SWAMPSPEAK, THE BIG SPIT, AND OTHER ABOMINATIONS: THE STUDENT PRESS IN DARWIN

On the eve of his 1993 tour of Australia, Bob Geldof, former lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, leading light of Band Aid and the massive 1985 Live-Aid concert, announced he wanted to perform in the ‘exotic’ parts of the continent. Darwin qualified, as did Goondiwindi, Perth and Hobart, among other places.

And where better in Darwin to perform than that hub of youth culture, the Northern Territory University. The NT Student Union Activities officer at the time was given the task of organising the concert. She had to sell 3000 tickets to break-even but with no experience in such matters and minimal marketing of the event, it was set to fail and fail it did.

The loss borne by the Student Union struck home the following year and one of the casualties was the Big Spit, the longest running and, by that measure at least, the most successful student newspaper to emerge from NTU.

Such calamities are the norm for such publications, with one or two venerable exceptions. Student magazines and newspapers first appeared in British universities in the 19th century and have been a feature of their antipodean equivalents since the earliest days. Weekly newspapers or annual magazines, capping mags, political rags or literary journals, these publications have provided students with both an outlet to express their often radical political ideals and a medium through which to practice the craft of writing.

Be it Clive James stretching his juvenile literary muscles in the pages of Sydney Uni’s Honi Soit or any number of more recent figures taking the chance to publish their first pieces of journalism or creative writing, the student press has always been a nursery for young writers and emerging politicians.

The earliest student magazines produced in Darwin predate the Northern Territory University itself. A newsletter, College Capers, appeared out of Darwin Community College in 1983 and was replaced by Proper Gander, issued by journalism students and the Darwin Institute of Technology Student Association in three erratically timed numbers between August 1986 and September 1988.

The first official student magazine to emerge from NTU was Swampspeak, published by the NTU Students’ Union. The ‘Swamp’ itself was a demountable operated as a bar by the Union, until it was demolished in 1995. In 1992 the title of Swampspeak was changed to Big Spit, and following its own premature demise in early 1994 (the Geldof debacle was made worse, it seemed, by a substantial misappropriation of funds, another common hazard for student unions) the NTUSU produced the short lived Delirra, the title derived from the Larrakia word for ‘Sun’. While Swampspeak was plying its trade in gossip and political incorrectness, the NTUSU was also supporting, albeit briefly, an ‘alternative magazine’, Ladders. Also titled Ladders: by women, for everyone, appeared in September 1991. It does not seem to have prospered beyond issue 1.

Since the Big Spit’s final issue in April 1994, nothing further appears to have emerged from NTU. The only student magazine to have been previously published from CDU is The CDU Beard, its title a reference to Charles Darwin’s own impressive whiskers. Part of a revitalisation of CDUSA after the first impact of Voluntary Student Unionism, the Beard appeared in a single issue in Semester 2 of 2010, although its glossy A5 design appeared to promise greater things, filled as it was with music, movie and gaming reviews, club news, and the usual advice for students on surviving university life.

The Beard’s brevity is perhaps indicative of the effect Voluntary Student Unionism has had and continues to have on student bodies throughout Australia. When VSU is combined with rising fees, the need to work part-time, increasing pressure to gain qualifications quickly, and a resulting lack of energy for extra-curricular activities, it leads inevitably to a dearth of student journalism. If anyone can reverse that trend, our present editorial team can. All strength to them.

Kia kaha, Stephen Hamilton

(Kia kaha is a Māori phrase meaning stay strong.)

Historian and archivist Dr Stephen Hamilton has been working on the Arufura Research Archive at Charles Darwin University which is part of the Special Collection of the University Library.