The RoyalAuto Journal
DateJanuary 1957
Object number00019306
NameMAGAZINE
MediumInk, photographic images, paper
DimensionsOverall: 285 x 212 mm, 0.1 kg
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThe January 1956 edition of The RoyalAuto Journal, Victoria, Australia, 1957. The coloured cover depicts the opening ceremony of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games featuring the Australian team arriving down the main stadium.HistoryThe ROYALAUTO is the magazine for members of the RACV. It began in 1922 as a monthly supplement in The Australian Motorist and later was issued as an individual publication called the 'RoyalAuto Journal'. It is still in circulation today to RACV members and titled 'RoyalAuto'.
The 1956 Melbourne summer Olympics were a significant world and Australian sporting and historical event. Not just as it signified the first instance of Australia hosting the international event but "in many ways, it was the Games that took the Olympics to the world. It was the first Games held outside of Europe or the United States, the first Games held in the southern hemisphere, the first Games where live television broadcasts captured the public’s imagination, and the first Games in which all the athletes walked together as one in the Closing Ceremony." - Australian Olympic Committee.SignificanceThe Melbourne Olympics was the first time Australia hosted the summer games and demonstrated Australia as a significant sporting country. At these Olympics Australia placed third place on the medal table only behind the Soviet Union and the USA. This result remains the highest place ever achieved by an Australian team.
