A Brief History of (Empire) Time(s) Words by Andrew McHugh
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mpire Times began in 1969 because there was “a great amount of dissatisfaction among the students” about “the format and price of the then student magazine Gita,” according to Gita’s Associate Editor/Production Manager Rod Boswell. A few “progressive-minded students decided to actually do something about the iniquitous situation,” and obtained a grant for the purchase of a typewriter and headliner machine from the former Union. The “respectfully submitted” report from Rod Boswell went on to say that he and the Editor (Martin Fabinyi) decided to buy a printing press “in a fit of pique,” and that was how the first official student newspaper in Australia to be fully printed and published by students came into being. Our A&M Multilith 2066 offset press was rumoured to have been the one used to produce the first forged decimal currency notes in Australia, so Empire Times got off to a controversial start from which it rarely deviated. Essentially, it was only mirroring — from a slightly fractured student perspective — the intention of the University itself, which was not to replicate previous universities, but to be more egalitarian and forwardthinking. At the time, Flinders was a magnet for students with an artistic bent, because of its Humanities courses in general and Drama in particular. Of course, there was student unrest in most parts of the Western world at the time, so it certainly wasn’t something in the water or air at Flinders in particular. In the early years the luxury of owning and controlling a printing press allowed the student editors to rail against Australia’s draconian censorship regime, which was often just an excuse to print somewhat risqué and sexist images and content. Of course, the times were changing in many ways, so the “free love” ethos jostled with the early stirrings of Womenʼs Liberation. The counterculture was alive and well then, as it is now, and so was an awareness of “isms” other than capitalism. I editorialised that Empire Times should be “campus oriented, provide an alternative news service to that already offered” and that it be “available for use by the various pressure groups operating within both the
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campus and society at large.” In fact, that could be the definition of ET in almost any year, and it was the tradition that I inherited. The paper reflected, refracted, and sometimes wilfully ignored both the external and internal community for the next nearly 39 years, until it became the victim of the VSU legislation in 2006. The list of editors over the years throws up some interesting names and current occupations, too numerous to mention here, and even includes a few who continue to work as journalists and/or social commentators today. It is worth noting, though, that it took 32 years before an Empire Times editor made the ultimate sacrifice and became an Advertiser journalist — but not for long. If there is one unifying characteristic of Empire Times editors over the years, it has been their belief in social justice which has often lasted beyond their undergraduate tears. Production of the paper was usually an all-night affair (and Iʼm certain it still is ), often taking several nights and days, and the changes in technology over the years have been significant. It has gone from electric typewriters, headliners, letraset, bromides, wonderfully addictive rubber cement and other arcane potions and arts known only to the cognoscenti, through to computer layout programs. The press itself had a couple of makeovers, and the last one was a more substantial Heidelberg offset machine, which was last seen on the back of a truck heading for parts unknown. The merger of the Sturt CAE and Flinders University foreshadowed the end of printing the paper on campus, as the limitations of a sheet-fed printing press became apparent. Empire Times became more like other student newspapers (produced on campus but printed externally) at about the same time that Flinders itself became more like other universities, but for a very different reason: the “Dawkinisation” of Australian Universities. The big issues over the years? Take your pick: the Vietnam war; the Gulf war; the war on Iraq (well, any war really); conscription; the nature of education and who it serves; education policies of the government of the day, especially to do with fees (TEAS, HECS, and their ilk); US imperialism; censorship; socialism, communism and