Off the Main Road is now a Magazine

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We’ve been sitting on this news for a while now, quietly building it in the background while the blog, the newsletter, and everything else kept ticking along as normal. It’s strange to finally say it out loud:

Where it came from

Off the Main Road started as a way to document the Australia we were seeing: the back roads, the campsites, the towns most people drive straight past. Over time it grew into something bigger than we expected, an actual audience of people who wanted the same kind of travel we do. Slow, considered, and off the highway.

We wanted something that would sit around for longer than a quick read.

Something that felt like an object rather than a page load, that can be shared with family and fellow travellers.

Something you can pick up, put down and open again later with a cuppa in hand while it takes you somewhere else entirely.

We’ve built a digital edition too, because convenience matters, but if I’m honest, print is where my heart’s always been. That’s where the magazine came from. Not a rebrand, not a pivot away from the website. An extension of the same thing we’ve always been doing, in a format that gives the photography and the stories more room to breathe.

The magazine

Off the Main Road Magazine is a glossy, photography-led magazine for slow travel through the outback and regional Australia.

Published every six months in print and digital form, it follows the real routes, campsites, and stories of full-time travellers on the road. Not a quick-hit travel guide, but a magazine built to be looked at as much as read.

Every image is shot on the road, not sourced from a stock library. Every story comes from lived experience, not a press release.

The first issue

Issue #1 is the Outback Edition, 68 pages covering outback Queensland and the Northern Territory. It’s the area we’ve spent the most time in over the last while, so it felt like the natural place to start.

Inside you’ll find full journey pieces through the Heart of Queensland and Gulf Country, a run north on the Stuart Highway, a Traveller's Notes spread on the Matilda Way, town features on Charleville and Lightning Ridge, and a new recurring photography segment we're genuinely excited about. There's no padding in there, no filler content added just to hit a page count. Everything made the cut because it earned its place.

Neil's photography runs through the whole thing. A lot of the images have been sitting in our archive for months, waiting for a format that could actually do them justice.

How it works

Off the Main Road Magazine will be released every six months, in both digital and print form. Issue #2, the Coastal Edition, is already being planned for an early release in December, with Issue #3, the Inland Edition, to follow.

We’re launching in early August. Trial print copies have already landed, and we’re just making sure the print quality is right before committing to the full run.

If you want to be one of the first to get a copy, keep an eye on the site over the next couple of weeks. We’ll have single issues and subscriptions available in both digital and print, and we’ll let you know the moment it’s live.

Thanks for sticking with us this far. This one’s been a long time coming.

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