Australasian Post – Nostalgia Central

The Australasian Post (commonly known as the “Aussie Post”) was Australia’s longest-running continuously published weekly picture magazine, operating for 138 years from 1864 until its closure in 2002.

The magazine was known for its “knockabout” brand of Australiana, and starting in the 1960s, the magazine became famous for its bikini-clad “girls next door” on the cover.

By the 1970s, these covers became more risqué, aligning with the era’s sexual revolution.

The Post maintained a quirky, light-hearted, and conversational style that appealed to a broad, everyday Australian audience, with articles blending human-interest stories, local eccentrics, urban legends (such as UFOs and the occult), scandal, and investigative journalism.

Some of the popular regular features in the magazine included ‘Pillar to Post’ (A punningly named letters column), ‘Jolliffe’s Outback’, a cartoon feature by Eric Jolliffe, which focused on humorous observations of rural life and Indigenous Australian culture, and the ‘Ettamogah Pub’ cartoon series by Ken Maynard featuring the iconic leaning outback pub.

The magazine began in 1864 as The Australasian, a tabloid newspaper format that eventually supplanted several unprofitable publications from the Argus company.

After World War II, it was modernised as a colour magazine titled The Australasian Post to better suit post-war audiences.

At its peak in the 1960s and ’70s, it was a ubiquitous cultural icon, famously found in almost every suburban bathroom or ‘dunny’ across the country.

As tastes changed and more sophisticated lifestyle magazines emerged in the 1990s, its “bikini girl” aesthetic began to feel outdated and – despite a name change to Aussie Post in 1997 and attempts to pivot back to storytelling – it ceased publication on 2 February 2002.