Now you can take a Walkabout online

AUSTRALIANS can now “time travel” back to 20th century Australia, thanks to the digitisation of the iconic magazine, Walkabout.

Walkabout was first published in 1934 and ran for 40 years, documenting our culture, land and people. Importantly, it was illustrated by Australian photojournalists.

Now, Walkabout has been digitised in a joint project by the National Library of Australia and the University of Queensland.

The director-general of the National Library, Dr Marie-Louise Ayres said the new digitised Walkabout was an important resource.

“The digitisation of Walkabout has created a rich source of beautiful material. The images and words give us such a rare insight into Australia in the 20th century. The magazines could have been filed away on a shelf but instead they’re now online for anyone to access,” Dr Ayres said.

University of Queensland Associate Professor Anna Johnston said the digitised magazine was both beautiful and informative.

“We think people will love this new resource because Walkabout was hugely popular. It had stunning photos and also commissioned some of Australia’s favourite writers. So the quality of the images and the writing is extremely high,” Associate Professor Johnston said.

Every edition of Walkabout magazine is available for free from the National Library’s discovery portal, Trove at http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj566923190.