AustLit

An early and influential Australian science-fiction magazine.

According to Mike Ashley, 'Although Australia had produced science-fiction magazines prior to 1969 none was of any consequence. ... Only Science Fiction Monthly (18 issues, September 1955-February 1957) made any serious attempt at quality' (p.294). The contents were largely drawn from American science-fiction magazines: for example, all three of A. Bertram Chandler's (q.v.) works published in Science Fiction Monthly had been previously published in the American periodical Cosmos between two and three years earlier. However, it also published some Australian fiction, including Wynne Whiteford's (q.v.) story 'Ancestral Home' (published in issue 10, June 1956). It also included non-fictional local content, including (from issue 13) a sub-section called 'The Science Fiction Scene', contributed by Graham Stone (q.v.), as well as book and film reviews and interviews with authors. 'As a result,' writes Mike Ashley, 'Science Fiction Monthly developed a following and only folded when the editor, Michael Cannon, left the firm, Atlas Publications in Melbourne, and no one was prepared to continue it' (p.294).

Source: Mike Ashley, Transformations: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970, Liverpool University Press, 2005.