlebrow' audience that was otherwise ill-served by other periodicals and newspapers.
Photojournalism ANTA recognised that the magazine it intended to publish would only be successful if it were well illustrated. Its 16th board meeting, held in Sydney in May 1934, passed a motion to employ a staff photographer for the purposes of improving "the quality of 'arresting pictures' that were being forwarded to overseas papers and magazines". Roy Dunstan, a Victorian Railways employee who was possibly known to the first editor Holmes, since both worked for the railways, was appointed on a salary of £9 per week with all expenses paid, increased to £10 per week from 1 September 1938.ANTA Board Minutes, Sydney, 8 August 1939; ANTA Board Minutes, Canberra, 11 October 1938 He was later joined on staff by Ray Bean from 1947 to .Walkabout appealed to 'middle-brow' audiences, and artists, for its pictorial content. An appearance in its pages was responsible for remote features, such as Wave Rock, becoming tourist attractions. It became an outlet for, and promoter of, Australian photojournalism through photographers, men and women, some famous, like Frank Hurley who contributed seven Walkabout articles in 1939–40, and a cover image in 1956, and others lesser-known, like Heather George, whose careers were launched in the magazine. Stories were liberally illustrated each with up to fifteen quarter-, half- and full-page photographs in black and white. Walkabout also sponsored a national artistic and aesthetic photography competition in 1957 with a One Hundred Pound first prize (a 2019 value of over $3,000).
The original pictorial segment was initially called "Our Cameraman's Walkabout", then "Australia and the South Pacific in Pictures" (briefly including New Zealand in the title), "Australia in Pictures", "Camera Supplement" and after 1961 a 24-page lift-out full-colour supplement "The Australian Scene" was included annually in the December issue which sold at a higher price. It began with as many as 23 photographs spread over 6–8 pages, but dropped to 6–10 photographs in the 1960s. The segment was often devoted to a single topic and in the 1960s to single-topic double-page spreads.
In January 1959, full-colour covers appeared, together with full-colour advertising, but photographs accompanying articles continued in black and white or sepia. In a letter to readers in October 1961, the new editor McArdle promised that the first issue he oversaw would "pictorially excel itself."Brian McArdle, "Dear reader", Walkabout, Vol. 27 No. 10,1 October 1961, p.9 Letterpress was replaced by offset printing in July 1962, so that articles could be illustrated with colour photographs from July 1965.
Significant Australian photographers included in its pages were:
International photographers Emil Otto Hoppé, Victor Minca
Associated book publications In the 1960s the magazine spawned a number of book-length illustrated anthologies with content both new, and from the magazine issues;
Representation of Indigenous Australians
Aboriginal, Torres Strait, and Pacific Island cultures were central position in the portrayal of Australia that was presented to readers. The magazine now provides retrospective insights into the discussions about Australian identity and emotional connections of settler Australians to the land in the mid-20th century and how these discussions manifested in accessible media. Walkabout magazine sheds light on how white Australians navigated their relationships with the country in both physical and emotional dimensions and necessarily encompassed landscapes that held significance through Aboriginal occupation and affiliation.
The magazine's title itself evokes the traditional Australian Aboriginal practice of journeying through the land for customary, spiritual, and practical intentions. Deborah Bird Rose defines the Aboriginal notion of "country" as a dynamic entity that spans the past, present, and future, possessing awareness and a drive for life. The term "Walkabout" was recognized by early colonial settlers as a distinct form of travel linked to Aboriginal communities. However, this term was sometimes used in a derogatory manner, implying irresponsibility, especially within labour contexts. It was part of a broader discourse that presumed a "nomadic" lifestyle, strategically employed to dispute Aboriginal land claims and expedite settler land ownership.
Thus, labeling a travel magazine of the 1930s Walkabout signifies an increased interest in and a positive assessment of Aboriginal culture by certain settler Australians of that era. Nevertheless, it also raises questions about potential appropriation.
The cover image of the first issue, under the masthead Walkabout: Australia and the South Seas, was a cut-out head and shoulders photograph "Head of Australian Aboriginal", in face-paint, grinning and holding a clutch of spears, his head deep-etched against a strong red background. It was taken (on Palm Island) by German-born British photographer Emil Otto Hoppé (1878–1972) who in 1930 was commissioned to document Australia's "true spirit" and toured extensively throughout the country, including Tasmania.
Otherwise, the first edition includes no articles specifically on Aboriginal peoples but in accounting for the magazine's name, it connected the magazine with a misrepresentation of Aboriginal heritage:e.g. Walkabout, November 1934, 9.Walkabouts early to mid-century stance on the depiction of Indigenous Australians was generally conservative, patronising, romantic, often racist and stereotyped, though mixed with some informed commentary and genuine concern (misguided and otherwise), in a reflection of the then prevailing national attitudes.For a full discussion see: Rolls, Mitchell (2009): Picture imperfect: re-reading imagery of Aborigines in Walkabout, Journal of Australian Studies, (33:1): 19-35 Most issues were inclusive of Aboriginal subjects in photo spreads, more typically of Aboriginal figures in so-called traditional poses or settings.
An instance was Roy Dunstan's full-length portrait entitled "Jimmy" of 1935, standing heroically with a spear and gazing to the distance. "Jimmy" was Gwoya Jungarai, a Walbiri man, but when his image, cropped to head and shoulders,The cropped print, marked as originating from the files of the ANTA, publisher of Walkabout, is held by the National Library of Australia. In the online catalogue, annotations on the back of the print are transcribed; :