Farrago (magazine)

Last updated

Farrago
Farrago 2016 Issue 8.jpg
Issue 8 2016, front cover
Type Student publication
FormatMagazine
Owner(s) University of Melbourne Student Union
EditorJoel Duggan, Kien-Ling Liem, Jessica Fanwong, Gunjan Ahluwalia
Founded1925 (1925)
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Website farragomagazine.com

Farrago is the student publication for the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia published by the University of Melbourne Student Union. It is the oldest student publication in Australia. [1] It was first published on 3 April 1925. [2]

Contents

Name

The term "farrago", from Latin  'mixed cattle fodder', [3] means a confused variety of miscellaneous things. It has been used by Edward Tylor in his book Primitive Culture. [4] The name is included in the motto (drawn originally from the Satires of Juvenal) Quidquid agunt homines nostri farrago libelli est – "whatever men do forms the motley subject of our page" which was written on the first issue of the famous eighteenth-century periodical Tatler .

History

The publication was founded in 1925 by Randal Heymanson, who was the first editor, [5] and Brian Fitzpatrick, who was the first chief of staff. [6] [7]

For a number of years, Farrago was published in a newspaper or broadsheet format. [8] In the 2000s, Farrago switched to a magazine format, which it continues to use today. [9]

Organisation

Up to four editors are elected annually and hold the shared title of Media Officer at the University of Melbourne Student Union, with the union secretary being the legally defined publisher. The editorship has been highly politicised in the past, and election campaigns are vigorous.

Archives of Farrago are available at the Student Union's Rowden White Library and the University of Melbourne's Baillieu Library.

Noteworthy past editors include Cyril Pearl, Geoffrey Blainey, Amirah Gust, Claude Forrell, Ian Robinson, Morag Fraser, Henry Rosenbloom, Garrie Hutchinson, Ross McPherson, Colin Golvan, Lindsay Tanner, Peter Russo, Louise Carbines, Jim Brumby, Pete Steedman, Arnold Zable, Kate Legge, Nicola Gobbo, Cathy Bale, Christos Tsiolkas, and Nam Le. [10]

Voluntary student unionism

The implementation of voluntary student unionism in 2006 had a significant impact on the viability of student publications across Australia, as compulsory student union membership fees had been the major source of income for most. "Christos Tsiolkas was editor in 1987, and he had a budget of $280,000; we have a budget of $58,000, and $55,000 of that will go on printing. We're quite lucky, we're a well-funded institution, and the University has provided transitional funding", said Farrago editor for 2009. [1]

Aims and content

Farrago is a magazine whose content is produced and edited entirely by students, which aims to be a voice, creative outlet and source of information for those who attend the University of Melbourne – irrespective of age, course and interests. Farrago encourages contributions from students in both written and/or visual forms, because without these it would not be an accurate representation of students at the university.

Farrago contains the following sections: News, Non-Fiction, Creative. It previously contained a Science section, which was discontinued in recent years. Farrago also features regular columns from several student writers. [11]

Current and past editors

YearNameTicket
1925Randal HermansonUnknown
Brian Fitzpatrick (Chief of Staff)
1946 Portia Ferguson, Arthur Watson, Abner Shavitsky [12]
1973Simon Marginson
1974Stephen Mills
1975Richard Cooney, Rob Nowak, Imre Salusinszky and Sandy Thomas.
1976Colin Golvan and Campbell Smith
1977 Lindsay Tanner Unknown
Peter Russ
1978Mick Earls and Andrew ListonIndependent
1979Louise Carbines and Jim BrumbyIndependent
1980Kate Legge and Nic McLellanIndependent
1982Simon Bailey and Sara WhiteIndependent
1983Kathy Bail, John O'Hagan, Bruce Permezel [13] Independent
1987 [14] Christos Tsiolkas Unknown
1990 [15] [16] Kylie HansenIndependent Media
Elise Mooney
Keir Semmens
Tim Richardson
2005 [17] Clare ChandlerIndependent Media
Zoe Holman
Tom Rigby
Jim Round
2008 [18] Zoë BarronIndependent Media
Simon Lilburn
Hagan Matthews
Benjamin Riley
2009 [19] Gillian KilbyIndependent Media
Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Zoe Sanders
Yoshua Wakeham
2010 [20] Rachel BaxendaleIndependent Media
Sarah Laing
Ellena Savage
Lucas Smith
2011 [21] Tim ForsterIndependent Media
Erin Handley
Geir O'Rourke.
Elizabeth Redman
2012 [22] Max DentonIndependent Media
Ella Dyson
Vicky Smith
Scott Whinfeld
2013 [23] Emma KoehnIndependent Media
Sarah McColl
Meg Watson
Sally Whyte
2014 [24] Zoe EfronIndependent Media
Kevin Hawkins
Michelle See-Tho
Sean Watson
2015 [25] Maddy Cleeve GerkensIndependent Media
Marty Dittman
Lynley Eavis
Simon Farley
2016 [26] Danielle BagnatoIndependent Media
Sebastian Dodds
Baya Ou Yang
Caleb Triscari
2017 [27] Alexandra AlvaroIndependent Media
Amie Green
Mary Ntalianis
James Macaronas
2018 [28] Ashleigh BarracloughIndependent Media
Esther Le Couteur
Monique O'Rafferty
Jesse Paris-Jourdan
2019 [29] Katie DohertyIndependent Media
Carolyn Huane
Ruby Perryman
Stephanie Zhang
2020 [30] Bethany CherryIndependent Media
Amber Meyer
Sarah Peters
Tharidi Walimunige
2021 [31] Ailish HallinanIndependent Media
Pavani Ambagahawattha
Lauren Berry
2022 [32] Joanna GuelasIndependent Media
Nishtha Banavalikar
Charlotte Waters
Jasmine Pierce
2023 [33] Josh DavisIndependent Media
Carmen Chin
Xiaole Zhan
Weiting Chen
2024 [34] Joel DugganIndependent Media
Kien-Ling Liem
Jessica Fanwong
Gunjan Ahluwalia

The Fitzpatrick Awards

Every year, the Media Office holds the Fitzpatrick Awards ceremony to celebrate and acknowledge the publication's contributors and volunteers. The first annual Fitzpatrick Awards were held in 2009 at Dante's Emporium and Cafe in Fitzroy. [35] The ceremony is named after the publication's first chief of staff, Brian Fitzpatrick.

In addition to editing Farrago, the University of Melbourne Student Union Media Officers oversee several related projects.

Above Water

Above Water is an annual creative writing anthology published in collaboration with the University of Melbourne Student Union's Creative Arts department. [36] It publishes a variety of creative forms including fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. [36] The first edition was published in 2005. [36]

Unlike Farrago, the contents of Above Water is selected via competition, with prizes for the winning entries. [37]

In 2017, the publication received almost 300 submissions, of which 17 were selected for publication. [38]

Radio Fodder

Radio Fodder is the University of Melbourne Student Union's student radio station, produced by the student union Media Officers. [39] The name originated from a discontinued section of Farrago titled "The Fodder". [40]

Farrago Student Union Election Guide

According to the University of Melbourne Student Union's constitution, each year the Media Office is required to print a student union election guide containing the names and statements of all candidates in the student union elections. [41]

In most previous years, the election guide has been included as a section in an edition of Farrago, sometimes appearing as a perforated, removable booklet. [41] In 2017, the editors opted to print the guide as a separate booklet entirely, which was then slipped into editions of Farrago on stands around the University of Melbourne campus. [42]

Controversy

Despite the magazine's commitment to providing a voice to a diverse range of contributors regardless of political persuasion, the editorial partisanship of the publication has varied under different editors. Zoe Efron, one of Farrago's 2014 editors, noted that the front cover of a 1974 edition of Farrago consisted of an ad for the then-Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. She also noted that overt partisanship was still visible more recently, with a late 2013 edition of Farrago featuring a cover illustration of Tony Abbott with the caption "WE'RE FUCKED". [43]

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