It took me a while to find ANY information on this fountain pen. Originally, when I saw it for sale, I thought it was a fake. It was, in fact part of a 3 pen Limited Edition offering for Visconti's Australian market.
The Australis was limited to 150 pens.
The body is made of black lucite with rose gold accents.
The filling system is Visconti's double power reserve.
The nib is 18k gold (mine is a medium).
My Australis was shipped from Australia as NOS (New Old Stock). The box was not in very good condition, it was falling apart, and had me worried. The pen (and accompanying letter opener) were in perfect condition. I was struck by the size of the pen. It is Opera Master size, and as you can see below, that makes it on the "oversized" end of things.
I love the rose gold accents. Sometimes, rose gold looks more brass than gold, but I think they did an excellent job here. The letter opener matches very well.
Some of my Viscontis have poor lettering on the clip, This one had sharp lettering that stood out with even black filling.
It does have the "my pen" system, where you can replace the end bit on the pens, but they all have gold or silver accents and they just don't work as well as the one that came with it. My one complaint, is that the magnet is very week on this one, and the logo seems to rotate every time I use it.
Like the other Opera Masters, it follows the squaring the circle concept. It really does make for a comfortable pen, and a great looker. I actually enjoy it more than the Waterman Exception.
The nib is lovely, and the writing experience was superb. Visconti nibs run wet and wide. This is no different. I will say I prefer their gold nibs to their palladium nibs.
From left to right, Pelikan M805, Visconti Homo Sapiens London Fog, Noodler's Neponset, Visconti Australis, and MontBlanc 149. It's a BIG pen.
In the Visconti line-up, it is the biggest among the popular ones.
Australis Opera Master on Top, Homo Sapiens in the Middle, Opera on the bottom.
In conclusion, I love the pen. I have had it now for six months and it is almost always inked, with MontBlanc Lavender Purple. It is a big luxury pen, but it can be had for a decent price and it really does deliver. I did not find it over-weight or over-sized in a bad way. I do not post the cap when I use it, that would make it way to big. There are other Opera Masters I would love to have, but if this is the only one I am every able to acquire, I will be content with it.
