Playboy (Australia) Magazine History

Australian Playboy featured similar content to the lead US edition, and included interviews, feature articles and entertainment reviews. The magazine would rely heavily on the US edition for pictorials, and thus reprinted many pictorials featuring popular US Playmates and celebrities including Pamela Anderson, Erika Eleniak and Anna Nicole Smith.

An Australian Playmate of the Year would be crowned annually.

The first issue, published February 1979, depicted Rosemary Paul on the cover and featured her in a nude pictorial. Notable Australian celebrities who have appeared in the magazine include:

Rachel Hunter: supermodel (New Zealander)

Emma Harrison: Neighbours actress

Melissa George: Home and Away actress

Dannii Minogue: international popstar and X Factor and Australia's Got Talent judge

Fiona Horne: celebrity witch, writer, later contestant on Celebrity Survivor

Kym Wilson: actress

Gabrielle Richens: model, actress, TV presenter

Wendy Botha: surfer

Lynda Stoner: actress

Joanne Capper: wife of Warwick Capper

Jodie Young: TV presenter

Tracy Lee: model

Bindy Paxton: infamous for appearing on A Current Affair

One notable omission was Elle Macpherson, who posed nude for the US magazine, but was not featured in Australian Playboy. To date, the biggest selling edition of Australian Playboy is the one with Dannii Minogue on the cover.

Australian Playboy ceased publication in late 1999 due to declining sales and increasing competition from lad's mags such as FHM and Ralph.