Opening Thursday 18 September, 6-8pm, we marks the centenary of Farrago, Australia’s oldest student publication and a pillar of the University of Melbourne’s creative and political life since 1925. Across ten turbulent decades, it has given voice to generations of University of Melbourne students: restless, dissenting, idealistic, irreverent.
18 September – 10 October 2025
Opening celebration: Thursday 18 September, 6-8pm
This year marks the centenary of Farrago, Australia’s oldest student publication and a pillar of the University of Melbourne’s creative and political life since 1925. Taking its name from the Latin for ‘motley mixture’, Farrago has published everything from radical polemics and poetry to photo essays, satire and student reportage. Across ten turbulent decades, it has given voice to generations of University of Melbourne students: restless, dissenting, idealistic, irreverent.
Presented at the George Paton Gallery, Farrago 100 revisits the magazine’s storied history through a dynamic display of archival material, ephemera and contemporary responses. From the underground press politics of the 1960s to today’s digital-first publishing and podcasting landscape, the exhibition considers Farrago’s changing form, voice and purpose within broader shifts in student experience, media culture and campus activism.
The exhibition highlights Farrago’s legacy as an incubator for critical thinking and creative experimentation, as well as its ongoing role within the University of Melbourne Student Union in fostering student authorship, representation and resistance. At once retrospective and forward-looking, Farrago 100 asks what a student publication can (and should) be, in a time when student voices remain vital amid shifting institutional contexts.