NSFW! Australian Cleo magazine - male nudes down under

Cleo Magazine was launched in 1972 by Aussie publishing legend Ita Buttrose.

The early seventies were an exciting time in Australia. International travel and television made Down Under not so far away. And the times, they were at last a-changin’. A new progressive government, color TV and dicks in magazines.

Cleo was an eye-opener. It contained frank sexual discussion and male centrefolds. But unlike most of the world where male nudity came to us courtesy of mags met for the gay male gaze, Cleo was unashamedly meant for female readers, even if it never had any.

The Aussie Models

Then leading Australian film star Jack Thompson was Cleo‘s first male centerfold in 1972.

Unfortunately, few of the models that followed got their dicks out and after a novelty died off, the mag stopped the focus on Aussie men. Buying pics from the US was cheaper.

But a few Australian men bravely stuck it out.

Phillip Avalon

Phillip Avalon wrote, produced, directed and acted in films and TV. He produced and starred in Summer City, the 1977 Aussie hit that gave Mel Gibson his first film role. In the early seventies, he’d already shot nude pics for America’s PlayGirl magazine. After previously refusing Cleo out of deference to his Brisbane mum,

NSFW! Click Here: Phillip Avalon, 70s movie star and full-frontal nude Cleo centrefold.

Singer-songwriter Chris Venn arrived in Australia from England as a 19-year-old. He worked as a stage lighting technician at the Opera House, studied jazz ballet and modeled. He is by the way, still a hottie and still a successful singer-songwriter.