Ballarat Punch at the Mechanics'
Ballaarat Punch at the Mechanics'
Jill Blee
(editor),
Rex Bridges
(editor),
2007
Ballarat
:
Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute
,
2007
Z1927783
2007
periodical
(1 issues)
'One of the treasures in the Ballarat Mechanics' Institute collection is the Ballarat Punch which was published weekly for just under three years in the 1860s. We decided ... to blend the old with the new in a journal we could call Ballarat Punch at the Mechanics'.''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.
'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.
