[1] The prize was announced by S. H. Prior, the editor of the magazine's "Red Page", on 18 August 1927 with the following introduction: "This country, rich in short stories, is suffering and always has suffered from a great dearth of full-length Australian novels.
The prize-winning stories would be available for serialisation in with "The Bulletin" or "The Australian Women's Mirror" and the competition would only be open to writers from Australia, New Zealand or the South Pacific.
[2] "The Red Page" of The Bulletin followed up the original announcement with further details on 1 September 1927 when it was specified that "Every story for competition must be submitted under a nom de plume; and the name and address of the writer, with the nom de plume, must accompany it in a sealed envelope, which will not be opened until after the stories have been judged."
At that time the details of the judges had not been decided but that there would "probably be five, including the Editors of The Bulletin and the Woman’s Mirror; and the A.J.A.
"[3] The first response to the Prize occurred on 17 November 1927 when O. N. Gillespie, a New Zealand writer in the magazine's "Red Page", after noting the "incredulity" with which any statement about the quality of Australian and New Zealand literature would be met in England, stated "that the entrants for The Bulletin prize novel should dedicate themselves to the task of writing a book to shatter, explode or at any rate disturb this mass of serene ignorance."