The term "farrago",, means a confused variety of miscellaneous things. It has been used e.g. by Edward Tylor in his Primitive Culture. The name is included in the motto Quidquid agunt homines nostri farrago libelli est – "whatever men do forms the motley subject of our page" which was written on the first issue of the famous eighteenth-century periodical Tatler.
History
The publication was founded in 1925 by Randal Heymanson, who was the first editor, and Brian Fitzpatrick, who was the first chief of staff. For a number of years, Farrago was published in a newspaper or broadsheet format. In the 2000s, Farrago switched to a magazine format, which it continues to use today.
The implementation of voluntary student unionism in 2006 had a significant impact on the viability of student publications across Australia, compulsory student union membership fees having been the major source of income for most. "Christos Tsiolkas was editor in 1987, and he had a budget of $280,000; we have a budget of $58,000, and $55,000 of that will go on printing. We're quite lucky, we're a well-funded institution, and the University has provided transitional funding", said Farrago editor for 2009.
Aims and content
Farrago is a magazine whose content is written entirely by students, which aims to be a voice, creative outlet and source of information for those who attend the University of Melbourne – irrespective of age, course and interests. Farrago encourages contributions from students in both written and/or illustrated forms, because without these it would not be an accurate representation of students at the university. Farrago contains the following sections: News, Non-Fiction, Creative. It previously contained a Science section, which was discontinued in recent years. Farrago also features regular columns from several student writers.
Current and past editors
The Fitzpatrick Awards
Every year, the Media Office holds the Fitzpatrick Awards ceremony, colloquially referred to as the "Fitzpatricks", to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work of the contributors and volunteers. The first annual Fitzpatrick Awards were held in 2009 at Dante's Emporium and Cafe in Fitzroy. The ceremony is named after the publication's first chief of staff, Brian Fitzpatrick.
Related projects
Each year, the editors of Farrago also oversee several other related departments and projects.
''Above Water''
Above Water is the annual creative writing anthology, published in coordination with the University of Melbourne Student Union's Creative Arts department. It publishes a variety of creative forms, including fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. The first edition was published in 2005. Unlike Farrago, Above Water is a competition, with cash prizes for the winning written entry and the winning cover artist. In 2017, the publication received almost 300 submissions. From those initial submissions, 17 written pieces were selected for publication in 2017.
Radio Fodder
Radio Fodder is the University of Melbourne Student Union's student radio station, managed by editors of Farrago. The name originated from a discontinued section of Farrago titled "The Fodder".
According to the University of Melbourne Student Union's constitution, the Media Office is required to print a student union election guide containing the names and statements of all students running in the upcoming student union elections for that year. In most previous years, the election guide has been included as a section in the edition of Farrago that lines up closest to the election timeline for that year, sometimes appearing as a perforated, removable booklet. In 2017, the editors opted to print the guide as a separate booklet entirely, which was then slipped into editions of Farrago on stands around the University of Melbourne campus. The election guide is considered a somewhat frustrating constitutional obligation for the editors, as demonstrated by the tongue-in-cheek memo on the front cover of the 2016 election guide, which reads "we see you're thinking of skipping this section. You motherfucker. Do you know how long we worked on this fucking guide you inconsiderate ingrate – it's 9:30pm on a Thursday and we are eating cold pizza, chilli popcorn and Maltesers for dinner because we wanted to make this a good read for you. I can't believe you would betray democracy like this after everything we've been through. Don't you think about moving onto the next section, we know we have great articles but this is fucking important so read? the? god? damn? guide."
Controversy
Farrago has gained a significant amount of controversy over the years. In particular, despite the magazine's commitment to providing a voice to a diverse range of contributors regardless of political persuasion, it has frequently been seen as veering well to the political left. For example, Zoe Efron, one of 2014's Farrago editors, noted that a 1974 edition of Farrago contained both a left wing-slanted anti-smoking article and an ad for the then-Labor prime minister Gough Whitlamon the cover. She also noted that political bias and overt partisanship was still visible more recently, with a late 2013 edition of Farrago having a cover illustration of Tony Abbott and the caption "WE'RE FUCKED" underneath. in 1992 Pennsylvania State University student James Panichi labelled Farrago as "leftist crap... the product of politically opinionated hippies" in an article for The Daily Collegian.
