Reading 'Walkabout' in the 1930s

The Australian magazine 'Walkabout', loosely modelled on National Geographic, was published between 1934 and 1974, with a concluding single edition being issued in January 1978. Unlike National Geographic, the very middlebrow Walkabout has attracted little critical scrutiny. The few responses to Walkabout have predominantly criticised its role in fomenting a specific version of the settlement myth, in particular that of promoting white progress and modernisation of the outback against a projected Aboriginal absence. Leaving aside its representation of Aborigines (this matter is dealt with in a forthcoming essay) this paper argues that at least in the first decade of Walkabout’s long run, its warmth for and promotion of Australia, particularly the interior and remote regions, is distinctive when contrasted with the nationalist fervour of other contemporary movements, and that ideologically-bound criticism overlooks the more nuanced forms of settler belonging the magazine facilitated.