Melbourne Punch was an illustrated magazine founded by Edgar Ray and Frederick Sinnett in 1855. Modelled closely on London's Punch, which had been founded fifteen years earlier, the magazine was known simply as Punch from 1900 onwards.
'This chapter re-assesses the colonial Australian versions of the London Punch, making a case for their importance as essentially migrant and minority publications. Founded as a means of maintaining a sense of Britishness, and as a direct link to the culture of Metropolitan London, these magazines were staffed overwhelmingly by migrants (from Britain and elsewhere), directed to a predominantly migrant readership, and filled their pages with migration-themed jokes, cartoons, and pieces of doggerel. The everyday worries of a stranger in a strange land could be soothed by reference to the humour of the local satirical magazine, and a sense of shared community built through regular recourse to the pages of Melbourne Punch, Sydney Punch, Tasmanian Punch, Ballarat Punch, Adelaide Punch, Queensland Punch, or even Ipswich Punch.'
Source: Abstract.
Vol. 1 no. 1 (2 August 1855) - vol. 92 no. 2336 (3 May 1900)
New Series v. 92 no. 2337 (10 May 1900) - vol. 133 no. 3394 (19 August 1920) under title Punch [Melbourne, Vic.]
Vol. 133 no. 3395 (26 August 1920) - 3 November 1921 under title New Punch
10 November 1921 - new series, vol. 1 no. 52 (10 December 1925) under title Punch [Melbourne, Vic.]