First issue

Chucklers' Weekly (Consolidated Press, 1954? series) v1#1 30 April 1954

Part of the Packer empire

Launched in April 1954 with heavy promotion in Consolidated Press publications across Australia,11The Sunday Times (Perth), Sunday 13 June 1954, reports that distribution of Chucklers' Weekly will begin in Western Australia...   Chucklers’ Weekly was a spin-off from The Sunday Telegraph children's and comic supplement, hosted by Charlie Chuckles.22During the 1940s and into the 1950s, Sunday comics ran some 16 colour pages and were a cultural phenomenon. Children...  

The Australian Women's Weekly, 5 May 1954

Chucklers Weekly [5 May 1954] (1954)

It joined a small group of Australian children's papers in the UK tradition, initiated by The Australian Boy (1952), a local version of Eagle (1953), The Silver Jacket (1953), and even a second brief Packer paper for children, Junior Telegraph (1954).33Bridget Griffen-Foley reports "it was discontinued in early 1955 owing to a belief that it was poaching readers from its...  

Initially published by Consolidated Press (renamed Australian Consolidated Press in 1957), Chucklers' listed publisher was briefly Molly Dye, before converting to the eponymous The Australian Chucklers' Weekly Pty Ltd In the final years. Despite the changes, Chucklers' Weekly was firmly part of Packer's ACP.

Superman by Arthur Hudson

The Australian Chucklers Weekly (Chucklers, 1959 series) v6#31 27 November 1959

Molly Dye, one of Australia's first female reporters, was most known for her long-running column on household hints in The Sunday Telegraph. She was editor of the children’s section and became editor of Chucklers' Weekly when it was created. Respected Australian artist Monty Wedd took over editorial chores in 1958, around the time Molly is listed as publisher.

With those Telegraph origins, the dominance of newspaper strip reprints is unsurprising—features such as Jungle Jim (King Features Syndicate), Pop-Eye (King Features Syndicate), Smitty and Herby (Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate), Glen Forrest (Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate), Marlin Keel (Post-Hall Syndicate), Tom Corbett--Space Cadet (Field Enterprise Syndicate), The Cisco Kid (King Features Syndicate), The Flibbertys (Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate), Johnny Hazard (King Features Syndicate), Beetle Bailey (King Features Syndicate), Bugs Bunny (Newspaper Enterprises Association) and The Jackson Twins (McNaught Syndicate).

The Australian Chucklers Weekly (Chucklers, 1959 series) v6#40 — Funland (page 1)

An interesting reprint is Superman (McClure Syndicate) by Wayne Boring, beginning in issue v6#31 (27 November 1959). Newspaper strip reprints gave Chucklers' Weekly a way to get around K. G. Murray's exclusive arrangements with DC for this popular character. ACP later purchased the Murray company in 1974, taking over rights to reprint DC comics.

Of particular significance among the non-comics features is entertainment news such a In a Spin and Bob Rogers Column, a regular episode of a serialised Enid Blyton story from November 1954, and A. W. Nugent's puzzle feature Funland (United Feature Syndicate), which appeared in with the vast majority of issues.

However, beyond the newspaper strips, the origins of most other comics reprinted in Chucklers create more puzzles than solutions.