The next Nhill Book Fair will be held on September 7, from 10-2 at 44 Victoria St (next to Lowana), in conjunction with the second birthday celebrations at LOL next door.
At this book fair there will be a large selection of Walkabout magazines available. These will only be available at the September and October book fairs.
Walkabout magazine was published in Australia from 1934 to 1974 (revived for a short time in 1978). It was primarily a travel magazine, designed to entice people to learn more about Australia, New Zealand and the South Sea Islands. The aim was to ‘place Australia on the world’s travel map and keep it there’, with articles submitted by high profile and well-known authors of the day. Each story was accompanied by photographs from internationally known photographers and each edition combined travel, history, geographical and scientific content. Authors included Ion Idress, Arthur Upfield, Charles Chauvel, Patsy Adam-Smith, Frank Clune, Mary Durack, George Farwell, Bill Harney, Ernestine Hill and Osmar White. Australian photographers included: Harold Cazneaux, Max Dupain, Frank Hurley, Brian McArdle and Graham Pizzey.
Magazines are designed to be low cost rather than high-quality and because of this many do not make it from being an ‘old magazine’ to being a ‘vintage magazine’. Even the last of the Walkabout magazines are now 50 years old.
The Nhill Book Fair has been offered an exciting opportunity as a special fundraiser for the Garden Project at the Nhill aerodrome. At the September book fair, copies of this magazine will be available for $3.00 per copy. There are copies of nearly every edition from 1935* until 1974 and these will be sold first in, first served. If any copies remain, they will be offered at the October book fair, and then returned to the original collector for private sale. This is not only an amazing opportunity to own a piece of Australian history but a good investment.
*Although Walkabout magazine was published in 1934 but there was only one edition, in November of that year. If a copy can be found, the usual asking price is anywhere between $200 and $2000. Sadly, there are no copies of the November 1934 edition available in the collection.
This article appeared in Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 3 September 2025.
