Our Rural Magazine

Our Rural Magazine

Frequency	Monthly
Publisher	Department of Education, Western Australia
First issue	1926
Final issue	1946
Country	Australia

Our Rural Magazine was a monthly magazine produced for school children who were located in isolated circumstances, between 1926 and 1946 - by the Education Department of Western Australia.^[1] In the inter-war period, many isolated rural localities did not have primary schools, and the students were required to have their education by correspondence.

The magazine was operated by the Education Department, with writers such as James Pollard ^[2] John K. Ewers ^[3] Also heads of various institutions wrote on topics related to their position - in the September 1933 edition - the Government Botanist C.A.Gardner writes, as well as the curator of the Museum Ludwig Glauert conducts a correspondence column.^[4]

Also senior community leaders made encouraging messages to the isolated students like Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood:

I earnestly advise you to take full advantage of the educational correspondence classes that are open to you and by which my two grand-daughters have started their education. Be guided by the help and valuable instruction to be derived from 'Our Rural Magazine' and do not forget that the country districts, handicapped as their people may be in many respects, have been responsible for many of the most able leaders in the public life of Australia

^[5]

See also

• School of the Air for a later innovation in isolated correspondence education

Notes

1. ^ Western Australia. Education Dept. 1926 Our rural magazine. Vol. 1, no. 1 (1926) - v. 14, no. 11 (1939) for National Library of Australia holdings - Battye Library has minimal description and claims 1946 as final year http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b1845381~S2
2. ^ Pollard also was writing school texts in the same era - see - Pollard, James (1936). In Nature's story book : nature stories at school, in town, and in bushland : a reader for classes III & IV. E.B. Bayliss Print, Perth, W.A
3. ^ "OUR RURAL MAGAZINE.". (25 March 1931). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879-1954), p. 13. Retrieved 16 July 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32507277
4. ^ "OUR RURAL MAGAZINE.". (2 October 1933). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879-1954), p. 14. Retrieved 16 July 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33327846
5. ^ "OUR RURAL MAGAZINE.". (18 October 1934). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879-1954), p. 14. Retrieved 16 July 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32812573