The first edition of The Bulletin magazine was published in Sydney in 1880.

The Bulletin was highly influential in Australian culture and politics, particularly in the period between 1890 and 1914. It was also Australia’s longest-running magazine, with the last issue published in 2008.

In its early years The Bulletin became known as the ‘bushman’s bible’ and was known for its radicalism and xenophobia. It was also one of the most prominent voices for emerging Australian nationalism, with a masthead slogan of ‘Australia for the White Man’.

Many of Australia’s leading literary figures had their start in The Bulletin’s pages including, Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Bernard O’Dowd, Joseph Furphy ,Miles Franklin, Livingston Hopkins (“Hop”), David Low, Phil May, D H Souter and Norman Lindsay.

In 1887, The Bulletin defined Australian identity as follows:

‘All white men who come to these shores—with a clean record—and who leave behind them the memory of class distinctions and the religious differences of the old world … are Australian. In this regard all men who leave the tyrant-ridden land of Europe for freedom of speech and right of personal liberty are Australians before they set foot on the ship which brings them hither … No nigger, no Chinaman, no lascar, no kanaka, no purveyor of cheap coloured labour is an Australian.’

Image: ‘Federation is in the air is all very well: but when it gets in to ‘ead, oh, lor’.’ The Bulletin 15 February 1890 (caricature of Henry Parkes).