In 1939, Sydney Ure Smith had recently retired as editor of Art in Australia and the Home, magazines he had co-founded in 1916 and 1920, respectively, and sold to the Fairfax press in 1934. After establishing a new company, Ure Smith Pty Publications, he began a number of projects, including a new magazine, Australia: National Journal.

With this new magazine, Ure Smith aimed to 'give expression to [Australia's]progress in Art, Architecture and Industry'. His previous magazines were admired for their developments in the reproduction of graphic art, and architecture had become a prominent feature of Art in Australia. With an additional focus on industry, Ure Smith's new magazine engaged with the progress of the modern world, but as with its predecessors, contemporary artistic movements such as futurism and surrealism were largely ignored.

By the early 1940s, the Second World War influenced the production and content of the magazine in a number of ways. Articles on industrial topics often focused on defence projects and advertisements used military images to promote many products, including paint, light globes and bank accounts. Responding to calls from the federal government, intranational travel was also promoted in the magazine with many advertisements and regular travel articles on Australian destinations. News from the front lines and biographies of prominent military figures featured with many photographs of military life. Furthermore, war-time paper rationing resulted in a smaller magazine than the issues of 1939-40, and the quality of the printing also declined. Nevertheless, throughout the war years Australia: National Journal maintained regular sections on the cinema, social happenings fashion and the theatre with photographs of Australian life from the beach to the bush.

Australia: National Journal attracted contributions from a different group of writers than Ure Smith's previous publications. Although occasional contributions were received from Hugh McCrae, Norman Lindsay and Lionel Lindsay, a new group of writers were employed, including Allan Aldous, Marjorie Barnard, Jon Cleary, Charmian Clift, Eleanor Dark, Frank Dalby Davison, Mary Finnin, Donald Friend, Eric Irvin, Alan Marshall, Myra Morris, D'Arcy Niland and Ruth Park.

The first issue of the Home appeared in February 1920. Published by Art in Australia Ltd, the Home was aimed at the Australian market of middle-class women readers to help underwrite the publication of Art in Australia and other publishing projects. Initially produced by a team of editors, including Sydney Ure Smith (art editor), Bertram Stevens (literary editor) and Julia Lister (fashion editor), the Home suffered early losses, but strengthened to provide the financial stability required by Art in Australia Ltd.

The Home is widely admired for its role in the development of graphic art and advertising in Australian magazines, particularly the influence of its magazine covers. Often proclaiming to be 'modern', the magazine did not, however, embrace all contemporary developments in modern art, rejecting techniques such as cubism, futurism and surrealism. Nevertheless, discussion of modern technology and architecture, and the magazine's role in advertising and cover art gave the magazine a very modern appearance for its time.

Combined with Sydney Ure Smith's advertising connections, the Home and Art in Australia developed a significant network of associates in graphic arts, advertising, printing and publishing. Seizing on this potential, the magazine was bought (with Art in Australia) by the Fairfax press in 1934 to challenge magazines such as Vogue and Fashion and Society. Ure Smith and Leon Gellert were retained as editors, but after the magazines failed to live up to Fairfax's expectations, Ure Smith retired to pursue other projects. Gellert remained as editor until the Home ceased publication in 1942.

While not often recognised for its literary content, the Home published the work of many of Australia's leading writers. Contributors included Dorothea Mackellar, Furnley Maurice, Nettie Palmer, Norman Lindsay, Lionel Lindsay, Joan Lindsay, Kenneth Slessor, Mary Gilmore, Arthur Adams and David Unaipon. Katharine Susannah Prichard's novel The Wild Oats of Han was serialised in Home during 1926 and 1927. The magazine also printed articles on a number of Australian writers and artists, including Norman Lindsay, Barbara Baynton, Will Dyson, George Lambert, Margaret Preston and Hans Heysen.

A collection of eighteen stories, all fairy stories, and a number with a strongly Australian focus, including ones that take place on coral isles around Australia's coastline.

The first issue of Art in Australia appeared in 1916, edited by Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens and Charles Lloyd Jones. Initially, all three editors were involved in other projects: Ure Smith, a graphic artist was director of the advertising agency, Smith and Julius; Stevens continued as editor of the Lone Hand; and Jones, the grandson of retailer David Jones, was training as a store manager. Employing the services of highly skilled technicians, Art in Australia published reproductions of extremely high quality, building, over time, a network of important associations with many of Australia's visual artists, advertisers, printers and publishers. During the first five years of operation, the magazine was published and distributed by Angus and Robertson, but the editors retained significant control over the layout and content, frequently ignoring objections from the publisher. The company Art in Australia was incorporated in 1921, becoming the publisher of Art in Australia and several other magazines, including the Home.

At first, the journal was devoted to the pictorial arts but pressure from Norman Lindsay influenced consideration of an expanded scope to include literary works. A literary supplement to Art in Australia was proposed in 1917 and prepared during 1918, but by December the plan had fallen through. Despite Lindsay's plans, Art in Australia published only a small amount of poetry and fiction during the 1920s. Regular contributions were received from Lindsay, his son, Jack, Kenneth Slessor and Hugh McCrae, frequently exhibiting Lindsay's beliefs about literature and art. The Lindsays and Hugh McCrae all had individual numbers devoted to their works, the latter contributing a greater combination of writing and art. Other contributors included Dorothea Mackellar, Zora Cross, Dowell O'Reilly and Furnley Maurice.

Poetry dominated the literary contributions, but an attempt was made in 1924 to encourage the writing of fiction with a short story competition: the winning story was Katharine Susannah Prichard's 'The Grey Horse'. Prichard contributed several other stories and poems, but by the early 1930s literature was rarely printed in Art and Australia. The companion magazine, the Home, however, printed many of these contributors, becoming the more dominant publisher of prose and poetry in the Art in Australia conglomerate.

Art in Australia was an expensive production, relying, in its first years, on advertising and occasional contributions from Jones to meet costs. At its peak price of twelve shillings and sixpence, it was out of the reach of many artists, but changes to format and price, secured a loyal readership and a significant influence on the Australian art scene. Furthermore, profits from the Home often balanced any shortfall by Art in Australia, enabling Art in Australia Pty Ltd to further enhance its reputation in the industry. This was confirmed in 1934 when the Fairfax press bought the magazines, hoping to challenge the dominance of Fashion and Society and Vogue. Ure Smith and Leon Gellert (who became co-editor after Stevens' death in 1922) were retained but the magazines did not produce the challenge Fairfax had hoped for. After an inamicable retirement in 1938, Ure Smith and Gellert were replaced by Kenneth Wilkinson who remained as editor until 1941 when Peter Bellew was appointed for the final eighteen months of the magazine's life. During this time, Art in Australia adopted a more sympathetic position towards modernist art and occasionally published poetry, notably that of Max Harris and Alister Kershaw. Art in Australia ceased operation in August 1942.