Walkabout

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 1 Nov 1934, the editorial, signed by Charles (Chas) 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 W. 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.