It’s the early hours of the morning at the brand-new Nathan Campus, on the land of the Yugarabul, Yuggera, Jagera and Turrbal peoples. Anne McNeill (B Environmental Science '77), co-editor of The Gryphon – which will become Griffitti – is still putting the paper to bed. This is the 1970s: it’s long before home computers, social media or desktop publishing. Newspapers are put together with strips of paper, ink, sharp knives, and a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears. And Griffith University’s newspaper is no exception.
Fast forward 50 years, and current student Victor Gomide (Economics and Finance), is also working long hours – this time, to find guests for his podcast, Griffith Business School Unplugged. Different tools, different subject matter – but the urge to report on the world around you is alive and well on campus.
Making the news
Working on Griffitti was an incredible learning experience, Anne remembers. Alongside politically-charged pieces, Griffitti featured information about events, clubs and student life, including film and theatre reviews – all eagerly read by students. “We learnt on the go,” says Anne. “The early editions of the newspaper show just how inexperienced we were.”
If they wanted news, they’d put out a call using student noticeboards. Students would submit hand-written stories or drawings. “Then we’d type them up. We’d gather as many stories as possible about campus groups and events and we’d put the proof together.”
And that meant hours of painstaking work: stories were entered into a linotype machine which put out a column-width strip of copy. These columns were then fitted to fill a page. Not enough copy? No worries. “We’d run an ad, sometimes with a really large font,” says contributor Peter Williamson (Modern Asian Studies, 1978).
Pages were pasted together and photocopied before being distributed by hand around campus. “There was a lot of pressure around deadlines,” says Anne. “But there were always many hands for the final push. I’m sure there were many moments when it all went wrong, but the beauty was, nobody really noticed if it was a bit late.”
Community spirit
The publication, which ran from Griffith’s first year of teaching in 1975 to 1993, was intended as a voice and source of current affairs for Griffith students. “What I remember most is the breadth of what we covered,” says Anne. “At the time, there was student activism around the right to march, the right to protest and the right to gather. We took that very seriously at the paper.” To reflect the sensitive nature of the protests, some anonymous articles ran to allow students to freely share their points of view.
It was a great way to meet people, she says. “We were the first students at the beautiful new campus – only four hundred or so. Friends were made quickly. And being the co-editor gave me the opportunity to get involved in lots of different groups.”
“There’s something about deadlines that pulls everyone together,” agrees Peter. Though sometimes, time pressures meant that errors snuck in. “You’d get to the final construction of the paper, and you’d find a spelling error,” he says. “And you can’t have that with a university paper!”
From print to pod
Fast forward to today, and the reporting landscape looks radically different. But everyone still loves a great story, and for Gomide, those stories are best told in podcasts, not papers. His Griffith Business School Unplugged podcast has seen him interview everyone from Galen Graham, marketing manager at multi-million-dollar Gold Coast company Hideaway, to his personal favourite, finance expert Professor Robert Bianchi.
Just like Griffitti, while the podcast may sound like a casual conversation, it takes serious effort behind the scenes. “The hardest part is finding guests,” Victor admits. Then comes the editorial effort. Alongside podcast co-creator Joohyung Kim (Business (Marketing and Events), he develops a brief, script, and interview structure. “Once we’ve recorded the interview, we edit the footage and split it into segments,” he says. They are a little more organised than the early days of Griffitti, however: episodes are pre-recorded weekly, and when exam time looms, they record multiple episodes in advance.
The podcast is designed to inspire fellow students. “It’s about learning where people have come from and how they’ve forged their own path,” Victor says. His dream guest? Billionaire hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio. “I’ve read all his books. I’m fascinated by how he thinks.”
Whether inked on paper or streamed to your ears, one thing hasn’t changed – news and storytelling are always in fashion. For Anne and Peter, those Griffitti days are unforgettable. As Peter recalls: “The enthusiasm, the protests, the learning – it was a pretty intoxicating environment to be in.”
From marketing smarts to leadership thinking, catch up with the latest episode of Griffith Business School Unplugged. Plus: want to revisit Griffitti’s glory days? Delve into its very first issues.
Image captions (top to bottom):
- Barbara Weimar, Anne McNeil and Michael Evans all studying at Griffith University.
- Around the kitchen table at Anne's house in Yeronga.
- First edition cover of The Gryphon.
- Unplugged Griffith Business School Student Podcast, 2025 episode 7.
- Sourced from the Griffith Archive, Anne and Sian working together.
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