In Melbourne, a mesmerizing hyper-local paper for the digital age

The Australian letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australian bureau. This week's issue is written by Natasha Frost, a Melbourne-based reporter.

In August 1972, a collective of writers, mainly from Melbourne, released the first issue of a fortnightly magazine that would chronicle a particular corner of Australian countercultural life – starting with a scathing piece on the 'young press baron' Rupert Murdoch.

Over a period of about forty months, The Digger newspaper featured fervent opinion columns, extensive reviews and cultural lists, as well as what it described as “gonzo accounts” of Australian life. It covered topics such as sex education, Aboriginal rights, republicanism (“It's time we threw the Queen of Oz and her GG,” short for Governor General, “into the sea”) and the joys of cycling.

The article was associated with some of the most important names in Australian literature of the time, and was instrumental in launching Australian novelist Helen Garner's career as a writer. (The Digger went bankrupt in 1975 when, as founder Phillip Frazer wrote in 2018, it “ran out of money and lawyers.”)

Five decades later, another Australian publication channels some of that same irreverent spirit and commitment to, as the editors put it, 'reportage'.

The Paris End is a long Substack newsletter started about a year ago by writers Cameron Hurst, Sally Olds and Oscar Schwartz, whose ages range from about 25 to about 35. (Mr. Schwartz has previously contributed to The New York Times.)

The newsletter is named after the local nickname for the eastern end of Collins Street in central Melbourne – once upon a time home to the city's artistic community, and today the location of luxury hotels and glitzy international fashion boutiques. (The newsletter does not deal exclusively, or even primarily, in stories from that part of town.)

The area is “a soulless pastiche of an upscale part of any city,” Ms Olds said over coffee in Melbourne. “It's such a strange part of town, with such ideas about itself. So that's a really nice space to write in.”

“It's ridiculous to call it that,” Mr. Schwartz added. “If you have to call something the 'Parisian end' of your city, then you are not Paris.”

The Paris End does not aim to emulate any particular publication. But it does share some DNA with earlier versions of The New Yorker's “Talk of the Town,” with style inspiration from Ms. Garner (herself a reader of The Paris End) and the Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and author Clarice Lispector.

Readership is being kept secret, although it is in the “thousands” range, Mr. Schwartz said. He describes it as the 'Darwin', Australia's eighth city, 'of newsletters'.

At least anecdotally, its impact among Melburnians is profound. Earlier this year I made a special pilgrimage to buy panettone from a small Italian pastry shop that The Paris End had recommended – only to receive the same panettone two nights later from a friend, who had made an identical trip after reading the same tip.

When I forward a favorite article, I am almost always told that the recipient has already read it. These included articles on the 'male lesbian' community, a 1966 UFO sighting in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs and a recent academic conference on 'Antipodean Modernism'.

“The Stars,” a monthly review column, rates a hodgepodge of things: cultural phenomena such as local and international films; the best legal and illegal nude swimming spots; mackerel dumplings; where Melburnians should spend the winter (Bali) or play summer evening tennis (Carlton). It's sometimes unapologetically niche, celebrating not just a scene, but a scene within a scene.

During the worst part of the pandemic, Melbourne spent more than 260 days in lockdown, and the return to normality was slow and painful.

“We really went through it,” Ms. Olds said. “For me it is a kind of project to give the city a boost, for myself: I want to re-enchant the city.”

Here are the stories of the week.

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