Saturday, 24 May 2014 00:00
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Completing 50 years of existence of a newspaper (for that matter any institution) is a cause for celebration. ‘The Australian,’ the national daily in Australia completes 50 years on 15 July. The celebrations have already begun fifty days in advance – in a very meaningful manner. The theme is ‘50 Years in Fifty Days’. Last Saturday’s ‘Weekend Australian’ launched the Special Anniversary Series with an eight-page supplement.
Until 15 July, the newspaper will carry a special section recalling the great front pages, the best work of the cartoonists and revisit the big events of the year, ‘Establishing the national agenda across all fields – breaking news and leading debate’ has been the newspaper’s mission throughout the five decades.
Released one month before the newspaper began operations the Prospectus stated that it would be a daily newspaper of broadsheet size, published in Canberra, the capital. “It will be Australia’s truly national newspaper. It will be dedicated to the highest standard of reporting and analysts,” it said.
The Prospectus explained why the newspaper was being called ‘The Australian’: “As Canberra is every day becoming more clearly the focus and expression of Australian national pride and power, it is only fitting that a newspaper embodying the national ideal should be published in the capital. And that is why we are calling it ‘The Australian’.
“It did not take long to decide what sort of newspaper we wanted to make of ‘The Australian’. We knew we wanted a newspaper of intelligence, of broad outlook, of independent and elegant appearance. But how to bring this about?
“First in importance, to such a newspaper, were the men and women who would write it. How many would we want? How would we find them? What sort of people would they be? We decided that ‘The Australian’ could succeed only with the best – the best-informed, the most experienced, the most curious, the most intelligent and the most able journalists available in the country.”
Heading the team was publisher Rupert Murdoch, who needs no introduction.
Youth revolution
Writing on how the journey began, a former Editor-in-Chief, Peter May sums up the year 1964 saying that the world was being consumed by a revolution so tumultuous that by the time it had subsided and settled into new decades and new paradigms, everything had changed. Nothing remained the same. In1964 the first baby boomers were reaching maturity. The youth revolution was on. The dutiful teens of the ‘50s were starting to revolt. They were questioning their parents, asking why, why not, and in defiance of whatever answers were offered, declaring that they would do it their way.
“First signs of the revolution were found in music. In 1964 the Beatles visited Australia and hundreds of thousands of adoring youth lined the streets to greet them. The Fab Four had six of the 10 top songs that year. The Beatles introduction of new, different and therefore, in the eyes of many, undesirable music was paralleled in literature by the Oz magazine launched in 1963. In 1964 it sparked furious debates over censorship and obscenity when it published satirical commentary on police, parliament and politicians”. (Described as “an underground alternative magazine,” Oz was frost published in Sydney and then in London.)
“It was the Vietnam War that shaped the generation emerging in 1964,” Peter May writes. “Four months after the launch of ‘The Australian,’ the (Sir Robert) Menzies government announced the introduction of national service. The life – and death – of kids was to be determined by a birthday lottery. If you were a male and 18 and if the date of your birth emerged from the lottery barrel, you were in the army – and could be sent to the jungles of Vietnam.”
The first ‘50 Years in Fifty Days’ supplement contains interesting features. Interviews with pioneers, a capsule of news of the day, photographs of the first pages of the early editions are among these.
