Penguin Australia

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Publishers

Penguin Australia

Founded:	1946
Founded by:	Penguin UK
Location:	PO Box 23360 Melbourne, Victoria Australia
Titles/Circulation:
Links:	http://www.penguin.com.au

History

Little more than 10 years after Allen Lane published the first Penguins in the UK, the Australian company was established in a tin shed in South Melbourne, Victoria in 1946. For many years it was simply a distribution branch of Penguin UK, moving to Mitcham in 1953, onto Ringwood in 1963, and then to Camberwell, Victoria in 2002, and finally to its present location at 707 Collins Street in Melbourne.

The first Australian Penguin titles--To the Islands by Randolph Stow, Kangaroo Tales, edited by Rosemary Wighton and Three Australian Plays edited by Alan Seymour--were published in 1963. The late 50s and early 60s saw publication of writers such as Martin Boyd, Randolph Stow and Joan Lindsay, whose Picnic at Hanging Rock was eventually made into a successful film and remains one of Penguin Australia's bestselling titles, while Donald Horne's The Lucky Country brought a new phrase into the language. From a tiny tin shed in 1946, Penguin Australia has grown into an established and influential publishing company.

Penguin is home to some of Australia's bestselling and award-winning writers and illustrators: Stephanie Alexander, Pamela Allen, Felice Arena, Graeme Base, Geoffrey Blainey, Maggie Beer, Michelle Bridges, Peter Carey, Isobelle Carmody, Kaz Cooke, Bryce Courtenay, Robert Drewe, Mem Fox, Morris Gleitzman, Sonya Hartnett, Chloe Hooper, Paul Kelly, Kylie Kwong, Nam Le, Alison Lester, Michael Leunig, Melina Marchetta, Monica McInerney, Fiona McIntosh, Fiona Palmer and Tim Winton are household names.

On 1st July 2013 Penguin and Random House officially united to create Penguin Random House, the world's first truly global trade book publisher.