Researched and written by Tony Hammill
The importance of J.F. Archibald (1856-1919) in the founding of a national literature cannot be underestimated, and I like to call him The Father of Australian Literature. Born John Feltham Archibald in Geelong West, Victoria, as a Francophile he later changed his name to Jules Francois Archibald. Early in life he developed a passion for all aspects of publishing. Unable to break into the industry initially, he worked in various jobs including mining, and in places like the Palmer goldfield in North Queensland he grew to understand the character of the rugged bush battler and frontier life.
‘Archie’ as he came to be known, first broke into journalism at the Evening News in Sydney. In partnership with a senior journalist at the paper, John Haynes, they launched The Bulletin, a weekly paper, on the streets of Sydney on 31 January 1880, and the first edition of 3000 copies was a sellout; the second sold 4000. Archibald was not the only determining force behind the development of Bulletin policy, and others of critical influence were Henry Traill, William McLeod and James Edmond, and A.G. Stephens became the Literary editor of the famous Red Page.
The Bulletin was a newspaper of the people and a uniting force; it had mass appeal, invited controversy and pulled no punches. Its themes were pro-Australia, pro-federation, republican, anti-British, pro-unions, protectionist, and, regrettably, White Australia (its masthead read ‘Australia for the White Man’). It attacked politicians, capital punishment, the law’s abuses, poverty, hypocrisy, and false Christians, and satirised and lampooned them through the pens of notable cartoonists like Phil May, Livingstone Hopkins (‘Hop’), George Lambert and Norman Lindsay.
Archibald and Stephens invited contributors to write columns and paid them for their efforts. It was said that The Bulletin was a newspaper written by its readers. They endlessly encouraged writers of talent and gave a start to bush balladists like Paterson and Ogilvie, to many other poets such as Dorothea Mackellar and Mary Gilmore, to short story writers like Henry Lawson, Louis Becke and Steele Rudd, and to novelists like Miles Franklin and Joseph Furphy, and published many titles under their own imprint. It was inclusive, and treated bush and city people equally. It became known as the ‘Bushman’s Bible’. Its rise was meteoric and left dull, conventional newspapers in its wake.
The Bulletin was flayed by conservatives as heretical and disloyal. The Times commented that it had educated bush Australia up to federation, and was the most important, and most dangerous influence on the bushman. ‘Bully Day’ in Kalgoorlie was commonly observed as a day off rather than Sunday. Bulletin contributors formed their own club in Sydney and often gathered at the Bulletin building at 214 George St.
Archibald as editor-in-chief kept a watchful eye on everything published, and described himself as a ‘soler and heeler of paragraphs’, and circulation hit 80 000 around the time Australia’s population reached one million. The Bulletin was Archibald’s life to the exclusion of all else. His marriage failed, and hypochondria and depression became his lot. In 1902 he handed over the editorship to Edmond and in 1906 was committed to Callan Park Asylum and discharged in 1910. He then lived the life of a leading citizen. In 1914 he sold his interest in The Bulletin, and died in 1919 leaving an estate of 90 000 pounds. He bequeathed to Sydney the Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park and to Australia the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Australia owes Archibald an enormous debt for the promotion and development of our national culture. The Bulletin closed in 2008.
Tony Hammill
Award-Winning Bush Poet • Australian History Writer • Researcher • Retired Teacher
Tony Hammill is an award-winning bush poet and Australian history writer whose research explores folklore, historical figures and the stories behind Australian legends.
