In its opening address to readers, the Melbourne Monthly Magazine of Original Colonial Literature declares its purpose to be the reproduction of 'the first-class magazine literature of London, the class of which Blackwood may be considered the type. This has hitherto, as far as we are aware, been unattempted in Victoria.' (1.1 (May 185): 3-4) A brief comment on the magazine's first issue in the Melbourne Argus indicates the aspiration to be like Blackwood's Magazine may have been successful. The newspaper said: 'It is got up exceedingly well, and, in having double columns, and costing half a crownn, is very like Blackwood.' (Argus, (4 May 1855): 5)
Lurline Stuart, in James Smith: The Making of a Colonial Culture (1989),writes that the promotors of the Melbourne Monthly Magazine of Original Colonial Literature believed their journal would fill a gap in Melbourne literary offerings. However, 'its appeal was confined to educated colonists like themselves, of whom there were still to few to uphold for long the multiple roles required in production and support' (p.85). The journal lasted for only seven issues.
Contributors to the the Melbourne Monthly Magazine of Original Colonial Literature included James Smith (under his own name and under the initials J. S.), R. H. Horne and Sir William a'Beckett (again, under his own name as well as the initials B. A. W.). The content included travel writing (describing visits to Europe), short philosophical dramas, poetry and short stories. (The latter included serialised tales that were left incomplete with the journal's demise.) The magazine also covered Australian natural and social history, finance, meteorology and science. Melbourne busisnesses took out advertisements in the Melbourne Monthly Magazine of Original Colonial Literature pages. Advertisers ranged from insurance agencies, banks and bookbinders to horticulturalists, drapers and undertakers.
