Graeme "Jacko" Johnstone

Graeme "Jacko" Johnstone is a Melbourne journalist, author and playwright. He was born in Gippsland, September 2, 1947.

Journalism

Beginning on a "local rag" in Gippsland, Victoria, in the mid-60s, Graeme (or Jacko) then wrote and edited business press and suburban newspapers in Melbourne, before being appointed in 1980 as Editor of the Australasian Express, London's knockabout newspaper for expatriate Australians and New Zealanders. He was acknowledged by its owners for expanding and polishing the paper and "making us professional," establishing the platform for it to later transform into the highly successful TNT Magazine.

Along with his gap-toothed smile and his extravagant taste in bow-ties, he is best known for his column "A Place in the Sun" in "The Sun News-Pictorial", previously written by Keith Dunstan, Melbourne, from 1985 to 1993 which he combined a larrikin sense of humour with whimsical insights on daily life. The column was always accompanied by a cartoon by Geoff "Jeff" Hook in which a small hook was hidden. When the paper was merged with "The Herald" to become "The Herald-Sun", the column was called "Dawn to Dusk".

He then went on to become editor "Australasian Post" ("Aussie Post") which, at that time, was Australia's longest running magazine. Famous for "Mr Whopper's Crossword" and the comic the "Ettamogah Pub", it was suffering from falling sales and a seedy image.

Graeme stayed the circulation by concentrating on the Australian stories of the weird and wonderful, from boat races held in dry river beds to the bloke who lived in a toilet block, "Aussie Post" aimed to capture a slice of Australia that was gradually being subsumed by global culture.

Author

He wrote "The Playmakers" that describes in novel form the Marlovian theory, a conspiracy theory that William Shakespeare could have been written by Christopher Marlowe. He is currently writing a novel on Christopher Skase.