Here’s a tiny slice of good news in an aching world – five years after Great Ocean Quarterly closed the doors, they’ve released the eighth issue of Great Ocean Quarterly – the one that got got away. The Lost Eighth, as they’re calling it, is a passion project, an itch that needed a scratch. We think you’ll love what they have done for you.

A journal of Art, Ideas and the Sea

At Great Ocean Quarterly, they’ve passed the lock-down hours dusting off the hard drive that they unplugged back in 2015, when they were about to print the eighth issue. And they’ve re-discovered a wealth of sea stories: works by some of Australia’s favourite writers and artists, as well as international names. There’s a bird and a fish and a voyage, a tour under Sydney Harbour. There are poems and a song, and Greg Day’s Mislaid Books, Arturo, jellyfish and…Lego!

In fact, there’s so much wonderful material that we wanted to bring you the long-awaited issue 2:3 of Great Ocean Quarterly, the volume called The Lost Eighth.

A one-off journal volume is a tricky thing, but they found a way. It’s a thumping-big 128 pages – more book than magazine – crammed with reading and thinking, and almost no ads. They’ve printed it and GOQs are pouring across the land like soldier crabs on a sandbank.

The boys have showcased some brilliant ocean writing and art that didn’t get a run back then. (And eight is a more pleasing number. Who makes seven issues? Pah.)

To purchase your very own limited copy, click here