Articles on politics and economics, literary pieces - poems, stories, sketches, extracts from overseas magazines.
A 'Dedication : To the Australian Public' in the first issue states: 'We are about to lay before you a work, differing materially, both in form and matter, from any publication which has hitherto been presented to you. Persons unacquainted with your spirit have strenuously maintained that you were incapable of giving proper encouragement to an undertaking of such magnitude and importance, Even some of the most penetrating of your friends have declared that the publication of an Australian Magazine would be both useless and unprofitable. But we ... have made the attempt, trusting to your intelligence to crown our labours with gratifying success. A firm ... a patriotic - zeal for your welfare has actuated us in composing the following pages. Their purpose is to improve your understanding ... [A] perusal of the work itself will best enable you to form an adequate and satisfactory idea that the publication will be a success.' The dedication ends with the words 'the most arduous part of it was written by the Sons of Australia.'
