SpringerLink
Log in

The Satirical Press of Colonial Australia: A Migrant and Minority Enterprise

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media ((PSHM))

  • 172 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter re-assesses the colonial Australian versions of the London Punch, making a case for their importance as essentially migrant and minority publications. Founded as a means of maintaining a sense of Britishness, and as a direct link to the culture of Metropolitan London, these magazines were staffed overwhelmingly by migrants (from Britain and elsewhere), directed to a predominantly migrant readership, and filled their pages with migration-themed jokes, cartoons, and pieces of doggerel. The everyday worries of a stranger in a strange land could be soothed by reference to the humour of the local satirical magazine, and a sense of shared community built through regular recourse to the pages of Melbourne Punch, Sydney Punch, Tasmanian Punch, Ballarat Punch, Adelaide Punch, Queensland Punch, or even Ipswich Punch.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    “Departure of Mr. Punch from Gravesend.” Melbourne Punch 1 (n.d.) [August 2, 1855]: 1.

  2. 2.

    “Arrival of Mr. Punch in Australia.” Melbourne Punch 1 (n.d.) [August 2, 1855]: 1.

  3. 3.

    “Mr. Punch, Jun. … .” Melbourne Punch 1 (n.d.) [August 2, 1855]: 2–3.

  4. 4.

    Mary L. Shannon, “Colonial Networks and the Periodical Marketplace,” in Journalism and the Periodical Press in Nineteenth-Century Britain, ed. Joanne Shattock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 208.

  5. 5.

    Elizabeth Webby, “Images of Europe in Two Nineteenth-Century Australian Illustrated Magazines,” Victorian Periodicals Review 37, no. 4 (2004): 10–24; Richard Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain 20, no. 2 (2019): 152–171; Simon Sleight, “‘Wavering between Virtue and Vice’: Constructions of Youth in Australian Cartoons of the Late-Victorian Era,” in Drawing the Line: Using Cartoons as Historical Evidence, eds. Richard Scully & Marian Quartly (Clayton: Monash University ePress, 2009), 05.1–05.26.

  6. 6.

    Marguerite Mahood, “Melbourne Punch and its Early Artists,” The La Trobe Journal 4 (October, 1969): 65–81; Vane Lindesay, The Inked-In Image: A Survey of Australian Comic Art (Melbourne: Heinemann, 1970), 3–5; Marguerite Mahood, The Loaded Line: Australian Political Caricature, 1788-1901 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1973); Jonathan King, ‘Stop Laughing, This is Serious!’ A Social history of Australia in Cartoons (North Ryde: Cassell, 1980), esp. 29; Suzane Fabian, ed., Mr. Punch Down Under: A Social History of the Colony from 1856 to 1900 via Cartoons and Extracts from Melbourne Punch (Richmond & Drouin: Greenhouse & Landmark, 1982); Vane Lindesay, The Way We Were: Australian Popular Magazines, 1856–1969 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1983), 10–17.

  7. 7.

    Mary L. Shannon, Dickens, Reynolds, and Mayhew on Wellington Street: The Print Culture of a Victorian Street (Farnham: Surrey, 2016), esp. 165–199; Shannon, “Colonial Networks,” 203–223. Also see: Richard Scully, “A Comic Empire: The Global Expansion of Punch as a Model Publication, 1841–1936,” International Journal of Comic Art 15, no. 2 (2013): 6–35.

  8. 8.

    Miriam Magdalena Schneider, The ‘Sailor Prince’ in the Age of Empire: Creating a Monarchical Brand in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 239; Shannon, “Colonial Networks,” 210.

  9. 9.

    Shu-chuan Yan, “‘Kangaroo Politics, Kangaroo Ideas, and Kangaroo Society’: The Early Years of Melbourne Punch in Colonial Australia,” Victorian Periodicals Review 52, no. 1 (2019): 81, 83, 87.

  10. 10.

    Yan, “Kangaroo Politics,” 85; Margaret Beetham, “Towards a Theory of the Periodical as a Publishing Genre,” in Investigating Victorian Journalism, eds Laurel Brake, Aled Jones, and Lionel Madden (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 1990), 20.

  11. 11.

    Shannon, “Colonial Networks,” 213.

  12. 12.

    Lurline Stuart, “Melbourne Punch,” in The Encyclopedia of Melbourne, ed., Andrew Brown-May and Shurlee Swain (Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 468; Lurline Stuart, James Smith: The Making of a Colonial Culture (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989), 83–84.

  13. 13.

    Shannon, “Colonial Networks,” 207.

  14. 14.

    Mahood, “Melbourne Punch and its Early Artists,” La Trobe Journal, 80.

  15. 15.

    Elizabeth Morrison, Engines of Influence: Newspapers of Country Victoria, 1840–1890 (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2005), 73, 135, 261; Tom D. C. Roberts, “Herald and Weekly Times”, in A Companion to the Australian Media, ed. Bridget Griffen-Foley (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014), 203.

  16. 16.

    Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 278, 280, 287; Tristram Hunt, Ten Cities that Made an Empire (London: Penguin, 2015), 308, 322.

  17. 17.

    Here, I paraphrase: Brian Maidment, Comedy, Caricature, and the Social Order, 1820-50 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 16.

  18. 18.

    Fabian, ed., Mr. Punch Down Under, 1.

  19. 19.

    “Miscellaneous,” The Argus, July 9, 1855, p. 7.

  20. 20.

    “Domestic Intelligence,” The Argus, September 11, 1852, p. 5; “Our First Literary Arrivals,” Empire 8 (October, 1852), 1490.

  21. 21.

    “Ship** Intelligence,” The Argus, March 9, 1855, p. 4.

  22. 22.

    Basil Lubbock, The Colonial Clippers (Glasgow: J. Brown & Son, 1921), 32–40.

  23. 23.

    “Arrival of the Marco Polo,” Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer, February 27, 1856, p. 2.

  24. 24.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 152.

  25. 25.

    William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria, Volume I, London: Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855, pp. 26, 58, 103.

  26. 26.

    Scully, “A Comic Empire,” International Journal of Comic Art, 21.

  27. 27.

    Scully, “A Comic Empire,” 10.

  28. 28.

    Joan Kerr, Artists and Cartoonists in Black and White—the Most Public Art (Sydney: S. H. Irvin, 1999), 30.

  29. 29.

    “Brown Jones Robinson,” “Correspondence,” Sydney Punch (May 27, 1864): 7.

  30. 30.

    Kerr, Artists and Cartoonists, 30; Clifford Craig, Mr Punch in Tasmania: Colonial Politics in Cartoons, 1866–1879 (Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1980), 15.

  31. 31.

    Craig, Mr Punch in Tasmania, 129; Mahood, Loaded Line, 126.

  32. 32.

    Mahood, Loaded Line, 93-99, 126; Kerr, Artists and Cartoonists, 32.

  33. 33.

    Kerr, Artists and Cartoonists, 32.

  34. 34.

    Mahood, Loaded Line, 80.

  35. 35.

    Sydney Punch (May 27, 1864): 1.

  36. 36.

    Sydney Punch (May 27, 1864): 2.

  37. 37.

    Mahood, Loaded Line, 80.

  38. 38.

    “Robinson,” “Correspondence”, Sydney Punch, 7.

  39. 39.

    Shannon, “Colonial Networks,” 221–222; Mahood, Loaded Line, 84; Ann E. Galbally, “Campbell, Oswald Rose (1820–1887),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1969, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/campbell-oswald-rose-3157/text4717 (accessed December 13, 2019).

  40. 40.

    Suzanne Edgar, “Scott, Eugene Montagu (Monty) (1835–1909)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1976, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-eugene-montagu-monty-4547/text7453 (accessed December 13, 2019); “Private Advertisements,” New South Wales Government Gazette 55 (March 14, 1862): 586.

  41. 41.

    Shannon, “Colonial Networks,” 222.

  42. 42.

    Sydney Punch 4, no. 87 (January 20, 1866), title page.

  43. 43.

    Grosse’s work in the colonial print market expanded quite dramatically in the same period. See: Peter A. Dowling, “Grosse, Frederick (1828–1894),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2005, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/grosse-frederick-12955/text23415 (accessed December 13, 2019).

  44. 44.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 154.

  45. 45.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 155, 157; Marguerite Mahood, “Carrington, Francis Thomas Dean (Tom) (1843–1918),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1969, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/carrington-francis-thomas-dean-tom-3170/text4725 (accessed December 13, 2019).

  46. 46.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 157; Scully, “A Comic Empire”, International Journal of Comic Art, 19–21; Richard Scully, Eminent Victorian Cartoonists—Volume I: The Founders (London: The Political Cartoon Society, 2018), 28, 133–134.

  47. 47.

    Mahood, Loaded Line, 126. “Sam Slick” was a Canadian invention of the 1830s. See: Richard A. Davies, Inventing Sam Slick: A Biography of Thomas Chandler Haliburton (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

  48. 48.

    I am inclined to support the identification of Ashton with the artist “GRA”, as per the entry: “GRA,” Design and Art Australia Online (19 October 2011), https://www.daao.org.au/bio/g-r-a/ (accessed December 18, 2019). On Ashton, see: Katherine Harper, “Ashton, George Rossi (1857–?),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University (1979), http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ashton-george-rossi-5654/text8461 (accessed December 18, 2019); “George Rossi Ashton b.1857,” Design and Art Australia Online (October 19, 2011), https://www.daao.org.au/bio/george-rossi-ashton/ (accessed December 18, 2019).

  49. 49.

    Dowling, “Grosse”.

  50. 50.

    Marjorie J. Tip**, “Chevalier, Nicholas (1828–1902),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University (1969), http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chevalier-nicholas-3200/text4807 (accessed December 13, 2019).

  51. 51.

    Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education, The Cruise of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh – Catalogue (London: George E. Eyre & William Spottiswoode, 1872), 4 ff.

  52. 52.

    “Rudolph Jenny,” Design and Art Australia Online (October 19, 2011), https://www.daao.org.au/bio/rudolph-jenny/ (accessed December 13, 2019).

  53. 53.

    Mahood, Loaded Line, 90; Craig, Mr Punch in Tasmania, 184-185; Tasmanian Punch 1, no. 4 (August 25, 1877), cover page.

  54. 54.

    Marguerite Mahood, “Bradley, Luther (1853–1917),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University (1979), http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bradley-luther-5333/text9015 (accessed December 13, 2019).

  55. 55.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch”, Visual Culture in Britain, 159, 161.

  56. 56.

    Unknown cartoonist, “Latest War Telegrams,” Sydney Punch (October 1, 1870): 164; Unknown cartoonist, “Tasmania’s Congratulations to Earl Beaconsfield,” Tasmanian Punch (September 7, 1878): n.p.; Unknown cartoonist, “Brethren Across the Ocean,” Queensland Punch and Figaro (March 16, 1899), 1.

  57. 57.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch”, Visual Culture in Britain, 159.

  58. 58.

    [Sidney Blanchard], “Punch in Australia,” All the Year Round 9 (August 22, 1863): 613. I am very grateful to Jeremy Parrott for his identification of Blanchard’s contribution to All the Year Round. Having already written a piece on “Punch in India”, in 1870 Blanchard wrote the first history of the London Charivari (which is commonly mis-attributed to Mark Lemon): Mr Punch: His Origin and Career (London: Jas. Wade, 1870). On Blanchard’s authorship, see: James Kennedy, W. A. Smith & A. F. Johnson, Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature, New and Enlarged Edition, Volume Four (Edinburgh & London: Oliver and Boyd, 1928), 128. On the attribution to Lemon, see for instance: Ritu Gairola Khanduri, “Punch in India: Another History of Colonial Politics?” in Asian Punches: A Transcultural Affair, ed. Hans Harder and Barbara Mittler (Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer, 2013), 169.

  59. 59.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 161; Unknown cartoonist, “Jolly Good Fellows,” Sydney Punch (October 1, 1870): 170.

  60. 60.

    Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 164.

  61. 61.

    Nicholas Chevalier, “Let It Burn, I’m Only a Lodger,” Melbourne Punch (August 16, 1855): 22.

  62. 62.

    G. H. T. “Welcome the Coming, Speed the Parting Guest,” Tasmanian Punch (December 18, 1869): n.p.

  63. 63.

    “Mr. Punch to the Author of ‘Greater Britain’,” Sydney Punch (June 19, 1869): 35.

  64. 64.

    Yan, “Kangaroo Politics”, 90–91.

  65. 65.

    Nicholas Chevalier, “Punch’s Summary for Europe,” Melbourne Punch (April 25, 1861): 52–53

  66. 66.

    “Melbourne Punch to Queen Victoria,” Melbourne Punch (September 8, 1859): 55.

  67. 67.

    Clara Aspinall, Three Years in Melbourne (London: L. Booth, 1862), 83–84; [Blanchard], “Punch in Australia,” All the Year Round, 610–616; M. H. Spielmann, The History of “Punch” (London: Cassell & Co., 1895), 393.

  68. 68.

    “A Reward of One Thousand Pounds,” Melbourne Punch (August 2, 1855): 2–3.

  69. 69.

    Gordon Morrison and Anne Rowland, eds. In Your Face! Cartoons about Politics and Society, 1760–2010 (Ballarat: Art Gallery of Ballarat, 2010), 39; Dianne Hall, “‘Now him White Man’: Images of the Irish in Colonial Australia,” History Australia 11, no. 2 (2014): 179.

  70. 70.

    Fabian, ed. Mr. Punch Down Under, 77.

  71. 71.

    Nicholas Chevalier, “Showing Him the Door,” Melbourne Punch (August 6, 1857): 12. On Kangaroo Bull, see: Scully, “Britain in the Melbourne Punch,” Visual Culture in Britain, 158.

  72. 72.

    Nicholas Chevalier, “A Celestial Delicacy,” Melbourne Punch (September 27, 1855): 70; “Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot,” Melbourne Punch (August 20, 1857): 31.

  73. 73.

    [Blanchard], “Punch in Australia,” All the Year Round, 614.

  74. 74.

    Tom Carrington, “The Agricultural Labourer of the Future,” Melbourne Punch (January 11, 1872): 9; Unknown cartoonist, “Return from Brandy Creek,” Tasmanian Punch (August 24, 1878): n.p.

  75. 75.

    “The Larrikino-Chinese War,” Sydney Punch (July 26, 1879): 19; “The Chinese Puzzle,” Sydney Punch (January 28, 1882): 29.

  76. 76.

    Scully, “A Comic Empire,” International Journal of Comic Art, 25; Christopher G. Rea, “‘He’ll Roast All Subjects That May Need the Roasting’: Puck and Mr Punch in Nineteenth-Century China,” in Asian Punches, ed. Harder and Mittler, 389.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

    Richard Scully

Authors
  1. Richard Scully
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Scully .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Catherine Dewhirst

  2. University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

    Richard Scully

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Scully, R. (2020). The Satirical Press of Colonial Australia: A Migrant and Minority Enterprise. In: Dewhirst, C., Scully, R. (eds) The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43639-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43639-1_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43638-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-43639-1

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation