'THE AUSTRAL'
Magazine of RAAF School
Austral Project
Progress continues to be made on our magazine scanning project! We now have FOUR magazines online!
This is great news for anyone who never received their magazine, didn't purchase one at the time, or who may have only been at the school for part of the year and thus missed out. You can now view entire issues here. The ultimate goal is that in due course every magazine will be available in full for viewing here.
If you would like to volunteer with scanning please email me at raafschool@gmail.com. Also view the Magazine Project page for further tips.
(Updated 16 December 2011)
View Magazines (pdf)
1961
Pages 0-21 (2Mb), 22-48 (2Mb), 49-74 (1Mb)
(Scanned by Allan Wilson 27/10/10)
1962
Pages 0-38 (1.97Mb), 39-80 (1.63Mb), 81-122 (1.67Mb)
(Scanned by Allan Wilson 22/7/10)
1966
Click here for link to both medium and high resolution.
(Scanned by Ray Lange 16/12/11)
1969
Pages 1-40 (3.39Mb), 40-80 (3.30Mb), 80-120 (3.37Mb), 120-160 (3.64Mb), 160-193 (2.65Mb)
(Scanned by Kevin Cragg 22/9/10
)
Magazine History
The first edition of Austral was published in 1960.
Austral was the magazine of RAAF School. From the beginning it was seen to be not only a record of the school's activities, but would also serve as a "souvenir for each child; a lasting impression of his stay in Penang". Its purpose was to record the life of RAAF School Malaysia and harness some of the spirit of the school. To this end the magazine was produced annually with the aim of harnessing these objectives. Credit goes to the NSW Staff Inspector, Mr AW McKibbin, visitor to the school in 1959, who initially put forward the idea of a school magazine.
The magazine was a glossy publication of generally around 150 pages which represented a broad cross-section of school life, including headmasters and teaching staff photos, civilian staff photos, examples of students' literature, art, sporting results, excursion photos, candids, school productions, articles on Penang and Malaysia, reports and messages from officials and visitors. Colour was introduced in the 1966 issue, although the covers had been printed in colour previously. Also, when the logo was introduced in 1963 it was printed in colour in the facing pages.
The last Austral was published in 1987. Information on this site relating to 1988 is courtesy of Mr B. Boyle from his publication The RAAF School, Penang. Details were provided to him by Margaret Cronin, David Eden, Paul Loxley and Graeme Whitby.
> addresses> magazine
Random selection of official addresses from the Austral Magazine
1986
Squadron Leader Drake.
The last paragraph of his address is poignant.
1966
- Air Commodore W.E. Townsend, Officer Commanding, RAAF Base Butterworth
1972 - Air Commodore I.S. Parker, Officer Commanding, Air Base Butterworth
1972
- Group Captain G.S. Zantuck, Principal Education Officer RAAF
1974
- Air Commodore P.F. Raw, Officer Commanding, Air Base Butterworth
1975
- W.B. Booth, Staff Inspector, NSW Department of Education
1981
- Air Commodore B.J. Reynolds
1984
- Air Commodore R.W. Bradford, Officer Commanding, Air Base Butterworth
1986
- Squadron Leader B.J. Drake. Senior Education Officer
Shown below are the front covers of each of the Austral magazines. The names of the people who loaned me the magazines for scanning are acknowledged beneath. With thanks.
 (Courtesy Sandra Wright) 1960 Issue |
 (Courtesy Michelle Harvey) 1961 Issue |
|
 (Courtesy Chris Howitt) 1963 |
|---|---|---|---|
 (Courtesy Chris Howitt) 1964 |
|
(Courtesy Len Mezzine) 1966 |
 (Courtesy Dave Neilen) 1967 |
 (Cynthia Matuschka) 1968 |
|
 (Courtesy Alana Murray) 1970 |
 (Courtesy Michelle Harvey) 1971 |
 (Courtesy Kym Felton) 1972 |
 (Courtesy Chris Hays) 1973 |
 (Courtesy Derek Dobson) 1974 |
 (Courtesy Derek Dobson) 1975 |
 (Courtesy Craig Cooper) 1976 |
 (Courtesy Tania Wilkes) 1977 |
1978 |
1979 |
|
1980 |
1981 |
1982 |
1983 |
|
1984 |
1985 |
1986 |
1987 |
