The first edition of Eureka Street appeared in 1991. The magazine promised informed reflection on public issues, which took account of the human reality so commonly ignored in public discussion. The leading articles in the first issues discussed the war against Iraq and the plight of Afghan refugees.
This edition is overshadowed by the same questions, and the need for informed and argued reflection on cultural and political life is even more marked than it was 12 years ago. If Eureka Street has helped discharge its promise in small ways to address this need, we owe it to the energy, intellectual
passion and generosity of Morag Fraser. She has been the editor of the magazine almost from the beginning, and has become the public face of Eureka Street.
After 12 years, Morag has decided to leave the magazine in other hands. As reader, friend, writer and Jesuit publisher I have progressively come to know Morag. I speak for everyone in those capacities in thanking Morag for giving herself so generously to shaping Eureka Street, and for building such a significant cultural institution. We wish her well in her continuing involvement in Australian public life.
We also welcome the new editor, Marcelle Mogg. Having edited Australian Catholics for 2 years,
Marcelle is well placed to continue and develop the tradition of addressing Australian questions in a
public voice. The need and the challenge remain as great as they were in 1991. Indeed, in public comment on refugees and on the war against Iraq, the level of brutality, unargued assertion and occasional dishonesty seems higher than it was in 1991In the last decade, many periodicals providing
independent and critical commentary, such as Modern Times/Australian Society, The Independent Monthly, The Republican and The Australian’s Review of Books, have ceased publication. Few have taken their place. It is no comfort, then, to hear from our readers that Eureka Street is irreplaceable. For it is natural for little magazines to come and go, as the energy and financial sacrifice needed for their survival become too great.
Eureka Street has flourished partly because of the generosity and gifts of Morag Fraser. It has also survived because the Jesuits have believed strongly enough in the need to address public issues in a public language from a catholic moral perspective that they have underwritten it financially.
Ultimately, however, Eureka Street will survive only if the need for it is recognised by increasing numbers of