When I initially imagined North Queensland, I pictured endless beaches, the reef, and genuine, easy -going folks. All of which is true, but once you scratch the surface, a vibrant and exciting zine and self-publishing culture is hidden away. Over last couple of years I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of the amazing crew that are cutting, pasting, drawing, printing and creating.  In all honestly, the community that exists in north Queensland would rival most capital cities. A perfect example of this was the Gutter Trash event that was put on by long-standing Zine creator, Graff Artist, upstanding dude and founder of the Artist Run Initiative, The Upholstery, Daniel Wallwork aka Wally. Gutter Trash was held in Cairns in March 2009 and was a launching pad for ten, that’s right, ten local zines!

For the past decade, The Upholstery have been pumping out zines, most coming with handmade bags, stickers and goodies.  Another couple of zines that I’ve come across in Cairns that I recommend checking out are Fez and Marcel (zombie Hill Zine).

The Run Collective, based in Townsville, have also recently released a massive zine that covers the history and profiles the collective. It is well worth getting your hands on a copy if they have any left. The hand screen printed cover is amazing!

Recipe for Run & Honour Among Thieves by Jordan Grant

Fast forward to the present day. I was recently invited to run a zine workshop coinciding with the May’s Lane street art exhibition held at the Mackay’s Artspace. Mackay was only town in Queensland that lucky enough to score the show! During my time in Mackay, every time I opened my mouth and mentioned zines, the first thing everyone would say was: “so have you met Autumn who does Gypsy Kat?” After a few phone calls and voicemails, we caught up, beers and random shenanigans were had and by the end of my stay a rough draft of a zine was done from my misadventures with Mackay and Miss Autumn. Since crossing paths with Autumn, my Po Box has never seen so much action.

Another charter that has been floating around the band and zine scene for a good number of years is Joel Goodman.  Joel runs a zine and a design company called Auxiliary. If you’re ever in Cairns, make sure you drop by and say hello, but also drop by next door to Room1 Contemporary Art which Mofo’s (merchants of fine objects), a t-shirt collective, also based.

Joel approached me recently about the launch of issue number five of Auxiliary as well as a pop up exhibition of Zines. The opening night for Auxiliary Zine #5 - Poster Stylo, is Friday 3rd June - 6.30pm @ c.1907. The exhibition runs from the 31st May till the 4th June.  The exhibition will showcase zines from all over Australia as well as focus on North Queensland.

Contributors for Auxiliary Zine #5 - Poster Stylo so far are: Caroline Mudge, Dave Schwan, Warren Popeler, Joel Goodman and Andrew Paterson.

If you would like to contribute a zine or support in any way. You can reach Joel on joel @ auxiliarycentral.com

Staples + PCC & a special thanks to Nick Berrett for helping me edit this.