UNSW Tharunka

Tharunka

250px Front page of a Tharunka edition from 2004, when the publication was a tabloid newspaper.
Type	Student newspaper
Format	Magazine
Owner(s)	Arc @ UNSW Limited
Editor	Ned Hirst and Lauren Wallace
Founded	1953
Language	English
Headquarters	Uni of New South Wales Kensington, NSW
Circulation	3000
Website	tharunka.arc.unsw.edu.au

Tharunka is a student newspaper published at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Established in 1953 at the then New South Wales University of Technology, Tharunka has been published in a variety of forms by various student organisations. At present, Tharunka is published approximately 10 times a year by Arc @ UNSW Limited. The name Tharunka means "message stick" in a Central Australian Aboriginal language.

Until 1980, Tharunka was a weekly newspaper, switching to a fortnightly magazine format from 1981. In 2004 and 2005, Tharunka returned to a tabloid newspaper format. In 2006, Tharunka returned to the fortnightly magazine format. Since 2013, the newspaper has been published in a tabloid newspaper format.

Tharunka was published by the UNSW Students Union from 1953 until 1992, when that body was replaced by the University of New South Wales Student Guild. The Guild published Tharunka from 1993 until 2006. A new student organisation, Arc @ UNSW Limited, took over publication of Tharunka from 2007, with Tharunka now published by a student team under the steerage of its Marketing Department.

Tharunka is managed by a small staff and a wider group of volunteers. Including staff wages, the publication's budget is under $40,000 per year.

Content

The content of Tharunka varies year to year in line with the priorities of student politicians, the editors and the wider contributor base. Tharunka's at times irreverent approach has seen copies seized by police, destroyed by political opponents and censored by the student organisation.

It is traditional for a parody edition of Tharunka to be released as part of the university's annual Foundation Day celebrations. News satire is a regular feature of the publication.

Politics

As the journal of a political organisation, Tharunka's editorial direction was often influenced by the dominant faction within the student body at the time. Where the editors distanced themselves from the agenda of student representatives, conflict was often the result. A plan by then editor Michael Shane to devote an issue to coverage of issues facing men was met with fierce resistance by the Student Guild's governing council in 2000. Rules were enacted to give the Guild Women's Department a right of veto over content. With the end of the Guild and Union, and founding of Arc, Tharunka is now under the auspices of Arc's Marketing Department, rather than a political organisation. However, editorial remains edgy with Issue 1 of 2010 containing the word 'fuck' on its front cover.

In November 2004, the Guild was attacked by Daily Telegraph columnist Michael Duffy for attempting to prevent the expression of support for voluntary student unionism at UNSW. "Student politics is still notoriously corrupt and secretive", Duffy wrote, reporting that "the editors of the student union magazine Tharunka, have been told by the Guild Council ... not to publish articles in support of voluntary unionism."

In October 2010 the Arc withheld the final edition of Tharunka for the year even though 2000 copies had already been printed. The edition had originally included an article on the subject of BDSM sexual practices, which the CEO of Arc refused to publish. The editors complied by withdrawing the offending article, but printed in its place a mocking note making fun of censorship. As a result, the magazine was refused distribution.

Other student media at UNSW

Tharunka is one of a number of periodicals that have emerged from the university.

• Blitz is a fortnightly, 24 page full-colour campus events guide that evolved from newsletters circulated by the University of New South Wales Union in the 1970s. The name "Blitz" was adopted in mid-1988. In mid-1994, the Union introduced more editorial material to Blitz, hiring former Tharunka editor Alf Conlon to expand the range of content. In 2010, Blitz remains a "What's On" guide with content steered towards providing coverage to on-campus news and events, and also as a conduit of communication for the Student Representative Council. Blitz and Tharunka are now both published by Arc.
• Students at the university's College of Fine Arts produced regular zines under the titles Xerox Positive, and since 2005, Zing Tycoon with 'COFAtopia' now launched, which retains the A5 format, "zine" feel.
• Tharunka contributors were instrumental in the establishment of The Student Leader in 2004.

History

Year	Volume	Editions	Format	Parody cover	Editors	Organisation
1975	21	28	Newspaper		Vicki Wootten and Brian Robins	Student Union
1976	22	28	Newspaper	Women's Weekly (Women's Weekly)	Steven Raper, Bradley Wynne, Olga Prokopvich and Geoff Turnbull	Student Union
1977	23		Newspaper		Mark Vitlin, Victor Boulos, Mike Walker	Student Union
1978	24	28	Newspaper	Benthouse (Penthouse)	Juliette Sterne, Colin Israel and Gary Ross	Student Union
1979	25	28	Newspaper	Kids' Stuff	Bruce Bradbury, Nicolette Dillon, Maryella Hatfield, Jeff Holten, Graeme Tubbenhauer	Student Union
1980	26	27	Newspaper		Teresa Music, Bob Sheil, Bill McMahon and Stewart Lehr	Student Union
1981	27	14	Magazine		Eric Campbell, David Gibson, Ruth Hessey and Frances McDonald	Student Union
1982	28			The National Slimes (The National Times)	John Amy and Hector Hill	Student Union
1983	29	15	Magazine		Bradley Norington and Alex Cramb	Student Union
1984	30	13	Magazine		Wendy Carlisle, Alastair Walton, Susan Smith, Mark Cahill	Student Union
1985	31	15	Magazine		Helen Doyle, Tim Menzies, Isabelle Albert, Jan Bellis, David Cox, John Olip, Gordon Farrer, Kay Heycox	Student Union
1986	32	14	Magazine	The Drug Expensive (parody of Australian federal government "Drug Offensive" information kit)	Jan Bellis, Robert Cook, David Cox, Gordon Farrer, Jim Gleeson, Kay Heycox, Vicki Lee, Tim Menzies, John Olip, Michael Priest	Student Union
1987			Magazine	Greed Weekend (Good Weekend)	James Adams, Jan Bellis, Gordon Farrer, Phillipa McGuinness, Toni Payne, Marisa Turanzas, Carol Walsh, Sherman Young	Student Union
1988				Up the TV Creek (TV Week); Bastard Review Weekly (Business Review Weekly)	James Adams, Frank Blanchfield, Jacinta Crimmins, Rowena Ivins, Gita Kemath, Joanne Mazzocchi, Paul Morehouse, Phillip Morrissey, Tim Nelson, Peter Rankin	Student Union
1989						Student Union
1990	36	14	Magazine	Golly (Dolly)	Michael Jones Simon Ernst Freida Maher Fahmiya Haniffa Chantal Upton	Student Union
1991	37	14	Magazine	The Spew Age	Angus Crosby, Catriona Mackenzie, Elisia Yeo, Mary O'Connell, Nicos Souleles, Patrizia Montanari, Yvonne y Hoare	Student Union
1992	38	14	Magazine	Who Cares? (Who magazine)	Thomas Tork, James Hooke, Daniel Grynberg, Annie Tennant, Sascha Kelso, Tara Gutman, Robi Stanton, Melissa McGrath, Alf Conlon, Nicos Souleles, Elias Hallaj	Student Union
1993	39		Magazine		Stuart Guinness, Skye Reynolds, Natalie Osborne, Alf Conlon and Yaron Finkelstein	Student Guild
1994	40	14	Magazine	The Fake	Amanda Pullinger and Andy Cook	Student Guild
1995	41	13	Magazine	The Typograph Error (The Telegraph Mirror)	Pauly Wall and David Caspari	Student Guild
1996	42	14	Magazine	Piss Weakend (Good Weekend)	Dale Harrison and Katie Kemm	Student Guild
1997	43	14	Magazine	Crawling Home (Rolling Stone)	Raj Khuman and Andrew Martin	Student Guild
1998	44		Magazine	Trivial Geographic (National Geographic)	Philip Choi and Edward Carroll	Student Guild
1999	45	14	Magazine	Weekly UNSW News (Weekly World News)	Christian Harimanow	Student Guild
2000	46	14	Magazine	Weekly UNSW News (Weekly World News)	Michael Shane Korogiannis and Marta Jary	Student Guild
2001	47	10	Magazine	The Gorgeous Edition (Hello! Magazine)	Michelle Carmody and Nick Salzberg	Student Guild
2002	48		Magazine	Ben's Health (Men's Health)	Anthony Levin and Alex Tyrell	Student Guild
2003	49	13	Magazine	Nude Scientist (New Scientist)	Calen Thurston	Student Guild
2004	50	17	Newspaper	Foundation Day-Mart (Kmart)	Joe Stella and Kathryn Small	Student Guild
2005	51		Newspaper	Bowling Stoned (Rolling Stone)	Christine Tran	Student Guild
2006	52		Magazine	Homeboy (Playboy)	Mansha Tandon and Patrick Coyte	Student Guild
2007	53	10	Magazine	Notional Geographic (National Geographic)	Sophie Braham and Tom Bowes	Arc @ UNSW
2008	54	10	Magazine	Dumb Media (Drum Media)	Chantel Cotterell, Chris Moore, Mirza Nurkic, Zelda Thomas and Scarlet Wilcock	Arc @ UNSW
2009	55	10	Magazine	The UnAustralian (The Australian)	Bart Cummings, Sean Lawson, Su-Min Lim	Arc @ UNSW
2010	56	10	Magazine	The Ecominous (The Economist)	Su-Min Lim, Matt Kwan, James Fehon, Matt Ward	Arc @ UNSW
2011	57	11	Magazine	Shitz (Blitz)	Cameron McPhedran, Elizabeth Stern, Kylar Loussikian	Arc @ UNSW
2012	58	13	Magazine	Wankie (Frankie)	Cameron McPhedran, Elizabeth Stern, Kylar Loussikian	Arc @ UNSW
2013	59	12	Tabloid newspaper	Theo (Cleo (magazine))	Lily Ray, Renee Griffin, Osman Faruqi	Arc @ UNSW
2014	60	14	Tabloid Newspaper	The Daily Terrorgraph (The Daily Telegraph (Australia))	Ammy Singh, Freya King, Jacob Glud, Tina Giannoulis	Arc @ UNSW

External links

• Tharunka website
• Interview with Wendy Bacon, Tharunka, vol. 46 (2000)
• Past issues of Tharunka are available for access at UNSW Archives