Argonauts Club

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The Argonauts Club was a children's radio program, which was first broadcast in 1933-34 on ABC Radio in Melbourne. The Argonauts Club proved hugely popular with young Australians - by 1950 there were over 50,000 members, with 10,000 new members joining each year through 1950s. The Club encouraged children's contributions of writing, music, poetry and art, and became one of the ABC's most popular programs, running six days a week for 28 years, until it was broadcast only on Sundays and was finally discontinued in 1972.

For its entire 31-year run, The Argonauts Club was co-hosted by Atholl Fleming, known to generations of Australians by his on-air names "Mac" and "Jason". Many notable Australians worked pseudonymously as presenters on the show, including poet A.D. Hope ("Antony Inkwell"), future ABC General Manager Talbot Duckmanton ("Tal") who hosted a weekly sports segment, actors Leonard Teale ("Chris") and John Ewart ("Jimmy") and future "Mr Sqiggle" host and film producer Patricia Lovell. Painter Jeffrey Smart ("Phidias") commented on art, and popular children's author Ruth Park contributed dramatised stories. Her main character, which began life as a bunyip, eventually evolved into her beloved "Muddle Headed Wombat" character, voiced by Johnny Ewart. Its popularity on The Argonauts led Park to write her popular series of Muddle Headed Wombat books in the 1960s.

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