The Digger was a radical counterculture magazine published in Melbourne in 48 issues between August 1972 and December 1975. It was a natural progression for editor / publisher Phillip Frazer, who had previously issued Go-Set, Revolution and High Times. The Digger was more political than those publications, whilst still addressing counterculture issues such as lifestyle and music. Related publications: Revolution 1970-1, High Times 1971-2
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The Digger No.1 August-September 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: First interview with Rupert Max Stuart in jail in SA, 14 years for murder and being black / Bertram Wainer story part 1 / Gary Young, pop star, Ian McCausland’s first full-page comic “Down on Karmic Farm”.
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The Digger No.2 September 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Ron Cobb's first Australian cartoon / A history of drug-taking in Australia, part 1, up to 1905 / Tidikawa & friends: a story and stills from Jeff and Su Doring's film about Niugini cannibals / Dr Wainer & the cops, and the media.
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The Digger No.3 September-October 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Beatrice Faust's essay on pornography, a 4000 word illustrated study of pornography in Australian society / A history of drugs in Australia, part 2 / Ron Cobb's Pine Gap base cartoon.
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The Digger No.4 October 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Psycho-active plants growing in Australian suburban gardens / Repression at Blacktown High School / Portrait of a counter-cultural Victorian football hero / Suction tool for aborting / Zimmer's Essay, a short novel by Robert Adamson and Bruce Hanford on life inside New South Wales jails, part 1 / Jenny Brown on the costs and business traps of rock groups.
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The Digger No.5 October-November 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Jenny Brown on Hare Krishnas in Melbourne / The state of alternate film and tv in the last days of the LCP government / Beatrice Faust talks with two women over 75 about sex / Dissection of the Glebe Expressway fight, interviews with DMR, local residents etc. / Zimmer's Essay, part 2 / Bob Adamson reviews Van Morrison.
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The Digger No.6 November 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: The story of a Melbourne high school teacher's impromptu sex-education class, by the woman teacher who was subsequently fired and revealed to be Helen Garner / The South Australian police cover-up of the murder of homosexual academic, George Duncan / / What happened to Joe Cocker in Australia? / A history of abortion in Victoria, part 1, up to 1945 / Explaining Einstein, and reappraising cosmology by Alan Roberts, part 1 / Frank Moorehouse on the Aussie male.
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The Digger No.7 November - December 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Alan Roberts explains cosmology, part 2 / A poetry supplement edited by Norman Talbot / Abortion in Victoria, part 2, the fuss of the late '60s / Ross Wilson interviewed.
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The Digger No.8 December 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: How Whitlam’s Labor Party won by Ian Turner / Ron Cobb's Billy McMahon "That's All Folks" cartoon / Bisexuality, by Helen Garner / Cheryl Buchanan on the Aboriginal delegation to Peking / Jenny Brown interviews Bob Hawke / Wendy Bacon on Pat Mackie's court victory over Frank Packer / Jon Hawkes on the history of the APG/Pram Factory Theatre.
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The Digger No.9 December 1972
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Draft resisters and ex-conscripts interviewed after Labor stopped conscription / Talking with King Cross prostitutes / Why the DLP can't survive.
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The Digger No.10 January 1973
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Ponch Hawkes talks with Margaret Whitlam / Confessions of a male prostitute / Sylvia & the Synthetics / ‘Ringolevio’, extract from Emmett Grogan's novel, part l / Bungool and Sunbury - two rock festivals / Marijuana and crotch disease.
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The Digger No.11 January-February 1973
Bruce Hanford and Phillip Frazer
Contents: Nimbin -- background to the Aquarius Festival / Sydney women invade an all-male bar in Manly / A psychiatric nurse on the horror of hospitals / Sexual cystitis / ‘Ringolevio’, part2 / Pituri, an Aboriginal way of getting stoned / Black Sabbath tour / Young turks in the CPA.
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The Digger No.12 February 1973
Phillip Frazer, Bruce Hanford, and Helen Garner
Contents: The trial of the Angry Brigade in London / unmarried mothers' homes in Melbourne / Feminist conference at Mt Beauty / Double-page cartoon supplement / Slade tour / Sunbury reviewed / Port Jackson folk festival.
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The Digger No.13 February 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Bruce Hanford
Contents: 1973 Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne / The Rolling Stones' Australian tour by Jenny Brown, with photos / Peggy Berman's book on the abortion enquiry / Business and politics of the drug scene, by Robin Winkler / Sabotaging the US consul and big-name capitalists in Victoria / McCausland's Guru comic strip.
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The Digger No.14 March 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Bruce Hanford
Contents: Junkie murder-Bruce Hanford's investigation of the unsolved shooting of a Sydney surfer, part l / A jail escapee's story on life inside and out / A consumer's guide to contraception / Women in theatre, by Helen Garner.
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The Digger No.15 April 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Bruce Hanford
Contents: Heroin in Sydney-Hanford's story on the junkie's murder cut short by the danger he faced / Nurses speak out against their lot / Travel guide for Indonesia, through to Turkey / A.K. Weil's theories of raised consciousness as substitute for western medicine / A.J. Weberman on Dylan, Jim Morrison, Peter Townshend and Janis Joplin.
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The Digger No.16 May 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Bruce Hanford
Contents: Fritz the Cat: the film previewed / The polluting of Port Phillip Bay / Women invade the Wollongong steelworks / Chinese political prisoners / Psychiatry and anti-psychiatry-double-page special / Gary Glitter / Fred Robinson.
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The Digger No.17 June 1973
Virginia Frazer, Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, Alistair Jones, and Colin Talbot
Contents: WEL, a critical look by Helen Garner / Inside the Right to Life organization / Nimbin reviewed / Australian films: interviews with Graeme Blundell, Al Finney, Martha Kay, Chris Tillam, Smart Street, Phil Noyce & David Elfick / Frank Zappa interview.
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The Digger No.18 June-July 1973
Virginia Fraser, Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Alistair Jones
Lift-out Watergate supplement / Zappa in Australia / Godfathers of the NSW ALP / Victoria's Ford factory strike / Dope laws in Queensland.
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The Digger No.19 July 1973
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Medical students' critique of their profession / Dalmas: how the film's star freaked out / The Sydney University strike over teaching women's studies / Phone conversations with ASIO agent's / Poems by Kate Jennings and Richard Tipping.
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The Digger No.20 July-August 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Alistair Jones
Omega: what the US communications base means to Australian security, and to residents of Deniliquin / Interview with Candy Raymond of Number 96 / Communal life in Brisbane, Sydney Melbourne & Berlin / Victoria St background / John Prine interview.
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The Digger No.21 August 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Alistair Jones
Guru Maharaj Ji / Body Time book on circadian rhythms / Graffiti guerrillas / Did Tasmanian Labor Party buy its way to power? / Tariq Ali interview / Marcos takes over in Philippines.
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The Digger No.22 September 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, and Alistair Jones
Gay Pride Week -- interviews and manifestos / Kirlian photography, capturing human vibes on film / Cripples unite for better conditions / Peter Kavo, Niugini socialist interviewed / Memoirs of a Sydney cop, part 1.
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The Digger No.23 October 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, Joe Hawkes, Ponch Hawkes, and Alistair Jones
Melbourne cops and JP conspire to fake search warrants-our evidence / the economics and sociology of Melbourne football, with interviews / Inside the jails, by prisoners, jailers and critics / Dossiers on South American countries / Robert Crumb's first acid trip cartoon.
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The Digger No.24 November 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, Jon Hawkes, Ponch Hawkes, and Alistair Jones
How Australian customs helped import dope from Indonesia to secure a bust / Oil, Israel, and the Middle East / Herpes, the virus of love / Mary Whitehouse and the Festival of Light / How a collective household broke up / The fight to preserve the Rocks / Buying Tuntable Falls at Nimbin.
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The Digger No.25 December 1973
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, Jon Hawkes, Ponch Hawkes, and Alistair Jones
The student takeover of Thailand, two pages of world-exclusive photos / The Pentagon's plot to kill Allende / Methadone versus heroin, users and critics argue / Kate Jennings reviews Performance / Colin Talbot on the Balmain poets / getting the hippies out of Bali.
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The Digger No.26 January 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Marshall Green, his history and current plans / The Victoria Street battle / Kids and collective living / The pros and cons of bicycle riding / Leunig's full page fucking cartoon / US plans for Vietnam 1974 / Helen Garner cans Alvin Purple.
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The Digger No.27 February 1974
Phillip Frazer, Helen Garner, Jon Hawkes, Ponch Hawkes, Alistair Jones, and Bob Daly
Background to the Bathurst jail burning / Peter Kavo interviewed (again) / two-page spread of pictures from Rock Dreams. Surreal images of 1960s rock 'n' roll heroes / What the USA tells the marines when they come to Australian bases / One woman's decision to leave her husband, home and kids.
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The Digger No.28 March 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Worker participation schemes in NSW-how they boost profits / Swami Muktananda visits / Bidura, a jail for wayward girls-and Elsie, a refuge for women in need / What Cleo magazine really thinks of women / Kate Jennings on Joni Mitchell / Aboriginal schooling by Cheryl Buchanan / Prisoners describe the Bathurst jail riot.
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The Digger No.29 April 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Collective management in Melbourne's Pram Factory Theatre by Helen Garner and Tim Piggot / World Bank involvement in South Vietnam's tiger cage prisons / Interview with Andre Menras, ex-prisoner of Pres. Thieu / Patty Hearst -- did she fall or was she pushed? / Leichhardt women's community health centre.
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The Digger No.30 May 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
1974 federal elections / Interviews with Jack Mundey, Bruce McGuinness, Lyn Hovey and the Hare Krishna senate candidate / Black Panthers accuse the SLA of FBI links.
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The Digger No.31 May-June 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Journey to North West Cape -- a first hand account of the protest of Exmouth / Red Symons, Melbourne rocker / Checking the vibe of country voters / Cockroaches, an in-depth Study of Sydney's plague / ASIO man attacks Digger photographer.
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The Digger No.32 June 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Jim Cairns interview on the Kissinger strategy, worker control, big business / Touring Gippsland with Marshall Green / Linking the assassination of JFK and the Watergate buggers / Melbourne Film Festival.
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The Digger No.33 July 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
The self-determination plans of New Guinea's Trobriand Islanders - Interview with John Kasaipwalova / Marshall Green as hatchet man / The Bathurst 46 go on trial / Hare Krishnas' annual parade / General Motors and Ford interests in Nazi Germany / Pension schemes for women / India's unrest.
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The Digger No.34 July-August 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Women and Madness, Phyllis Chesler on her book and its repercussions / The ideological dilemmas of mice-catching for vegetarians / Surrealist photography / The Bathurst jail riot trial continues / Purging Confucius.
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The Digger No.35 August 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Joni Mitchell interviewed about her records, loves and loneliness / The land rights con on Australia's blacks / Terry Darmody and Sydney jug band music / Lou Reed concert by Jenny Brown / The perils of having babies at home, one woman's amazing tale / Bruce Cathie's grid theory of UFOs and N-bomb explosions / Fairlea prison / Corruption in Victoria's Hospital Employees' Federation.
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The Digger No.36 September 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Interviews on inflation with Bob Hawke, Jim Cairns and John Halfpenny / The rural revolt / Racing magazines reviewed by Jenny Brown / Confessions of a Divine Light Mission dropout / Night out with the Les Girls / The Shah of Iran's ugly reality / Five days in Glebe's women's refuge centre.
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The Digger No.37 October 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
The battle for Ultimo—residents, federal ALP govt versus Askin & expressways / unions battle oil giants in Altona / Alistair Jones on busking in Sydney & Melb / a Brit filmmaker reviews Australia’s film industry / P.D.Jack on John Bourke, “trendy landshark” / encounters with Haile Selassie, deposed in Ethiopia after 44 years / Mapoon people stand up to miners, Queensland govt / Cheryl Buchanan on Aboriginal people taking a stand around Darwin / Helen Garner reviews Vicki Viidikas.
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The Digger No.38 November 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Builders Labourers Federation national boss Norm Gallagher versus the NSW branch: Gallagher is a Maoist, the NSW leadership are Eurocommunists / East Timor political parties jostle as Portugal, Indonesia and Australia discuss the half-an-island’s future / Aboriginals in the Kimberly say enough to white domination / psychosurgery out of control in Australia / Bicyclisation: a plan for a bike-centric city / Sylvia Plath, suicide, and literature: Jean Bedford reviews A.Alvarez.
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The Digger No.39 December 1974
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Battle to build Newport (Vic.) Power Station / anti-women’s-lib crusader Arianna Stassinopoulis [who became Huffington in the ‘80s] tells Jean Bedford “I never use the word oppression” / Peter Dickie reviews Michael Leunig’s first book.
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The Digger No.40 January 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Lobby Lloyde talks to Andra Jackson about why skinheads are a rising sub-group of Australia’s working-class / Bob Gould, owner of bookshops in Sydney’s and Melbourne that sell radical politics and pornography, beats back an uprising by his workers / Graham Kennedy writes an excellent letter about celebrities and the press / Meaghan Morris reviews Mike Thornhill’s film Between Wars / Helen Garner reviews a book of photo-portraits by Carol Jerrems with interviews by Virginia Fraser / Al Webb reviews Skyhooks / Alistair Jones reviews Captain Matchbox.
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The Digger No.41 February 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
How Adelaide’s cops persecuted a legalise-marijuana campaigner named Peter Carey, by J.J.McRoach / Alistair Jones on The Tamworth Dream / 2JJ becomes Australia’s first non-commercial rock station / Tez Cleary sails the Melbourne to Hobart yacht race / A veteran jailbird describes the riot that destroyed Bathurst jail; dramatic photos from government files / Sunbury ’75 / Bob Daly’s full-page pimples cartoon.
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The Digger No.42 March 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Alan Roberts on how human activity is changing global climate; more CO2 will overheat the planet, and we’re getting skin cancer from Freon destroying the ozone layer / Grant Evans reveals Indonesian plans to invade East Timor, with Australian acquiescence / ALP conference at Terrigal agrees to sell uranium overseas, and cedes more control of our economy to corporations / Feminist mystics believe a tsunami might soon engulf Sydney; some hope it does / miners strike at Nymboida NSW, women workers strike at Everhot stove plant in Bayswater Vic, and NSW builders labourers strike against BLF boss Gallagher and the Master Builders Association.
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The Digger No.43
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Cambodia, as the Rouge close in on Phnom Penh, two Diggers report on the run / Dennis Walker v the racist state of Queensland / Meaghan Morris reviews Kate Jennings’ poetry / Excerpts from Mother I’m Rooted, Australian women’s poems edited by Kate Jennings / Helen Hill reports from East Timor as Indonesia prepares to invade / Jill Joliffe on E.W.Cole who unleashed Cole’s Funny Picture Book on Melbourne in 1880 / Aboriginal community at Finke S.A. stand up against the cops.
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The Digger No.44 May 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Helen Garner rips David Williamson & Tim Burstall’s film Petersen, also Graeme Blundell’s Alvin Purple sequel, and the “passé and neurotic” Barry McKenzie Holds His Own / The wife and daughter of a Chilean General tortured to death by Pinochet speak with Caroline Graham in Sydney after being themselves tortured then exiled. [The daughter, Michele Bachelet, was elected President of Chile in 2007 and again in 2013.] / Nurses strike in Melbourne; Reese Lamshed reflects on how Florence Nightingale improved yet also undermined the lot of nurses / A group house for people who reject current modes of treating the ‘mentally ill’ / On May Day, Vietnam declares complete victory over the US / In Melbourne, a May Day demonstration against American control of Australian TV included such cultural heroes as Graeme Kennedy / In Suva, a meeting of island nations demands a nuclear free Pacific / John Kelly, a surfer from Hawaii, campaigns against developers who ruin beaches / Our first Gayzette, a column of gay news by Martin Smith / Feminists interviewed for the Great Wave article in issue 42 excoriate the authors / Bob Daly’s cartoon on socialism v domestic responsibility.
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The Digger No.45 September 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Melbourne BLF boss Gallagher battles the AWU for control of the Melbourne underground rail site; two crane operators are attacked, one alleges murder threat / A history of the DLP and catholic anti-communism, from an apostate / Two catholic women talk to Drusilla Modjeska & Lyndall Hannaford about life in the ghettoes of Northern Ireland / Daly’s cartoon on the plughole of history.
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The Digger No.46 October 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
Transcripts of Juliet Mitchell’s speech and unsanctioned talkouts by Naomi Myers and other Aboriginal women, at the Women & Politics Conference in Canberra last month / A Melbourne man who refused to help Norm Gallagher takeover the Sydney BLF is murdered outside the BLF’s favourite pub / Jenny K and Red Symons talk about Skyhooks’ $1½ million 10 record deal with U.S. Phonogram / FRETILIN now runs a de facto socialist East Timor, while Suharto prepares to invade / Two Diggers in Lisbon – David Uren and Philip Brooks – file reports on Portugal’s revolutionary moment / Oenpelli people in Arnhem Land, the ALP, and FOE discuss uranium.
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The Digger No.47 November 1975
Phillip Frazer and Helen Garner
A wallposter guide to the Murdoch press octopus / By refusing to pass Supply in the senate, Malcolm Fraser offends constitutionalists and businesses that don’t want instability / Victoria Police inquiry puts top cops on defensive / Breast cancer self-diagnosis, and treatment / Digger Sally Ford reports on the trial of the San Quentin Six in Marin County, California / Cheryl Buchanan & Lionel Lacey on Aboriginal land rights / the Labor government and unions split 6 ways on uranium mining policy / Update on Denis Walker trial / Arnold Zable on the battle against Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway.
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The Digger No.48 December 1975
Phillip Frazer
After the coup against the Whitlam government: Time for a republic – let’s chuck the Queen of Oz and her GG into the sea / On the street interviews – outrage at the coup / bundles of The Daily Mirror burn in Sydney streets / Seven things Labor did that made big business and their conservative politicians go crazy – and how Labor technocrats caved in / Michael Hammel-Green on the coup and the constitution / What the new film Sunday Too Far Away says about class politics / Coup boss Fraser is the ultimate squatter / Digger Diana Crunden reports from Vietnam on the country’s first 6 months of reconstruction / The coal town of Yallourn in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley fights against being demolished to enlarge the coal mine.