The History of the Australian Satirical Press

Abstract

The history of the Australian satirical press is still somewhat poorly understood, despite the acknowledged importance of cartoonists in shaping Australian politics and history. This may in part be due to Australia not having possessed a dedicated satirical press on the European model for much of its history. Political satire has, for the most part, been included within more 'serious' news publications, which are representative of the different colonial, state, or metropolitan markets into which Australia is still divided. As Robert Phiddian and Haydon R. Manning observed as recently as 2008, 'there is not yet a large scholarship on political cartoons (in Australia or internationally) to engage with', and despite some significant work done in the past few years, their assertion remains valid. Early work by Marguerite Mahood (1901-1989) paved the way for the study of Australian political cartooning, but it was not in fact until the 1970s that due attention was paid to Australian press history in general. It was a cartoonist, Vane Lindesay (b.1920), who provided the first full overview - though radical and overtly-nationalist - of the history of Australia comic art and political cartoons: 'The Inked-in Image'. This remains the most accessible, and widely-read, account of 'the 'Australian school' of black-and-white comic art', but largely discounts any developments prior to the launch of 'The Bulletin' (1880) as being too much 'in thrall' to the British tradition. Unlike Mahood, Lindesay's myopic vision of colonial Australia failed to appreciate the importance of the various imitators of the London 'Punch' and the vibrancy of the early colonial presses. A more nuanced overview of the Australian satirical tradition - accounting for transnational as well as national factors - reveals a vibrant, historically-important school of satirical art that managed to develop its own distinct forms, while never disengaging from global trends and international developments.