Part 2 - Queensland Skateboarding Zine-making Tradition
By Dr Indigo Willing, 2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow | 18 September 2025
Sunshine State’s Subcultural Game-Changers and Olympic ‘Roll’ Models
Dr Indigo Willing, 2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow
Dr Indigo Willing, 2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow
I wish to acknowledge the Turrbal, Jaegera, Yuwibara, Kabi Kabi, Jinibara, Yugumbeh and Kombumerri People who are the traditional owners of the land this skateboarding research is based on in Queensland.
Skateboarding is an urban subculture and scene that has appealed to and welcomed youth and people from the margins for decades in Queensland. Moreover, its appeal has now expanded even further, with skateboarding shifting from its subcultural origins to now also being an Olympic Sport. The ‘Queensland Skate of Mind: Subcultural Game Changers to Olympic ‘Roll’ Models project emerges from my John Oxley Library Honorary Fellowship in 2025 to document this under-recognised and significant part of Queensland’s social, sport and cultural history. This project aims to provide an introduction to key aspects of what makes skateboarding in Queensland special and why it warrants further research. The themes introduced in a series of blogs and videos will encompass a range of stories, memories, ephemera and other contributions from the skateboarding community throughout my 2025 Honorary John Oxley Fellowship.
Thank you to Slam Skateboarding Magazine editor Trent Fahey (all issues are part of the collection at State Library of Queensland) and journalists Nat Kassel and Josh Sabini. Additional thanks to photographers Mike O’Meally, Wade McLaughlin, Robbie Cameron, Jack Cassidy, and Peter Sondergaard, Rachel Torti, Andrew Viles, Toby Mellonie, Jay Musk, Sarge Jhogenson, Daniel Vincent, Mike Lawry, Kane Stewart, Izy Duncombe, Sarah Huston, Andy MacKenzie, Scott Shearer, Mark Brimson, Stu Fogarty, Curtis Hay, Mitchell Roberts and many others. And a special thanks to my fellow We Skate QLD team members, Evie Ryder, Miljana Miljevic, Brooke Manning, Connie Leung, Jingjing Yang, Lil Turek and numerous members of the Brisbane and QLD skateboarding community for sharing their knowledge.
This blog is one of a 7 part series. To view the other blogs, click here.
Part 2 - Queensland Skateboarding Zine-making Tradition
From the earlier periods in the history of Queensland skateboarding, various individuals were actively creating skate zines, clothing and hard goods brands, board and distribution companies, and other cultural activities. Many now still skate and have become mentors to new generations.
One example of the vibrant earlier subcultural side of skateboarding is the Wild Times zine produced by Toby Mellonie to document the Queensland skateboarding scene in the 1980s. He reveals that skaters featured included early ‘greats’ such as John Byrant, Alister Dagliesh, Robert Brasher, Brett Hingston and Graham Layt who ‘ripped’ in locations such as the old Redcliffe bowl and Petrie. He also spoke of the ‘Bee Hive’ indoor skatepark that once offered a much needed sanctuary for skateboarders. Other older skateboarders list Nexus, Grindhouse, Ashmore, bowls at Woody Point and Eumundi (now buried under playgrounds and parks), The Morooka Skate Shed, Skate City Strathpine and Jindalee Allsports as havens to skate that are no longer in existence.
As skateboarders you use to get stuff thrown at you when you're skating down the road, car fly past, and someone throw an empty can at you or something…We were just like this punk kids, you know, heavily influenced by the very early Thrasher and the DIY [do it yourself] sort of movement. So you had to play in a punk band, and, you know, you had to skate, and you had to, you know, just go hard and all this sort of stuff.
Wild Times zine by Toby Mellonie from the 1980s. Photo supplied by Mellonie.
Brisbane was kind of like a different scene, because Sydney was so far ahead of Queensland. They had really good place to skate. They had proper skate parks and things in Sydney and even Melbourne. You know, those two cities were leaps and bounds in front of Queensland. But Queensland, we only had a few early bowls.
John Bryant at Redcliffe bowl in 1981 photographed by and supplied by Toby Mellonie.
SWIPE TO VIEW PHOTOS
Bearing Skateboarding Magazine. Suzie Lay and Luke Alexander Francis in the early 2000s. No 2. (2001) pages 38 - 39. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Subvert Magazine. Kwala advertisement. Vol 1, Issue 2 (1996) - John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
A new generation of zine makers has joined these publications, from Daniel Vincent’s Woodfolks Zine to Jack Cassidy’s Consider the Lillies. This new generation of zines continues to highlight underground skateboarding and street spots in the cities and suburbs of Brisbane and broader Queensland locations (although this is a gap in the research where community donations are welcome).
SWIPE TO VIEW PHOTOS
Anti Perspective Zine. Daniel Vincent. Archive at Middle Store.
Zines by skateboarders highlighting women, non-binary and queer skateboarders have also shifted the needle in terms of representing more diversity in skateboarding scenes in Queensland. This included The Skate Witches zine co-founded by Shari White, originally from the Gold Coast, and American Kristin Ebeling (2015), Miljana Miljevic’s Never Comply about an art event of the same name by Lil Girl Art x We Skate QLD (2022), Tessa Fox’s No Consent = Abuse (2018), Andie Dittman Hey Neighbour zine (2020) and artist Tom Magee’s Malaise zines (2015). In these zines, topics included highlighting skateboarders of various levels rather than just showcasing advanced skaters, making the scene more welcoming to newcomers and able to build up numbers at a time when women skateboarder were still very much a minority for instance. Other topics included fun art with feminist messages to serious issues about consent and respectful behaviours. Here, this part of the subculture of skateboarding in Queensland was breaking stereotypes about gender and sexuality and leading various social movements around issues of social change.
SWIPE TO VIEW PHOTOS
Sharpie Zine by Shari White. Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
There was also my Werewolf Cats Skating zine that transformed high profile photographer’s images of a number of Queensland skateboarders into cartoon-like cats, designed with Danny Vincent. The original artwork and zine sales raised money for the Old Man Skateboarding Crew men’s mental health fundraiser, the Koala Hospital at Lake Macquarie during a series of bushfires in Queensland.
Werewolf Cats Skating zine with art by Dr Indigo Willing and design by Daniel Vincent. Issue 1 (2018). Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
Painting of photograph by Sarah Huston of Hilla, Aimee Massie and Nikki Lovelace. Werewolf Cats Skating zine with art by Dr Indigo Willing and design by Daniel Vincent. Issue 1 (2018). Zine sales went to charity. Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
Painting of photograph by David Swift of Izy Duncombe (nee Mutu), and later a custom graphic for Kudos Skateboards. From Werewolf Cats Skating zine with art by Dr Indigo Willing and design by Daniel Vincent. Issue 1 (2018). Zine sales went to charity. Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
Photography by Sarah Huston of Hilla, Aimee Massie and Nikki Lovelace, and by David Swift of Izy Duncombe (nee Mutu). Werewolf Cats Skating zine with art by Dr Indigo Willing and design by Daniel Vincent. Issue 1 (2018). Zine sales went to charity. Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
Zines are an under-recognised yet culturally vibrant part of the storytelling and documentation of Queensland skateboarding, particularly for underground scenes and non-traditional skateboarders. Many more traditional skateboarding magazines are also not in the State Library Queensland collections. Donations of past issues from the 1980s to today are welcome. The next part of this project’s blog series presents research on the visual culture of skateboarding with an overview of influential videos and photographers.
Dr Indigo Willing
2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow
Read other blogs by Dr Indigo Willing (to be released weekly):
- Part 1 - The Early Subculture of Skateboarding in Queensland
- Part 3 - Picture Us Rolling: Visual Storytellers in Queensland Skateboarding
- Part 4 - Good Company, Good Vibes: Queensland Skateboarding Businesses
- Part 5 - Rolling Out the Red Carpet: Skateboarding Icons and Everyday Heroes
- Part 6 - We Skate Too: Women, Non-Binary, Queer and Non-Traditional Skateboarders
- Part 7: Queensland’s World-Class Competitive Skateboarders
Read other blogs about State Library's Zine collection.
Watch this video to explore Indigo's research project, and don’t miss the full video highlighting all the 2025 Queensland Memory Awards recipients and their inspiring projects.
Comments
Your email address will not be published.
We welcome relevant, respectful comments.