CANE TOAD TIMES Poking fun in a police state State Library of Queensland 5 November 2011 — 25 March 2012 Welcome to CANE TOAD TIMES Poking fun in a police state The exhibition, Cane Toad Times: Poking fun in a police “My head was full of state, showcases original issues of Cane Toad Times crazy ideas about social publications as the centrepiece of an unfolding cultural justice, but before we history created by a collective of individuals who charged the barricades, sought to expose a hidden Brisbane. During a time that saw street marching banned, the demolition a good dose of ridicule of heritage buildings, corrupt police and the tightening grip of a was required.” conservative government, Cane Toad Times offered an alternative D eb Brown, philosophy lecturer at view of Queensland. “This view conflicted with the then ‘official’ view, University of Queensland, but was nevertheless tinged with a sense of nostalgia, with genuine former Cane Toad Times contributor feelings for the place where most of the contributors either lived or grew up” (Simon Stocks). With stories called Death of a Prostitute, Queensland Politics — Trust Honest Greed, A Cute Psychotic State, Kicking the Sunbeam and Expo Aversion Therapy, the Cane Toad Times contributors embraced satire and popular culture in their irreverent storytelling whilst exploring the issues, events and problems predominantly misrepresented by mainstream media. Indeed, the Cane Toad Times contributors anticipated the rise of Citizen Journalism with their street-press style magazine that responded to the eroding trust in the Left: item 3 Below: item 52 (detail) media and public disillusionment with politics and civic affairs. 5 November 2011 — 25 March 2012 Open daily 10am–5pm Philip Bacon Heritage Gallery, level 4 Free Politics & persuasion at slq Politics & persuasion at slq II Cane Toad Times: Poking fun in a police state Cane Toad Times: Poking fun in a police state 1 BEFORE FITZGERALD… …there was the Cane Toad Times B Y ROBERT WHYTE, CANE TOAD TIMES CONTRIBUTOR blacks and reds. Protesters were of pitched battle on the campuses misfits and malcontents, typified and streets of Brisbane. The battle by Joh as ‘friends of the dirt’, the was between Joh and his cohort What’s the difference between a Queenslander and a cane toad? ‘anti-nuclear lot’ and the ‘everything of white-shoe property developers, Not much, apparently. Both are reviled and ridiculed. Both inspire fear and loathing — especially for the aborigines crowd’. By 1983, industrialists and open-cut profiteers in the south. Both are tales of embarrassing bungles, all-consuming appetites and environmental Joh’s Nationals were ruling in their on one side — and on the other destruction we’d rather weren’t made public. own right with the simple slogan a rag-tag alliance of civil liberties “Joh. Queensland.”iii lawyers, marxists, students, It could only happen in with the prejudice and backwoods Coalition’s 59 per cent. Hmmm. There was something deeply academics, unionists, musicians, Queensland. We see Australia suspicion of many Queenslanders, Does that seem fair to you? disturbing about the readiness actors and women. depicted deeply disconsolate, turning especially outside the towns, where a As time went on, protests of Queenslanders to support In May 1977, the first issue of away, letting the curtain fall back country vote could be worth up to five were crushed, venues shut down, Joh’s Canberra bashing. He said Cane Toad Times hopped off the to conceal the appalling brutality of times as much as a vote in the city. and young people were fitted Queensland would run its own presses. On its cover was a world- police on Black Friday, 2 February In the 1971 Queensland state up, busted and harassed. Joh’s affairs, have its own flag, its own seat weary, Silver Jubilee Cane Toad 1912, when protestors were savagely election, Joh’s Country Party mangled rants about getting rid of in the United Nations, and even have Queen. So began a tradition where attacked in a banned street marchi. somehow grabbed the largest communists and unions, weeding its own currency, the Queensland no cow was too sacred. It was a Sound familiar? number of parliamentary seats with out troublemakers and atheists dollar. During a Japanese trade declaration of independence, a Move forward 65 years to the smallest number of primary became inextricably interwoven with mission he announced, “I am here to generation claiming its own space, its Queensland, 1977. votes. Labor won half the two-party notions of Queensland pride. There say we are not Australians — we are own fun.v Joh Bjelke-Petersen is a preferred vote, but ended up with was widespread nodding agreement Queenslanders.”iv One of the key contributors was decade into his despotic, erratic and only 41 per cent of the seats to the with Joh’s disgust of gays, greens, Matt Mawson, cartoonist and layout vainglorious reign. The rule of the The Cane Toad artist from the first issue in 1977 peanut farmer from Kingaroy had In 1977, John Jiggens and and a major force in the second issue, The Incredible Peanut. seen the banning of the soundtrack Bill Thorpe’s illustration other co-founders of Cane Toad collective (1983–1990). Matt was The first collective was proudly of the musical Hair, a state of to Flark March’s ‘The Times were ruminating over a a link between the two groups, counter-cultural, selling ads to emergency declared to protect a Great Banana War’, variety of tropical produce when along with Damien Ledwich and alternative businesses like Rocking team of rugby union footballers, the Terry Murphy, both of whom also Cane Toad Times, someone suggested the cane Horse Records and staging benefits Giant Mutant Cane banning of political demonstrations worked on 4ZZZ’s Radio Times. toad as their satirical Queensland including The Cane Toad Hop, Joys Toad issue, October and the arrests of hundreds of Matt remembers the first collective champion. They all laughed. The for the Jaded, The Deranged Ball and 1977 street-marching protestors. Joh fed cane toad was repulsive, but also produced the magazine at the Planet The Night of the Lesser Suave. The the chooks, as he called the media, a heroic and ultimately Press building in Spring punk band Razar, managed by Ian incomprehensible babble about hilarious celebration Hill, where games of Roberts and famous for their anthem revolting students, communists, of a super fit, with So began a indoor cricket occurred Task Force, were frequent performers, despicable homosexuals and “don’t an out-of-my-way in breaks between as were The Go-Betweens and The you worry about that”. In a truly tradition where komodo-dragon-like sessions of magazine Riptides. The magazine proclaimed bizarre rise to supreme executive swagger of invincibility, production. John Cane Toad Times represented power over a cowed cabinet, this no cow was too deadly poison sacs and Jiggens held editorial “hope for oppressed minorities and Lutheran conservative believed morose frown. The idea sacred. It was meetings at his home in depressed majorities in the sugar he was chosen by God to lead was simply funny. And a declaration of Miskin Street, Toowong. cane republic”.vii Queensland, claiming his 15 years The illustrators could get so Cane Toad Times History was not kind. The living alone in a converted cow-bail, creative with the Cane was born. independence, flickering flame of hope represented clearing 40 hectares of brigalow a Toad Times layout — The original Cane by Cane Toad Times was soon day, gave him a better education a generation Damien and Matt would Toad Times collective snuffed out. By 1979, when Cane than an Oxford degree.ii encourage each other was a group of young claiming its Toad Times Version 1.0 folded, Joh Was Joh some Queensland to push the limits.vi Queensland writers Bjelke’s jackboot tactics kicked Rasputin, dabbling in the black arts, own space, its and friends who had Over the next 12 the crap out of the political and hypnotising the bewildered masses, met at The University own fun. years, there would be cultural left in the protest movement. reducing them to fawning, dribbling of Queensland in the 22 issues of the Cane Many retired to the relative safety idiots? Hardly. His workaholic, 1970s, including John Toad Times, produced of academia. Others left the state. anti-greenie, anti-intellectual strong- Jiggens, David Richards, Gerard Lee, by two collectives. The first collective Cane Toad Times fizzled out while man-on-a-mission act — two parts Ian Roberts, Bill Thorpe, Sue McLeod produced seven issues from 1977 an increasingly successful Joh racist, three parts sexist, four parts and Janice Knopke, who teamed to 1979. The second collective presided over a churchy, holier-than- homophobic — resonated deeply up with a group of cartoonists from produced 15 issues between 1983 thou, whiter-than-white conservative 4ZZZ-FM’s Radio Times, including and 1990. Originally a stapled establishment. This thin veil of quarterfold, the magazine assumed i James Thomas Case 1884–1921 Matt Mawson, Terry Murphy, Damien Sunday School and pumpkin scones Black Friday by Jim its eventual tabloid size by the fourth Black Friday, 1912 Ledwich and Ross Hinckley. Cage which originally barely concealed a deeply corrupt John Oxley Library, State Library of The year of 1977 coincided appeared in The police force in bed with politicians, Queensland / HPT POL 163 with the onset of two crucial years v ibid. Worker in 1912 was ii Evans, Raymond. A History of vi Stephen Stockwell, Alternative Media vii The Cane Toad Times Warts and All a commentary on the Queensland, Cambridge University iii ibid. p: 228 in Brisbane: 1965–1985, Queensland Best of Collection 1977–1990 Special General Strike.