AustLit

This is the story of how an Adelaide punk fanzine blossomed into a well-loved national music magazine that chronicled the glory days of Australian post-punk and 'pub rock' music in the period 1978-83. The do-it-yourself ethos espoused by the UK punk movement in the mid-1970s was strongly felt in Australia and inspired bands to form, play live and record and release their own records. The concurrent expansion of live music venues across the country (mainly pubs) meant more bands could live, work and play. Roadrunner was also very much a product of this do-it-yourself ethos. From the bunch of evangelical music fans and writers who initially came together, some left and others joined and as those involved became more technically proficient the magazine developed and grew. With no financial backing (until the final despairing issue), Roadrunner survived for five years due to the combination of a posse of enthusiastic (and usually unpaid) contributors, a creative and understanding production crew, a sympathetic printer, the support of key music industry personalities and— perhaps most important of all—a small but dedicated readership. In 2017, the University of Wollongong in New South Wales made all 48 issues of Roadrunner available in a digital archive (at http://ro.uow.edu.au/roadrunner/).