VALE MICHAEL LEUNIG

When  political activist   Pete Steedman  edited  the Melbourne based  national magazine  Broadside  in l969  he  encouraged   up and coming   cartoonist   Michael Leunig  by  running   a  wide range  of  his inspired   drawings  , at  times spread  across  two pages , covering  many  subjects, including   the  Vietnam  war ,  ASIO , politics ,state and  religious schools.

When police were frequently charging people with offensive behaviour and resisting arrest, especially at anti-war and anti-conscription demos,  Leunig revealed how a solitary police officer playing around with his guitar composed a bestseller: OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR AND RESISTING ARREST.

The tune became so popular in police circles officers were shown singing along in chorus, dancing to it ,emerging from the grim Russell Street police headquarters with batons and even menacing a baby in a pram with the catchy words, alarmed citizenry fleeing in various directions .

Another of Leunig’s drawings illustrating an article which told how Aboriginal Marcia Langton , a 17-year-old arts/law student , now Professor Langton, obtained a miner’s right, staked out a mining claim in Queen’s Park, Brisbane , and held a vigil in support of land rights for Aborigines at Gove Peninsula, NT, where Nabalco had  a lease to mine bauxite . 

Bulldozers had damaged a sacred site there and Mathaman Marika said he had cried when he saw what had been done. Ms Langton maintained her vigil ,was picked up by the police and carried to another spot. Leunig’s associated cartoon showed a  suited miner in a hard hat , saying : “ Sacred Ground...? Of course...! I can think of nothing more sacred than a valuable bauxite deposit ...”

Leunig went on  to become  a renowned   cartoonist, poet and writer . His brilliant  drawings  included  The Adventures  of  Vasco Pyjama  and Mr Curly  who had  a  close association  with  ducks, one  in  particular .

A  large  proboscis  was a  feature  of people  he  drew .  Something   else  on the  big  size  was  emphasised  in  an  election cartoon, below,  from  the late Pete  Steedman's   Leunig   collection.

The  Leunig  Studio   announcement   of  his  death  on  December  19,  at 79,  said  he had been  in the company of family members , sunflowers  and  dear friends  Johann Sebastian  Bach and Ludwig van  Beethoven .

It said the  pen  had dried and the ink no longer flowed, yet Mr Curly and his ducks  would  remain etched in  our  hearts , cherished  and  eternal .  

The  above  cartoon  could  now be  seen as  relating to  the climate change  threat.

Leunig  had a  long association with  the  Melbourne   Age  newspaper  , the above  example  inspired by Prime Minister  Tony Abbott  saying he would  shirtfront  Russian president Vladimir  Putin , at the Brisbane  summit meeting  of  the  G20  , over  the shooting  down  over  Ukraine  in 2015  of the airliner  MH17,   which killed  278  people, 38 Australians . 

 The   above  decorated   caravan   and  associated van  , highlighting a  1939 Thursday Island pearl  lugger  ,  carried  messages  to save the Great Barrier Reef and local birdlife,  driven about  Cairns and on Magnetic Island , included a  Mr Curly  and   his  famous  duck   panel .  

Displayed inside the  van  was a poem   about   Scuppers  the Seagoose  , born in  Toulouse , who  spoke a little French  , and  lived aboard   a   sailboat named  after  the  lugger . 

Getting layabout grannies back into the workforce may have  inspired the   following  Leunig  special . 

(Leunig, Cartoons, Steedman.)

CONTROVERSIAL LITERARY PUBLICATION RUN BY BAREBACK AUSSIE RIDERS

The unusual  literary periodical , The London Aphrodite , 1928-29,   published  by  Fanfrolico Press , was  founded  by  two talented Australians - writer, book  publisher  and political activist  Jack   Lindsay  and   fiery   debater , author  and   publisher   Percy "Inky" Stephensen , who also edited a  small  greyhound  racing  newspaper and  contributed to a volume  about the Russian  prima  ballerina  Anna  Pavlova . 

The  above prancing illustration, consisting  of six volumes  , the  first edition on the  far right,  a total of 496 printed pages , is  in  the  last  list  for  2024  from   Douglas  Stewart   Fine  Books , Melbourne , $125 .

The  bimonthly   publication   was  only  intended to  run  for six issues, only   complete  sets  of  six  issues  could  be ordered for  nine  shillings .

Lindsay , who  ran  some  Norman Lindsay  ( his  father ) illustrations  and  decorations  in  its  pages,  declared  the  publication  was  not  for profit ,  but  for  fun . 

In  the  joint  editorial manifesto  Lindsay  and  Stephensen cocked a snoot at the  literary and  artistic establishment .  Their  motto  :  We stand  for a  point of  view  which  equally outrages the modernist and the  reactionary . 

Jack  Lindsay  had  been one  of  the  editors of  another  short lived  literary quarterly, Vision,  started  in Sydney in l923, designed  to  invigorate  the Australian  culture  which  it  claimed  was  stifled  by regressive provincialism  and  the  influence of  The  Bulletin . 

 Born  in l901 at Maryborough Hospital  , Stephensen was a brilliant  student ,  renounced religion in his teens, associated with leading revolutionaries   and reformers in Brisbane , became a member of the Communist Party of Australia. 

At Queensland University  he became editor of  its magazine , which  he renamed  Galmara , Aboriginal for messenger . While  there he  met  Jack Lindsay  and helped  him  launch his  literary career in the magazine  by running  a  three-page spread of  poetry , some of it erotic, which upset the  university authorities , who had it  withdrawn , for which they received a four page  blast  attacking  the  academic institution.  

Stephensen helped  select poems for a 1920-22 anthology of Australian university verse . After graduating  in arts,  he  taught school   at  Ipswich Boys ' Grammar ,  got involved with industrial workers, and  wrote freelance pieces   for the Brisbane Labor paper, the Daily Standard,one being  the  first  substantial  review of  the  D.H. Lawrence's novel, Kangaroo . 

Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, he  studied  at  Oxford ,where  he quickly became known as a  troublesome  colonial , took part in the l926  General Strike  ,  sporting a  sandwich board  which supported,  Gandi of India  .   He was  the subject of questions  in the House of Commons  , even accused  of  wanting  to  break up  the British  Empire .  At times  he  wrote  for the  Communist  Sunday Worker .

 

While in  London he  teamed up  with  Jack Lindsay . Another Australian  there  was   Jack Kirtley , an amateur  publisher of  limited editions  and  keen book collector  , who  ran Fanfrolico Press. Feeling homesick , Kirtley  handed   Fanfrolico  Press   over  to  Lindsay  and Stephensen ,  and set off  for  Australia via  America  .  

Lindsay , who supported the  l917 Russian Revolution, and  Stephensen  then   launched  The London Aphrodite . 

Stephenson also became involved with  Jewish bookseller  Edward Goldston  to  form   Mandrake Press  and  they  published  a collection  of  D.H. Lawrence's paintings, some of which showed  pubic hair,  attracting much public  comment.

Inky  Stephensen  also helped secretly  publish in  a London basement  what he  termed  the first "unmutilated " English edition of  Lawrence's  Lady Chatterley's Lover , which   declared it  was  printed in  Italy.

While Lawrence  said Stephensen was a worker , he described him as a bit  of a windbag  and slow with payments.  On another occasion he said  Stephensen was " another sort of mushroom which grew too fast" in the publishing world  and  established  publishers would squash him in  time . 

Back in Australia , Stephensen was involved in the  book publishing side of The Bulletin , Sydney,  started his own  book publishing company , wrote The  Foundation of Culture in Australia, An Essay  Towards National Self Respect  ( l936 ), was adviser to  the  Indigenous committee for the  l938  Day of  Mourning , tried unsuccessfully to get  Xavier Herbert's eventual 1938 Sesqui-Centenary Award  winning   novel  Capricornia  published .

Regarded as a security risk during WWll, he was interned  in January l942  until the end of hostilities  due  to his expressed views and involvement   with  the  Australia  First Movement , the   eventual  editor  of   its   journal, The  Publicist . During  his imprisonment he  ghosted  eight  books for  author , travel writer   and  accountant  Frank Clune .  

(Aphrodite, Stephensen, Lawrence .) 

  

BLACK (FRIDAY ) COCKATOO FEAST

Red-tailed  Black  Cockatoos  gourmandising  on  tasty  Christmas nuts  and  flowers   blown   down  during  recent  weeks in  Townsville . Vallis  and  young  sharpshooter pix.

( Cockatoos, Nuts , Townsville.)

THE LOST WORLD OF CYCADS

Townsville. Vallis .

THE SHADOWY WORLD OF SANTA

Printed in Sydney by S. T. Leigh and Company, circa 1892, this  scarce  66pp   collection  of  Christmas stories  for children by  Beatrice May Hudspeth, of  Hobart, Tasmania, is  listed  for sale  at  $400  by Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne . 

The bookshop refers to  a review in the Launceston newspaper ,The Tasmanian ,  November  28 ,1891 :

Miss B. M. Hudspeth, of Hobart, a lady who has already favourably established her name as an acceptable contributor to current Australian literature. The work contains fifteen short stories, into each of which the  authoress has imparted a vigour which claims the attention of the readers young and old. 

Miss Hudspeth is at her best in passages embodying a vein of that homely pathos which never fails to touch the heart, for the impress of the natural is stamped upon it.

She also possesses the somewhat rare faculty in a writer of telling a story effectively without a preponderance of that descriptive element which, as a rule, tends towards  the  wearisome .

The 1888-1889  annual report of the  Tasmanian Council of  Education stated Hudspeth  gained a place in  the first  division  of  a test for entry to the  London  University.  

Santa CLaus and the Shadow is included in the  Marcia Muir collection of Australian children's books  at  the  National  Library , which also has a  Research  Paper by  J. L. Skilton  on  archives of  Beatrice  May  Hudspeth   (1867-1932).

(Santa,  Tasmania, Books.)

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

Vallis  expedition  along  Ross River ,Townsville. 

ALL SHOOK UP AND WET

An  Elvis  Presley  impersonator,  busking  in  Cairns , coping with rain,  listening  to his  guitar being strummed  by  a  youngster  nearby .  Abra  snap.