In a remarkable feat, Pete Steedman both fathered and gave birth to the above brave new publication-Broadside-a fortnightly magazine with a strong political content which was originally intended to challenge the long established national journal, The Bulletin, now sadly defunct .
It came into being in 1969 with the approval of Cambridge graduate , Ranald Macdonald , managing director of David Syme and Co. Ltd., the Melbourne Age newspaper group . With a print run of 22,000,it had a cover price of 15 cents and sold about 14,000 copies. At one stage it boasted that it had 40,000 of the nation's most intelligent readers.
The very first issue of Broadside announced that an eye-popping comic strip about the adventures of a bossomy femme,Fabula, by Gerald Carr, prominent in the annals of Australia’s comic history, would grace future editions . She was similar to the sexy French science fiction comic , Barbarella , by Jean-Claude Forest , made into a film by Roger Vadim, Barbarella , Queen of the Galaxy. Steedman had been an avid reader of Barbarella comics, enjoying“its marvellous sexual fantasy.”
Readers were told Fabula,above , had been taken out of the typists’ pool and thrust into a position of power in the office of Sir John Grey in a Great Southern Continent . Unfortunately, Fabula did not make her grand entrance because the shocked proprietors became alarmed on seeing her in the flesh, as it were . Somehow, they came to the conclusion she could be identified as Ainslee Gotto , private secretary to the PM , John Grey Gorton, nicknamed Jolly John.
From behind his dark glasses, Steedman reluctantly agreed they could be right . Gasp ! Stop the press! A reported 30,000 copies of the second edition were pulped . Security guards surrounded the printery and less than a dozen copies survived. Little Darwin has a slightly expurgated copy and the rest of her stirring adventures, which we examine from time to time as part of our scholarly research.
Days after the pulping , there was a major development in Canberra - the sacking of Dudley Erwin from his ministerial post . Asked to explain his expulsion by PM Gorton, a former close friend, Erwin famously said : “ It’s shapely, it wiggles and its name is Ainslee Gotto.” Gotto was highly efficient in her job ; miffed Conservatives complained that she had too much power and influence on the PM for a young person.
Thereafter , Fabula’s adventures were examined by an Age lawyer or two before being passed fit for publication. Edgy legal eagles insisted another plain looking female be included in the fictional office, perhaps a chaperone for Fabula ? Steedman , being fed inside scuttlebutt from the national capital and elsewhere , closely collaborated with Carr to develop the storyline in the Fabula strip.
It got to a stage where Steedman alone knew what Fabula’s exploits meant before they became common knowledge , even the lawyers who had been outfoxed. Fabula was described as a dynamic patriot , putting herself physically and mentally at the disposal of her country,fighting its foes and preserving its cultural way of life, beating off the Yellow Peril.
Her heaving bossom , her nipples, and other glimpses of the erogenous zone, not to mention her whip, drew the attention of the various keepers of the public's morals . A year’s subscription to Broadside ,only $3, came complete with a large poster of “ the unbelievable Fabula.”
Another key player in the stirring Fabula strip, Black Mack ,leader of the Peasant Party, who sported a circus ringmaster’s top hat, was involved in a mysterious situation which involved a hundred million sheep bought by some unknown foreign power which wanted another similar number .
Black Mack broke the frightening message to the PM that with all this stock going overseas, his country electors would not be distracted by “ lying about with their sheep”, the not so subtle message being that they were sheep shaggers and would begin to think . A person called Max was involved in what seemed a farcical , if somewhat rude scenario.
The key to this episode was the tough leader of the National Party ( formerly the Country Party ), John “Black Jack “ McEwen, who bitterly opposed Treasurer Billy “Big Ears” McMahon becoming the PM after the drowning of Harold Holt ; it was claimed that McMahon regularly visited the home of influential journalist, publisher, lobbyist , Maxwell Newton (mentioned last year in Little Darwin ) , whom McEwen claimed to be a spy for Japan ! Newton was the Max in the comic strip in another plot to sell all our kangas which would be flown out of the country in our new Fiascos, the F1-11s.
Another character , Santa , wrapped in a towel from Mick’s Alms Hotel, showering in readiness for the monthly full moon, was instantly recognised as B.A. Santamaria of the National Civic Council. Santa headed the Rightists’ Control Council.
As usual , Fabula came up with a solution to the PM’s problem , which sometimes involved a hooded person called FRY , his name rhyming with Colonel Spry of ASIO, always peeping through keyholes and getting wrong information, the head of FARCE , Fry’s Army Reportedly Combating Evil. Fry managed to discover what the Japanese Ambassador had on his sandwiches at lunchtime.
America was presented as the Great Power Detergent and Fabula wowed Tricky Dicky Duck when she and the PM paid a special visit in an attempt to get some favourable publicity and try and scrap the contract for the Fiascos . Tricky Dicky, sitting on a throne decorated with a cameo of a rampant eagle with a forlorn looking kangaroo in its talons, smiled (leered?) at Fabula. The fear of those in power in the Great Southern Continent was that Bedlam -Whitlam- would take over the country.
Fabula, like Barbarella , was a patriotic gal, prepared and willing to tackle any problem in the interest of the nation. She knew magical incantations, but instead of intoning a magic word like Shazam! to overcome national problems like a lousy press , Steedman explained the government regularly shouted , “PANIC!”
During a time of real panic and tension in the Australian government , this writer once chased Ms Gotto and Gorton about Sydney when the PM, his leadership under attack, flew in from Canberra to try and woo the support of the cabal at the NSW Liberal headquarters, not far from an aromatic coffee house frequented by young Bronwyn Bishop who firmly and frequently proclaimed she wanted to be a future PM .
Conversing with Ms Gotto while waiting for a lift , the PM, with his war - battered face, turned to me and waved me away, saying,“Would you mind, we are having a private conversation.”Outside the Commonwealth offices in Martin Place , a small crowd gathered when the PM and Ms Gotto arrived. One person called out , “Don’t let the buggers get you down, John .” Gorton responded with a wave and a smile.
Believers in conspiracy theories claim that while Gorton was eccentric in some ways and engaged in conduct unbecoming a PM ,including chundering into the swimming pool at The Lodge , he was done in because he expressed annoyance with the way America treated Australia in the Vietnam War, stopped the oil companies and Joh Bjelke-Petersen drilling the Barrier Reef and upset other vested interests .
In Melbourne at the time of the Broadside launch was a group , Revolutionary Socialists, who operated from The Bakery, 120 Greville Street, Prahran , that had a newsletter , HALF BAKED , authorised by Tony Brooks. It seems apparent that this collection of dough boys and girls did not regard Steedman as the greatest Lefty since the creation of sliced bread .
An example of their attitude towards him was revealed in the March 5 ,1969 edition of Half Baked,which contained whimsical commentary about the first edition of Broadside under the heading - FABULOUS FABULA, CHARLIE CHUCKLES AND THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG RANALD.
For six months, it said, “Melbourne whiz kid” , Pete Steedman, former editor of the student newspapers Lot’s Wife and Farrago, had been busy growing bushy Jeff Bate type mutton chop whiskers while getting ready to launch the magazine. Bate was the dairy farmer who swept Dame Zara Holt, widow of lost at sea PM, Harold Holt, off her feet in front of TV cameras and they later united in holy matrimony in 1969. The happy couple were the subject of a Tanner cartoon in Broadside showing a giggly and toothy Dame Zara on the back of a dairy cow , held there by her new spouse who was brandishing a grand display of facial fungus.
The Revolutionary Socialists’ roneod sheet said Broadside was published by the Age newspaper group, run by “one of the oldest whiz kids in the business , slick, blond, and baby-faced , Ranald Macdonald”, managing director of David Syme and Co. Ltd.It went on to say Steedman and Macdonald had met on the “ Carlton claret and corduroy circuit”. ( Responding to this clever jibe , Steedman, recently emphatically stated he never drank coffee with Ranald when they had creative tete- a- tetes.)
The yeasty socialists continued by declaring Steedman had talked himself into the job as editor of a “with it ” political journal at a later luncheon. (Steedman’s version is that he met Macdonald through a female they both knew soon after finishing up at Farrago . The story goes that Ranald was besotted by this lady , who had been associated with PM Holt , but his mother was against them skipping down the aisle at the kirk.)
Macdonald, great grandson of the 19th century legendary proprietor of the Age , said he wanted new publications for the publishing house , which had a new press . Steedman just happened to have rough dummy copies for no less than three possible publications- political, financial and even a women’s magazine .
According to Half Baked, Steedman operated out of a pantry-like office , had a shoestring budget and was paid the salary of a B grade journalist, about half that paid to the Herald’s social writer, Claudia, to move over to the Age.
When pressed to be more specific about Broadside’s editorial policy , Half Baked said Steedman described it as “ a sort of an adult Chucklers Weekly”. This was a typical , offbeat quip by Steedman , as it referred to the children’s Charlie Chuckles comic strip in Sir Frank Packer’s Sunday Telegraph. The Bakery brigade were, however, enthusiastic about “the newest, wildest and most offbeat strip yet.......FABULA !”
Commenting further about the Half Baked write up, Steedman told Little Darwin , “those Maoists had to find something bourgeois about me”- no doubt referring to the crack about him having moved in the Carlton claret and corduroy set.
There was a prescient observation about Broadside in Half Baked’s review of the magazine . It said having read the first edition , a question sprang to mind : Can Broadside continue in this form , or will Charlie eventually be forced to “chuckle under” to The Age management ?
Nextdoor to the bakery was Alice’s Restaurant, which displayed posters , like the one urging showering together to save water, that made local housewives gawk, sold revolutionary literature and local and interstate university magazines ; it had been bombed, daubed with paint and a tile had recently been thrown through its window.
The eatery/bookshop was subject of an unusual cover article in Broadside written by Bruce Hanford , a talented American who came to Australia to evade being drafted into the Vietnam War ; he is credited in some quarters as having introducing the new journalism style of Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson to Australia, making a prodigious contribution to Australian writing. His Broadside article was in the form of an offbeat dining out tucker review, resulting in Alice's Restaurant being awarded one yellow star.
It came into being in 1969 with the approval of Cambridge graduate , Ranald Macdonald , managing director of David Syme and Co. Ltd., the Melbourne Age newspaper group . With a print run of 22,000,it had a cover price of 15 cents and sold about 14,000 copies. At one stage it boasted that it had 40,000 of the nation's most intelligent readers.
The very first issue of Broadside announced that an eye-popping comic strip about the adventures of a bossomy femme,Fabula, by Gerald Carr, prominent in the annals of Australia’s comic history, would grace future editions . She was similar to the sexy French science fiction comic , Barbarella , by Jean-Claude Forest , made into a film by Roger Vadim, Barbarella , Queen of the Galaxy. Steedman had been an avid reader of Barbarella comics, enjoying“its marvellous sexual fantasy.”
Readers were told Fabula,above , had been taken out of the typists’ pool and thrust into a position of power in the office of Sir John Grey in a Great Southern Continent . Unfortunately, Fabula did not make her grand entrance because the shocked proprietors became alarmed on seeing her in the flesh, as it were . Somehow, they came to the conclusion she could be identified as Ainslee Gotto , private secretary to the PM , John Grey Gorton, nicknamed Jolly John.
From behind his dark glasses, Steedman reluctantly agreed they could be right . Gasp ! Stop the press! A reported 30,000 copies of the second edition were pulped . Security guards surrounded the printery and less than a dozen copies survived. Little Darwin has a slightly expurgated copy and the rest of her stirring adventures, which we examine from time to time as part of our scholarly research.
Days after the pulping , there was a major development in Canberra - the sacking of Dudley Erwin from his ministerial post . Asked to explain his expulsion by PM Gorton, a former close friend, Erwin famously said : “ It’s shapely, it wiggles and its name is Ainslee Gotto.” Gotto was highly efficient in her job ; miffed Conservatives complained that she had too much power and influence on the PM for a young person.
Thereafter , Fabula’s adventures were examined by an Age lawyer or two before being passed fit for publication. Edgy legal eagles insisted another plain looking female be included in the fictional office, perhaps a chaperone for Fabula ? Steedman , being fed inside scuttlebutt from the national capital and elsewhere , closely collaborated with Carr to develop the storyline in the Fabula strip.
It got to a stage where Steedman alone knew what Fabula’s exploits meant before they became common knowledge , even the lawyers who had been outfoxed. Fabula was described as a dynamic patriot , putting herself physically and mentally at the disposal of her country,fighting its foes and preserving its cultural way of life, beating off the Yellow Peril.
Her heaving bossom , her nipples, and other glimpses of the erogenous zone, not to mention her whip, drew the attention of the various keepers of the public's morals . A year’s subscription to Broadside ,only $3, came complete with a large poster of “ the unbelievable Fabula.”
Another key player in the stirring Fabula strip, Black Mack ,leader of the Peasant Party, who sported a circus ringmaster’s top hat, was involved in a mysterious situation which involved a hundred million sheep bought by some unknown foreign power which wanted another similar number .
Black Mack broke the frightening message to the PM that with all this stock going overseas, his country electors would not be distracted by “ lying about with their sheep”, the not so subtle message being that they were sheep shaggers and would begin to think . A person called Max was involved in what seemed a farcical , if somewhat rude scenario.
The key to this episode was the tough leader of the National Party ( formerly the Country Party ), John “Black Jack “ McEwen, who bitterly opposed Treasurer Billy “Big Ears” McMahon becoming the PM after the drowning of Harold Holt ; it was claimed that McMahon regularly visited the home of influential journalist, publisher, lobbyist , Maxwell Newton (mentioned last year in Little Darwin ) , whom McEwen claimed to be a spy for Japan ! Newton was the Max in the comic strip in another plot to sell all our kangas which would be flown out of the country in our new Fiascos, the F1-11s.
Another character , Santa , wrapped in a towel from Mick’s Alms Hotel, showering in readiness for the monthly full moon, was instantly recognised as B.A. Santamaria of the National Civic Council. Santa headed the Rightists’ Control Council.
As usual , Fabula came up with a solution to the PM’s problem , which sometimes involved a hooded person called FRY , his name rhyming with Colonel Spry of ASIO, always peeping through keyholes and getting wrong information, the head of FARCE , Fry’s Army Reportedly Combating Evil. Fry managed to discover what the Japanese Ambassador had on his sandwiches at lunchtime.
America was presented as the Great Power Detergent and Fabula wowed Tricky Dicky Duck when she and the PM paid a special visit in an attempt to get some favourable publicity and try and scrap the contract for the Fiascos . Tricky Dicky, sitting on a throne decorated with a cameo of a rampant eagle with a forlorn looking kangaroo in its talons, smiled (leered?) at Fabula. The fear of those in power in the Great Southern Continent was that Bedlam -Whitlam- would take over the country.
Fabula, like Barbarella , was a patriotic gal, prepared and willing to tackle any problem in the interest of the nation. She knew magical incantations, but instead of intoning a magic word like Shazam! to overcome national problems like a lousy press , Steedman explained the government regularly shouted , “PANIC!”
During a time of real panic and tension in the Australian government , this writer once chased Ms Gotto and Gorton about Sydney when the PM, his leadership under attack, flew in from Canberra to try and woo the support of the cabal at the NSW Liberal headquarters, not far from an aromatic coffee house frequented by young Bronwyn Bishop who firmly and frequently proclaimed she wanted to be a future PM .
Conversing with Ms Gotto while waiting for a lift , the PM, with his war - battered face, turned to me and waved me away, saying,“Would you mind, we are having a private conversation.”Outside the Commonwealth offices in Martin Place , a small crowd gathered when the PM and Ms Gotto arrived. One person called out , “Don’t let the buggers get you down, John .” Gorton responded with a wave and a smile.
Believers in conspiracy theories claim that while Gorton was eccentric in some ways and engaged in conduct unbecoming a PM ,including chundering into the swimming pool at The Lodge , he was done in because he expressed annoyance with the way America treated Australia in the Vietnam War, stopped the oil companies and Joh Bjelke-Petersen drilling the Barrier Reef and upset other vested interests .
In Melbourne at the time of the Broadside launch was a group , Revolutionary Socialists, who operated from The Bakery, 120 Greville Street, Prahran , that had a newsletter , HALF BAKED , authorised by Tony Brooks. It seems apparent that this collection of dough boys and girls did not regard Steedman as the greatest Lefty since the creation of sliced bread .
An example of their attitude towards him was revealed in the March 5 ,1969 edition of Half Baked,which contained whimsical commentary about the first edition of Broadside under the heading - FABULOUS FABULA, CHARLIE CHUCKLES AND THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG RANALD.
For six months, it said, “Melbourne whiz kid” , Pete Steedman, former editor of the student newspapers Lot’s Wife and Farrago, had been busy growing bushy Jeff Bate type mutton chop whiskers while getting ready to launch the magazine. Bate was the dairy farmer who swept Dame Zara Holt, widow of lost at sea PM, Harold Holt, off her feet in front of TV cameras and they later united in holy matrimony in 1969. The happy couple were the subject of a Tanner cartoon in Broadside showing a giggly and toothy Dame Zara on the back of a dairy cow , held there by her new spouse who was brandishing a grand display of facial fungus.
The Revolutionary Socialists’ roneod sheet said Broadside was published by the Age newspaper group, run by “one of the oldest whiz kids in the business , slick, blond, and baby-faced , Ranald Macdonald”, managing director of David Syme and Co. Ltd.It went on to say Steedman and Macdonald had met on the “ Carlton claret and corduroy circuit”. ( Responding to this clever jibe , Steedman, recently emphatically stated he never drank coffee with Ranald when they had creative tete- a- tetes.)
The yeasty socialists continued by declaring Steedman had talked himself into the job as editor of a “with it ” political journal at a later luncheon. (Steedman’s version is that he met Macdonald through a female they both knew soon after finishing up at Farrago . The story goes that Ranald was besotted by this lady , who had been associated with PM Holt , but his mother was against them skipping down the aisle at the kirk.)
Macdonald, great grandson of the 19th century legendary proprietor of the Age , said he wanted new publications for the publishing house , which had a new press . Steedman just happened to have rough dummy copies for no less than three possible publications- political, financial and even a women’s magazine .
According to Half Baked, Steedman operated out of a pantry-like office , had a shoestring budget and was paid the salary of a B grade journalist, about half that paid to the Herald’s social writer, Claudia, to move over to the Age.
When pressed to be more specific about Broadside’s editorial policy , Half Baked said Steedman described it as “ a sort of an adult Chucklers Weekly”. This was a typical , offbeat quip by Steedman , as it referred to the children’s Charlie Chuckles comic strip in Sir Frank Packer’s Sunday Telegraph. The Bakery brigade were, however, enthusiastic about “the newest, wildest and most offbeat strip yet.......FABULA !”
Commenting further about the Half Baked write up, Steedman told Little Darwin , “those Maoists had to find something bourgeois about me”- no doubt referring to the crack about him having moved in the Carlton claret and corduroy set.
There was a prescient observation about Broadside in Half Baked’s review of the magazine . It said having read the first edition , a question sprang to mind : Can Broadside continue in this form , or will Charlie eventually be forced to “chuckle under” to The Age management ?
Nextdoor to the bakery was Alice’s Restaurant, which displayed posters , like the one urging showering together to save water, that made local housewives gawk, sold revolutionary literature and local and interstate university magazines ; it had been bombed, daubed with paint and a tile had recently been thrown through its window.
The eatery/bookshop was subject of an unusual cover article in Broadside written by Bruce Hanford , a talented American who came to Australia to evade being drafted into the Vietnam War ; he is credited in some quarters as having introducing the new journalism style of Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson to Australia, making a prodigious contribution to Australian writing. His Broadside article was in the form of an offbeat dining out tucker review, resulting in Alice's Restaurant being awarded one yellow star.
A "beaut " welded sign was no longer outside Alice’s, having been placed in the cellar after removal of hammers and sickles and “star of dave ” were painted on it by “vandal anti –semite goons”.
Steedman was with Hanford during the munch in and engaged in heated words with someone in the building . In no uncertain fashion , Steedman often told the Revolutionary Socialists and others he was not going to be led by any overseas person, be they a d*go Pope, a man who had written a little Red Book or some murderous Russians . In this single , typical, colourful utterance, he managed to upset the Maoists, the Trotskyites, assorted other revolutionaries , Catholics, Santamaria , Archibishop Mannix (if he was still alive at the time ), the Democratic Labor Party, Opus Dei, the Spanish Inquisition Fan Club etc, etc.
According to the write up , Steedman also spoke to another activist in the cafe- Jill Jolliffe- now well known in Darwin for her books about East Timor, one made into the film, Balibo, starring Anthony Lapaglia , and her ongoing support for the Timorese.
There was a sign over the entrance to the restaurant in four inch high letters stating Jolliffe was a secondhand dealer . A Monash student , with “a Cilla Black ante - nose job”, she wore a bandanna at her neck and a button on her jumper read SERVE THE PEOPLE. She also helped run the Labor bookshop at Monash. Alice’s booklist included -The Making of the English Working Class , E.P.Thompson; May Day Mainifesto 1968, edited Raymond Williams; Communist China ,edited Franz Schurmann & Orville Scholl; The Dialectics of Liberation, edited David Cooper; Revolution in the Revolution, Regis Debray; French Revolution 1968, Sealy and McConville ; Again Korea, Wilfred Burchett ; Miami & the Siege of Chicago,Norman Mailer; NLF Shopping Bags,50 cents each; Obsolete Communism-The left Wing Alternative ,Cohn-Bendit; One Dimensional Man,H. Marcuse;Episodes of the Revolutionary War, Che Guevara.
Jolliffe was pictured, above , looking at the smashed window through which the tile had been thrown. In his inimitable style, Hanford wrote the missile had presumably been thrown by a loutish fascist running dog (on a horse?) but what the hell! Those are the breaks !! When you’re making a revolution !!! Broadside wondered if a Molotov cocktail would next be thrown at the premises.
Readers were informed that Jolliffe had been prosecuted for blasphemy after the last Billy Graham Crusade . Her defence that Graham was big business so ‘‘unblasphemable”, the magistrate swayed by her argument. Jolliffe was quoted : “ The policeman who charged me hates my guts and he’s charging me again on another charge.”
Sitting on a rattan mat, a can of beer in hand , Hanford bummed a cigarette and was shown offensive letters- from “ cuckooland”- described by him as "foolshat sheets of rhetoric a la canned Mailer. " One, addressed to all revolutionary socialists, said it objected to their subversion of Australian society, warned that it knew who they were and may have to destroy their activities and them. It was signed C.E.N.T.I.P.E.D.E , a dead centipede stapled to the bottom of a red serviette .
The comment was made that somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to press the centipede, Jolliffee retorted: “Or oppress it.” In his distinctive way, Hanford responded: “If you don’t mind making bad puns,” the reporter says sourly .
The subject of the nearby Prahran Police Station came up during the discourse , and Hanford wrote “my editor”- Steedman - editorialised a bit about the said police , whom he considered nasty, mean and cruel as they ( or several of them ) once hurt him body and soul. [Asked to explain this intriguing para , Steedman this year said police there were known to hang people out the second floor window by their feet over a fire hydrant , which sounded like a visit to South Africa in the bad old days . He had been taken there the night he and others were arrested outside the Fat Black Pussy Cat and charges were dismissed when it was revealed that there was an ice box in the back of the police car and beer fumes could be detected on the officers’ breath. ]
Hanford reported that the crockery was neatly stacked in Alice’s diner and there had been liberal use of disinfectant to comply with health requirements. Half filled bowls of cauliflower, tomatoes, parsnips ,carrots and oranges were spotted. And proof of a conspiracy : purple snap dragons and mandarins!
When the Melbourne based abortion law reformer, Dr Bertram Wainer , flew to Sydney in July 1969 to present the NSW Police Commissioner, Norman Allen, with evidence of police corruption , he was accompanied by Hanford and another well- known reporter, Evan Whitton. Dr Wainer refused to go to the police headquarters , fearing he could be assassinated , and instead went to the 2GB boardroom where he was interviewed by Superintendent Don Fergusson and the notorious Roger Rogerson.
The two reporters were asked to leave the room after it was noticed that Whitton had a tape recorder, but they remained . The police refused to take evidence from Wainer in front of witnesses . Corruption was rife in NSW at the time, premier Bob Askin regularly receiving a brown paper bag , and it did not contain a cut lunch.
Wainer may have been wise not to go to police headquarters because Superintendent Fergusson was found shot dead in the CIB toilets , the theory being that he had been murdered by a corrupt ex cop because he refused to take drug bribe money.
Hanford also played an important part in airing the circumstances under which Aboriginal Rupert Maxwell Stuart,from Central Australia , had been convicted and sentenced to hang for the rape murder of nine- year- old Mary Olive Hattam, near Ceduna, South Australia,on December 20,1958.
The first interview of Stuart by a reporter raised serious doubts about the way Stuart , an illiterate, had signed a fluent written confession . The report was offered to a Murdoch newspaper and declined , but Hanford arranged for it to be run in the underground newspaper ,The Digger , started by Phillip Frazer, mentioned earlier in this series, who had been involved with Steedman on Lot’s Wife and Farrago, and also contributed to Broadside.
Copies of The Digger article were distributed to the news editors of most major newspapers and set in train a massive legal and political controversy involving Rupert Murdoch , his Adelaide News editor ,Rohan Rivett , anthropologist Professor Strehlow , an attempted appeal to the Privy Council , a Royal Commission, eventually resulting in Stuart being freed. The News , Adelaide, campaigned strongly against Stuart's death sentence , with Murdoch playing a big part in the way the paper covered and wrote up its reports.
Steedman was with Hanford during the munch in and engaged in heated words with someone in the building . In no uncertain fashion , Steedman often told the Revolutionary Socialists and others he was not going to be led by any overseas person, be they a d*go Pope, a man who had written a little Red Book or some murderous Russians . In this single , typical, colourful utterance, he managed to upset the Maoists, the Trotskyites, assorted other revolutionaries , Catholics, Santamaria , Archibishop Mannix (if he was still alive at the time ), the Democratic Labor Party, Opus Dei, the Spanish Inquisition Fan Club etc, etc.
According to the write up , Steedman also spoke to another activist in the cafe- Jill Jolliffe- now well known in Darwin for her books about East Timor, one made into the film, Balibo, starring Anthony Lapaglia , and her ongoing support for the Timorese.
There was a sign over the entrance to the restaurant in four inch high letters stating Jolliffe was a secondhand dealer . A Monash student , with “a Cilla Black ante - nose job”, she wore a bandanna at her neck and a button on her jumper read SERVE THE PEOPLE. She also helped run the Labor bookshop at Monash. Alice’s booklist included -The Making of the English Working Class , E.P.Thompson; May Day Mainifesto 1968, edited Raymond Williams; Communist China ,edited Franz Schurmann & Orville Scholl; The Dialectics of Liberation, edited David Cooper; Revolution in the Revolution, Regis Debray; French Revolution 1968, Sealy and McConville ; Again Korea, Wilfred Burchett ; Miami & the Siege of Chicago,Norman Mailer; NLF Shopping Bags,50 cents each; Obsolete Communism-The left Wing Alternative ,Cohn-Bendit; One Dimensional Man,H. Marcuse;Episodes of the Revolutionary War, Che Guevara.
Jolliffe was pictured, above , looking at the smashed window through which the tile had been thrown. In his inimitable style, Hanford wrote the missile had presumably been thrown by a loutish fascist running dog (on a horse?) but what the hell! Those are the breaks !! When you’re making a revolution !!! Broadside wondered if a Molotov cocktail would next be thrown at the premises.
Readers were informed that Jolliffe had been prosecuted for blasphemy after the last Billy Graham Crusade . Her defence that Graham was big business so ‘‘unblasphemable”, the magistrate swayed by her argument. Jolliffe was quoted : “ The policeman who charged me hates my guts and he’s charging me again on another charge.”
Sitting on a rattan mat, a can of beer in hand , Hanford bummed a cigarette and was shown offensive letters- from “ cuckooland”- described by him as "foolshat sheets of rhetoric a la canned Mailer. " One, addressed to all revolutionary socialists, said it objected to their subversion of Australian society, warned that it knew who they were and may have to destroy their activities and them. It was signed C.E.N.T.I.P.E.D.E , a dead centipede stapled to the bottom of a red serviette .
The comment was made that somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to press the centipede, Jolliffee retorted: “Or oppress it.” In his distinctive way, Hanford responded: “If you don’t mind making bad puns,” the reporter says sourly .
The subject of the nearby Prahran Police Station came up during the discourse , and Hanford wrote “my editor”- Steedman - editorialised a bit about the said police , whom he considered nasty, mean and cruel as they ( or several of them ) once hurt him body and soul. [Asked to explain this intriguing para , Steedman this year said police there were known to hang people out the second floor window by their feet over a fire hydrant , which sounded like a visit to South Africa in the bad old days . He had been taken there the night he and others were arrested outside the Fat Black Pussy Cat and charges were dismissed when it was revealed that there was an ice box in the back of the police car and beer fumes could be detected on the officers’ breath. ]
Hanford reported that the crockery was neatly stacked in Alice’s diner and there had been liberal use of disinfectant to comply with health requirements. Half filled bowls of cauliflower, tomatoes, parsnips ,carrots and oranges were spotted. And proof of a conspiracy : purple snap dragons and mandarins!
When the Melbourne based abortion law reformer, Dr Bertram Wainer , flew to Sydney in July 1969 to present the NSW Police Commissioner, Norman Allen, with evidence of police corruption , he was accompanied by Hanford and another well- known reporter, Evan Whitton. Dr Wainer refused to go to the police headquarters , fearing he could be assassinated , and instead went to the 2GB boardroom where he was interviewed by Superintendent Don Fergusson and the notorious Roger Rogerson.
The two reporters were asked to leave the room after it was noticed that Whitton had a tape recorder, but they remained . The police refused to take evidence from Wainer in front of witnesses . Corruption was rife in NSW at the time, premier Bob Askin regularly receiving a brown paper bag , and it did not contain a cut lunch.
Wainer may have been wise not to go to police headquarters because Superintendent Fergusson was found shot dead in the CIB toilets , the theory being that he had been murdered by a corrupt ex cop because he refused to take drug bribe money.
Hanford also played an important part in airing the circumstances under which Aboriginal Rupert Maxwell Stuart,from Central Australia , had been convicted and sentenced to hang for the rape murder of nine- year- old Mary Olive Hattam, near Ceduna, South Australia,on December 20,1958.
The first interview of Stuart by a reporter raised serious doubts about the way Stuart , an illiterate, had signed a fluent written confession . The report was offered to a Murdoch newspaper and declined , but Hanford arranged for it to be run in the underground newspaper ,The Digger , started by Phillip Frazer, mentioned earlier in this series, who had been involved with Steedman on Lot’s Wife and Farrago, and also contributed to Broadside.
Copies of The Digger article were distributed to the news editors of most major newspapers and set in train a massive legal and political controversy involving Rupert Murdoch , his Adelaide News editor ,Rohan Rivett , anthropologist Professor Strehlow , an attempted appeal to the Privy Council , a Royal Commission, eventually resulting in Stuart being freed. The News , Adelaide, campaigned strongly against Stuart's death sentence , with Murdoch playing a big part in the way the paper covered and wrote up its reports.
Editor Rivett and the News itself were charged with seditious and malicious libel, but acquitted. Murdoch dismissed Rivett a few weeks later.
There is an erroneous claim that The Digger title was inspired by the reference to the British press nicknaming Rupert Murdoch, the Dirty Digger . Phillip Frazer, now editor - publisher of the influential US political newsletter , Hightower Lowdown , recently set the record straight for Little Darwin . The name for his underground paper, he explained , suggested digging up the facts , or the dirt; it referenced the English egalitarian rebels of the 1600s, and the Aussie soldiers who used the term to distinguish themselves from their British overlords. While " RSL blokes "were likely to turn crimson at the sight of the magazine, he figured using Digger on the masthead reclaimed the term as one celebrating independence and Australianism, simultaneously decoupling it from the conservatisms of our fathers’ generation.
Hanford and Steedman combined to cover a large July 4 demontration in Melbourne . While the big end of town , especially at the Melbourne Club, was shocked by some of the radical content of the magazine , it is understood Fabula received close scrutiny by its members , she being such a stirring example of Australian femininity .
Apart from Carr’s Fabula, other artists and cartoonists included the already mentioned Les Tanner, the one and only Michael Leunig, and another inspired black and white artist , Peter Burleigh, an architecture student . Leunig drew some magnificent two pagers sending up the education system,ASIO and likened Australia’s defence to a clipped galah placed in a made in America cage covered with a dark hood .
At a time 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 , 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 ...”
Today Professor Langton is an influential ,outspoken, straight - talking champion for indigenous people. As a member of the NT Aboriginal Issues Unit she took part in the 1989 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Professor Langton also said the proposed 2010 resources tax needed redesigning to support Indigenous rights and employment.
Apart from Carr’s Fabula, other artists and cartoonists included the already mentioned Les Tanner, the one and only Michael Leunig, and another inspired black and white artist , Peter Burleigh, an architecture student . Leunig drew some magnificent two pagers sending up the education system,ASIO and likened Australia’s defence to a clipped galah placed in a made in America cage covered with a dark hood .
At a time 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 , 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 ...”
Today Professor Langton is an influential ,outspoken, straight - talking champion for indigenous people. As a member of the NT Aboriginal Issues Unit she took part in the 1989 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Professor Langton also said the proposed 2010 resources tax needed redesigning to support Indigenous rights and employment.
In the case of cartoonist Burleigh, a drawing highlighted anthrax tests at the UTAH CHEMICAL WARFARE RESEARCH premises and included a cage of laboratory mice bearing the familiar names of Leunig and Steedman .
Editorial conferences were unusual and bloodthirsty affairs at Broadside, a bit like a scene from Underbelly . Editor Steedman would announce that in the next edition they would “kill” somebody, a politician, an organisation, a right winger . The order to exterminate was often used when talking with cartoonists Carr, Burleigh and Leunig.
Broadside took several potshots at ASIO, not only through Fabula. It revealed the ASIO internal codename for itself, SCORPION. Steedman explained that ASIO had made his life difficult during the university days , so they deserved a serve .
A controversial article, BLACK POWER IN AUSTRALIA? , raised the possibility of Aborigines rising up and killing whites if they did not help , like rioting Negroes were at the time in America, and quoted Bob Mazra , president of the Aborigines Advancement League. He was critical of Aboriginal Affairs Minister Wentworth over the handling of NT land rights and said Bill Jeffery had been sacked from his NT job for doing what he thought was right.
Two powerful Burleigh cartoons illustrated the piece, one showing an Aboriginal shanty scene , with music playing Waltzing Jedda ( Jedda was the Charles Chevaul film which starred Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth ) , an Aboriginal man holding a newspaper, the Wilcannia Blot, highlighting the American riots, saying, “ Plurry American Negroes must be worse off than we are ...”Without a doubt, the dire threat in this article must have been the subject of deep discussion in corridors of power. There was uproar in official circles when Roosevelt Brown,chairman of the continuing committee of the Caribbean and Latin American Black Power Movement,flew into Melbourne to have talks with Aboriginal leaders to let them know they were not alone. Leader of the Opposition in the Bermuda parliament, Brown , 36, was a former science lecturer. His impending visit had only been known by Mazra of the Aborigines Advancement League , Bruce McGuiness , the League’s liaison officer , and Gerald Frape, who wrote a three page report for Broadside.
At a rowdy media conference attended by Aboriginal pastor , Reverend Doug Nichols, later the knighted South Australian Governor , Brown was asked what Black Power meant and simply said the answer was “the empowerment of black people to guide their own destinies.” Broadside said “please explain " telegrams had been sent to those connected with the visit.
Burleigh excelled again in a full page send up of the Australian early warning system, Darwin Station, above, showing a puzzled Chinese soldier with a burp gun and hand grenades during an invasion, peering in at a soldier snoring at his desk in front of a radar screen, unaware of warning beeps, a panic button nearby, and a 1932 nude calendar , with the compliments of Alf Resco ,butcher and embalmer. There were instructions to insert a 5 cent piece in the radar . When making tea, the radar had to be turned off because it caused interference. Also seen through the window was a ground to air missile - like the Blood Hound ones now flanking the entrance to the RAAF base- with a wind up key, a Blood Nose .
A special cartoon to mark Burleigh’s departure for London depicted him in a slouch hat ,a bit like Barry Mackenzie, with a letter of introduction from Henry Bolte , intent on letting the Pommie Customs know that Barry Humphries is a twisted intellectual. He also intended telling the Mother Country we were a nation of thoughtful people, depicted in the drawing with empty thought bubbles , an RSL person carrying a banner reading BAN THE BUMS ( not the bombs) , another goofy marcher with BAN THE WHORS on his T –shirt. Just to show the Brits how strong were the ties with Australia, Burleigh was taking a food parcel for Prince Charles.
After Burleigh’s departure, a reader said a line which often appeared in his cartoons - BASIL SWEETLIPS WAS HERE- which had inspired many toilet artists , was sadly missed. Astute Little Darwin readers will notice that Basil Sweetlips also appeared to have been a person of authority in the Darwin early warning system .
Syndicated American satirists included Jules Feiffer and Ron Cobb. It is interesting to note that while a nuclear waste dump is likely to be established in the NT at Muckaty Station,one of Cobb’s well known drawings, many anti war , is of an American government nuclear waste dump, Luminous Flats , Nevada , a cigar smoking military guard , with three legs , sitting at the entrance reading a newspaper.
An article by G.R. Lansell which grabbed much attention in the art world included a “rogue’s gallery '' of Australian newspaper art critics. Broadside , for the first time , shone the searchlight on the operations of the Victorian Housing Commission which upset officialdom.
Regular columnists were ALP Leader Arthur “Cocky” Calwell who had a spot headed Stirring the Possum and Liberal Andrew Peacock. Steedman said Peacock failed to grab the opportunity to make an impression with young, thinking people, his column usually about some boring subject . Even though Steedman thought Calwell should step aside or resign, he at least had more to say.
Important articles run in the magazine included one about Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett and the Vietnam Paris Peace Talks , which had to be condensed by Phillip Frazer because of a Supreme Court writ issued by Burchett against the Herald and Weekly Times Ltd., as any discussion of certain aspects of his life could be considered contempt of court .
Other subjects were boxer Lionel Rose and Aboriginal rights , the role of ASIO, an interview with Cassius Clay , Australia’s new Left , Pensioner Power , Billy McMahon’s consolidation of power in the Liberal Party and the concept of Fortress Australia .
Barry Humphries featured in the hilarious cover story at the top of this post in which Broadside’s Moscow reporter, Beria Humphivitch , revealed a terrifying document smuggled into Russia, signed by dozens of oppressed Australian artists, writers and intellectuals who were being forcibly restricted from fleeing to the free world. In Australia the state forced artists to wear badges proclaiming they were overpaid poofters. It showed a shabby-looking, mad- eyed Aussie artist in dressing gown , slippers and monocle , going through the stages of self immolation with the help of a candle, a packet of briquettes and a container of kerosene.
Several people got their first run in Broadside . One was a tutor at Monash University, Michelle Grattan , now a respected Age political reporter and commentator . Gerard Henderson , head of today’s right wing Sydney Institute , featured. Steedman and Henderson had a verbal joust last year in Henderson’s online Media Watch Dog column, which features what seems to be an odd looking Aussie blue heeler , or Purple People Eater, that one suspects animal lover and humane Royal portrait painter, Rolf Harris , would order put down by a Pommie vet , following comments made about Steedman during the 1960s in Melbourne.
Eagle- eyed Henderson had pointed out that Steedman had been Peter in university days, now Pete. Pete responded by saying that Henderson was plain Gerry back in those days , before he became “ a forelock tugger” to the establishment and developed “ that plumy voice ". Steedman continued by saying Henderson and his mates in Melbourne at the time were not getting much sex and leading boring and frustrating lives , getting their vicarious kicks from watching him .
Admitting that he had mellowed nowadays, Pete signed off his billet doux : Peace man ( Does that fit the stereotype?) No doubt finding it hard to believe that Pete had gone soft about the edges , Henderson replied to Pete/Peter /Alan , kindly thanking him for the letter saying part of it had been a relief : “ Here was I planning a visit to a psychiatrist to find out where I was at -or was. And then along came your letter which referred to my alleged inferiority complex, massive guilt complex, jealousy, frustration-all manifested in my ( allegedly) sad life since no one loves me. Thanks for the analysis .”
Another journo published in Broadside was Greg Shackleton , one of the Balibo Five media team murdered by the Indonesians.
Among the many other writers for Broadside were John Larkin, Don Chipp, Alan Ashbolt, John Playford, Anthony Storr ,Cyril Connolly ,Maxwell Kent ( the alias of a well known scribe ) , Robert Hughes, John Flaherty, Dennis Altman, Craig McGregor, Claude Cockburn , Don Miller, Ross Terrill and Owen Webster . Phillip Adams also provided copy .
Steedman’s presence in the conservative Collins Street Age premises caused eyebrows to be raised . In the October 16, 2004 commemorative edition of The Age, marking 150 years of publication, reporter Roger Aldridge recalled the golden 1960s and covered the arrival of Steedman thus:
Then-shock,horror-on Macdonald’s initiative, Pete Steedman, the revolutionary from Central Casting , moved into the eighth floor to publish an instrument of insurrection called Broadside. He rode a motorbike and wore black jeans and a bikie jacket and T-shirt with writing on in the actual office! One day he put his boots on the desk.
Steedman-who later became a Federal Labor MP-entertained a steady stream of Marxists, Maoists, Trots, anarchists, conscientious objectors ,union leaders and troublemakers who eventually made their way downstairs to the reporters’ room to reform us lackeys of the capitalist press.
The article included a photo of Steedman, in black, seated,wearing dark glasses inside ,holding what we thought may have been a glass of Carlton claret , but were told it was beer. Expanding files were in the background. It could be said he has a fetish for keeping files.
Aldridge mentioned another radical change at the Age- appointment of a fashion editor–stylish, big–boned and leggy, who wrote captions in haikus and blank verse, given an office next to Steedman . [ All these startling changes were part of Ranald’s effort to rejuvenate the tired old business and fight off competition from the Melbourne Herald and another old family newspaper group , the Fairfaxes,in Sydney, who eventually took over .]
Little Darwin referred the evocative passages by Aldridge to Steedman for comment, knowing full well that his agile tongue would instantly provide a quotable quote. And indeed it did . Pete admitted he and some of the cavalcade of people who came into his office blew marijuana smoke into the office ducting hoping to make the Age lackeys and executives relaxed and glassy eyed.
Broadside even had a resident poet, Russell Deeble, appointed " after much imbibing of the nectar of the Gods" at the launch of his third book of poems, High on a Horse on Wax Wings . Described as a “pseudo-scruff with literary pretensions” , Deeble had been a journo, junior editor and delivered poetry readings at universities and on radio and television. Unfortunately , only three of his poems seem to have made it into the magazine, but not due to a poor response to his horsey couplets.
Broadside , like Icarus, folded and fell into a heap when Steedman resigned after a second edition was pulped in October 1969-not due to curvaceous Fabula , but because it backed the ALP in the 1969 federal election and the Age had not. There had also been an anti war cartoon in which a man was shown brandishing his penis as a cannon and this had upset the management .
Syndicated American satirists included Jules Feiffer and Ron Cobb. It is interesting to note that while a nuclear waste dump is likely to be established in the NT at Muckaty Station,one of Cobb’s well known drawings, many anti war , is of an American government nuclear waste dump, Luminous Flats , Nevada , a cigar smoking military guard , with three legs , sitting at the entrance reading a newspaper.
An article by G.R. Lansell which grabbed much attention in the art world included a “rogue’s gallery '' of Australian newspaper art critics. Broadside , for the first time , shone the searchlight on the operations of the Victorian Housing Commission which upset officialdom.
Regular columnists were ALP Leader Arthur “Cocky” Calwell who had a spot headed Stirring the Possum and Liberal Andrew Peacock. Steedman said Peacock failed to grab the opportunity to make an impression with young, thinking people, his column usually about some boring subject . Even though Steedman thought Calwell should step aside or resign, he at least had more to say.
Important articles run in the magazine included one about Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett and the Vietnam Paris Peace Talks , which had to be condensed by Phillip Frazer because of a Supreme Court writ issued by Burchett against the Herald and Weekly Times Ltd., as any discussion of certain aspects of his life could be considered contempt of court .
Other subjects were boxer Lionel Rose and Aboriginal rights , the role of ASIO, an interview with Cassius Clay , Australia’s new Left , Pensioner Power , Billy McMahon’s consolidation of power in the Liberal Party and the concept of Fortress Australia .
Barry Humphries featured in the hilarious cover story at the top of this post in which Broadside’s Moscow reporter, Beria Humphivitch , revealed a terrifying document smuggled into Russia, signed by dozens of oppressed Australian artists, writers and intellectuals who were being forcibly restricted from fleeing to the free world. In Australia the state forced artists to wear badges proclaiming they were overpaid poofters. It showed a shabby-looking, mad- eyed Aussie artist in dressing gown , slippers and monocle , going through the stages of self immolation with the help of a candle, a packet of briquettes and a container of kerosene.
Several people got their first run in Broadside . One was a tutor at Monash University, Michelle Grattan , now a respected Age political reporter and commentator . Gerard Henderson , head of today’s right wing Sydney Institute , featured. Steedman and Henderson had a verbal joust last year in Henderson’s online Media Watch Dog column, which features what seems to be an odd looking Aussie blue heeler , or Purple People Eater, that one suspects animal lover and humane Royal portrait painter, Rolf Harris , would order put down by a Pommie vet , following comments made about Steedman during the 1960s in Melbourne.
Eagle- eyed Henderson had pointed out that Steedman had been Peter in university days, now Pete. Pete responded by saying that Henderson was plain Gerry back in those days , before he became “ a forelock tugger” to the establishment and developed “ that plumy voice ". Steedman continued by saying Henderson and his mates in Melbourne at the time were not getting much sex and leading boring and frustrating lives , getting their vicarious kicks from watching him .
Admitting that he had mellowed nowadays, Pete signed off his billet doux : Peace man ( Does that fit the stereotype?) No doubt finding it hard to believe that Pete had gone soft about the edges , Henderson replied to Pete/Peter /Alan , kindly thanking him for the letter saying part of it had been a relief : “ Here was I planning a visit to a psychiatrist to find out where I was at -or was. And then along came your letter which referred to my alleged inferiority complex, massive guilt complex, jealousy, frustration-all manifested in my ( allegedly) sad life since no one loves me. Thanks for the analysis .”
Another journo published in Broadside was Greg Shackleton , one of the Balibo Five media team murdered by the Indonesians.
Among the many other writers for Broadside were John Larkin, Don Chipp, Alan Ashbolt, John Playford, Anthony Storr ,Cyril Connolly ,Maxwell Kent ( the alias of a well known scribe ) , Robert Hughes, John Flaherty, Dennis Altman, Craig McGregor, Claude Cockburn , Don Miller, Ross Terrill and Owen Webster . Phillip Adams also provided copy .
Steedman’s presence in the conservative Collins Street Age premises caused eyebrows to be raised . In the October 16, 2004 commemorative edition of The Age, marking 150 years of publication, reporter Roger Aldridge recalled the golden 1960s and covered the arrival of Steedman thus:
Then-shock,horror-on Macdonald’s initiative, Pete Steedman, the revolutionary from Central Casting , moved into the eighth floor to publish an instrument of insurrection called Broadside. He rode a motorbike and wore black jeans and a bikie jacket and T-shirt with writing on in the actual office! One day he put his boots on the desk.
Steedman-who later became a Federal Labor MP-entertained a steady stream of Marxists, Maoists, Trots, anarchists, conscientious objectors ,union leaders and troublemakers who eventually made their way downstairs to the reporters’ room to reform us lackeys of the capitalist press.
The article included a photo of Steedman, in black, seated,wearing dark glasses inside ,holding what we thought may have been a glass of Carlton claret , but were told it was beer. Expanding files were in the background. It could be said he has a fetish for keeping files.
Aldridge mentioned another radical change at the Age- appointment of a fashion editor–stylish, big–boned and leggy, who wrote captions in haikus and blank verse, given an office next to Steedman . [ All these startling changes were part of Ranald’s effort to rejuvenate the tired old business and fight off competition from the Melbourne Herald and another old family newspaper group , the Fairfaxes,in Sydney, who eventually took over .]
Little Darwin referred the evocative passages by Aldridge to Steedman for comment, knowing full well that his agile tongue would instantly provide a quotable quote. And indeed it did . Pete admitted he and some of the cavalcade of people who came into his office blew marijuana smoke into the office ducting hoping to make the Age lackeys and executives relaxed and glassy eyed.
Broadside even had a resident poet, Russell Deeble, appointed " after much imbibing of the nectar of the Gods" at the launch of his third book of poems, High on a Horse on Wax Wings . Described as a “pseudo-scruff with literary pretensions” , Deeble had been a journo, junior editor and delivered poetry readings at universities and on radio and television. Unfortunately , only three of his poems seem to have made it into the magazine, but not due to a poor response to his horsey couplets.
Broadside , like Icarus, folded and fell into a heap when Steedman resigned after a second edition was pulped in October 1969-not due to curvaceous Fabula , but because it backed the ALP in the 1969 federal election and the Age had not. There had also been an anti war cartoon in which a man was shown brandishing his penis as a cannon and this had upset the management .
Another cartoon which showed PM Gorton explaining we were in Vietnam to enable people to have a free vote, but we had to kill everyone who might vote communist before it was achieved may also have sealed the magazine’s fate . It is interesting to note the 1969 election night , which failed to see Whitlam win, provided the setting for Don’s Party , as we pointed out previously Steedman now lives in a house which once belonged to playwright David Williamson .
Broadside had run seven months and had an undoubted impact ,not only because of patriotic Fabula . Steedman maintained the magazine was hampered all along because of the small staff, poor promotion and the Age’s method of costing production . The Age also launched another newspaper, originally intended as a Sunday , but changed to a daily afternoon tabloid , Newsday ,on September 30, 1969, which promised to be cheeky, bright and lively . TV commercials for the paper included rapid glimpses of girls bouncing about in bathing suits, none as eye catching as Fabula.
Newsday flopped , despite the last Fabula strip mentioning that the paper was coming and that Broadside readers had 33 1/3 less cavities . Newsday ceased publication after seven months with the loss of 67 journalists’ jobs and the expenditure of $3million. One of the problems faced by the paper had been the fact that its circulation was severely hampered by distribution companies .
Steedman had warned Macdonald about this problem, he and others in the university having encountering the same barrier . When the decision was made to close Broadside , highly regarded Age editor, Graham Perkin , offered Steedman a job assisting Alan Barnes in the Canberra bureau but he refused . For a number of reasons , Melbourne was becoming a “bit hot” for Steedman . He advised female students about their rights in an abortion inquiry resulting in police talking of charging him with "perverting the course of justice ". Police strongly threatened him over his involvement in the inquiry into police and the abortions rackets which eventually saw two senior officers gaoled.
Under these circumstances, it seemed not even Fabula could save him, so he decided to head off overseas, went freelancing in Asia , and eventually landed in London , where Peter Burleigh's food parcel had been received with thanks at Buckingham Palace, Chiller and the Corgis loving the Chiko Rolls. NEXT EDITION : End of the swinging 60s ...long live the dangerous 70s.
