In the first issue the publishers addressed 'Business Men' (as potential advertisers) and declared their intention to make The Australian Century a 'thoroughly popular paper' that would 'afford to the reading public matter for all tastes, from politics to household work'. The magazine was large format, only four pages, and without advertisements. There is some indication that monthly publication did proceed for a year, but these issues have not been preserved.
From vol.2, no.1 (28 Feb. 1889), the magazine was published regularly in a smaller format with thirty-two pages of diverse reading material: 'it will lie on the reading table and be treated rather in the light of a "literary production" than a newspaper'. It ran story, essay, and picture competitions, publishing the winners as well as commissioned works and sketches. It recommended novels and music, discussed fashion and department stores, and answered correspondence (without the questions). It supported women's suffrage, but not the right to sit in Parliament (where behaviour was often ungentlemanly).
The Australian Century's Public Opinion column, mostly drawn from overseas magazines, ranged widely, discussing the training of children's voices, house drainage, the competitive element in modern life, prohibition, vegetarianism, and the Samoan question. Nationalistic in focus, it encouraged 'Australian Jaunts', and published a three-part account of Sir Thomas Mitchell's last expedition.
As well as columns on Australian households and Australian children, the magazine ran a regular gardening column, and one of its few advertisers was a seed and plant merchant. It blamed its own demise on insufficient advertising.
