A NATIONAL INTEREST IN AN INTERNATIONAL MARKET THE CIRCULATION OF MAGAZINES IN AUSTRALIA DURING THE 1920s

The presence in Australia of English and American magazines has not attracted significant critical attention in histories of magazines or writing. But the defence of imported magazines at a 1930 Tariff Board Inquiry stresses their importance to Australian magazine culture during the 1920s. This paper considers the evidence presented to the Inquiry in conjunction with the magazine holdings of several libraries and a small news-agency. In the commercial and cultural operations of retailers and lenders a new idea of Australian magazine culture emerges; one that does not reject imported culture, but embraces it as a significant element of its very existence. This article has been peer-reviewed. In March and April 1930 the Australian Tariff Board held an ‘Inquiry into a Proposal of Duty on Books, Magazines and Fashion Plates’. Of particular interest to the Inquiry was the cultural and commercial significance of English and American magazines in the Australian market. To some, the presence of foreign magazines was seen as a threat to local industry. But the prohibitive duty under consideration at the Inquiry was opposed by newsagents, librarians and import companies, all stakeholders in a wider magazine industry that relied on foreign publications to meet the needs of the readers they served. The presence of a large number of English and Amer-ican magazines and their position in Australian magazine culture has attracted little critical at