The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Discussion of any bush poetry topic.
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Gary Harding
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Mon Sep 27, 2021 6:29 pm

No doubt like many other ABPA members, I also immensely enjoy Around The Boree Log and The Parish Of St. Mel's by John O'Brien.

It is his ballads rather than the distinguished man himself that are primarily featured in our proposed Cultural Centre. After all, they say the most, don't they? However we feel that drawing the dusty veil of the past aside to reveal a little of the author is also needed, even if just to satisfy a bit of curiosity... "who could write such words..?"

In 1985, Frank Mecham (the nephew of "John O'Brien") gave the Aquinas Memorial Lecture entitled :

Boree Log:
Early Australian History
in the Poems of
"John O'Brien"


- and subsequently the lecture was recorded in the booklet (pictured below) of which 500 copies were printed. It intersperses comments and observations while the Poems provide a backdrop of the story centred around Patrick Hartigan and his Irish-Australians.
I have recently posted about the moving book The Little Irish Mother (A&R) by John O'Brien containing verses referring to her; and the copy I am pleased to own that was inscribed by Frank Mecham.

St Patrick's Day

'Tis the greatest splash of sunshine right through all my retrospection
On the days when fairies brought me golden dreams without alloy,
When I gazed across the gum-trees round about the old selection
To the big things far beyond them, with the yearning of a boy.


F. Mecham : Father Hartigan in his early years as a priest in Albury, was the proud possessor of a beautiful black horse called Swagman, "all of sixteen hands", and one of his greatest interests always was the history of the Australian horse. He brought it into his sermon on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Diocese of Wagga. It is no surprise, then, to find one of the stirring poems of Around The Boree Log dedicated to Father Pat's Currajong.

But well I mind the stories told when Father Pat was young -
At least, when he was not so old - his scattered flock among;
When health and strength were on his side, you'd see him swing along
With that clean, easy, sweeping stride that marked old Currajong.

Ah, newer methods, younger men! the times are moving fast,
And but in dreams we tread again the wheel-ruts of the past;
The eyes are filmed that watched of old, the kindly hearts are still,
And silent tombstones white and cold are glimmering on the hill.

While scorching up the road, belike, with singing gears alive
The curate on his motor-bike hits up his forty-five;
But tender, tingling memories swell, and love will linger long
In all the stirring yarns they tell about Old Currajong.


F. Mecham : "John O' Brien " was at home in the tradition of the best Australian ballad poetry. He has humour, deep sentiment, and the homely phrase and he draws characters so well - Hanrahan, Josephine, the Careys and the Caseys, noble white-haired Father Pat. But it is Ireland transplanted to Australia - the flowers, trees, the birds, the bush, - the whole surroundings are Australian.

But the final words in this post, perhaps should best belong to "himself", Father Pat who was a "motor car" enthusiast.

Firin' On The Eight.

There's no one interested, no one wants to hear you moan
About your private aches and pains - they want to tell their own.
You got to get your ups and downs, you got to hump the load,
The same as when you've got to face your punctures on the road;
That's common sense, now aint it? - Wipe the whole thing off the slate,
Maintain your rubber healthy and keep firin' on the eight.
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Wed Sep 29, 2021 12:17 pm

For fellow ABPA members interested in music, including that of Australian bush bands, here is our article in the latest edition of Beacon magazine.

https://thebeacon.com.au/magazine-publications/

Edition 23 page 36

It is online here for viewing and is also distributed in hard copy around the Bay.

As is said in the article, along with bush balladry (of the Paterson-Lawson style and quality), bush music and bush bands together help to reinforce Australia's National Identity.

It is with the specific aim of saving that vital National Identity from its current path to oblivion that The Australian Cultural Centre Project is being undertaken.
Having a Noble Cause of course does not in itself guarantee success. :)

The scope of the task has occasionally seemed overwhelming. Just the massive responsibility to the nation placed on the shoulders of two ordinary people alone and with no outside help is sobering. One gets to know the meaning of "sleepless nights".

We just need that very special person to come along and say "I see where you are coming from exactly!.... let's get this done!".

That patriotic person of means who is Exceptional may be just around the corner?! That Someone who also wants to return something tangible and permanent back into their country for all it has done for them....and leave an incredible and incomparable National Legacy ... (not just blindly sign a cheque for another painting for some gallery). A person with raw courage to tackle a real Challenge.

For the sake of the unborn future generations who depend on us all right now to save our Nation's Culture... let's hope. I am currently optimistic ... as one must always be :)
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Shelley Hansen » Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:57 pm

Well done again, Gary - and yes, I love John O'Brien.

"Peter Nelson's Fiddle" is a favourite of mine amongst his poems (and not just because Nelson was my maiden name) :D

Cheers
Shelley
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:22 pm

Well .... Shelley Nelson's Fiddle has a good ring to it as well. :)

I am always interested in observing the reaction of different visitors to the small sample exhibition set out downstairs.
One lady recently became very emotional when she stopped and read the beautiful framed presentation of The Water Lily by Henry Lawson, which included the original 1937 sheet music.

She read the verses and remarked "I was so overcome with emotion I just had to walk away from it".

Then last weekend two couples from Boonaroo. One lady who was very artistic, closely inspected the clothes on the mannequins of Doreen and The Bloke and pronounced them perfect. (I am glad because they were a huge job.)
She also liked the wonderful, big, gold-framed portrait of Banjo a lot, but she said that to see the first verse of the poem A Bunch Of Roses handwritten by Banjo himself in a frame/shadowbox and then to read the entire moving poem too as beautifully presented ".. gave me goosebumps!!" How we managed to repatriate to Australia that incredible item is miraculous.

And of course the vintage Women's Weekly magazines... are always popular! And it is all only a small part of the whole exhibition.

Still it is a lot for visitors to take in .... but I know that one can never predict reactions... and you learn by observing what attracts attention. Also I think people prefer to have things at eye-level so they do not have to bend to see... and we mostly have benches for items here unfortunately.
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:15 am

AUSTRALIAN BEER

Henry Lawson famously said : Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.

I tend to regard beer as Australia's national drink.

Many boutique/craft or micro-breweries have sprung up as a result of the popularity of beer in this country.

Even if it costs quite a bit more, I am usually happy to sample the local, delicious, niche product (normally they have creative names). I recall being introduced to beer in my callow undergrad days at an Engineering Student's Society function, and have not looked back since. :)

Anyway....one bush ballad says :

"When long-standing friends all desert you,
And creditors knock at the door.
When rain trickles in through the ceiling,
And white-ants demolish the floor.
Just fill up your glass to the limit,
And seat yourself down at the bar.
You'll always find one or two dollars.
No matter how desperate things are.

There's none can admonish or torment.
Indeed things get perfectly clear.
You see them in proper perspective,
When grasping a middy of beer.
You marvel how moisture condenses,
Like dew in the morning on grass
As, forming in droplets it gathers
And runs down the side of the glass." etc etc


Who can remember Charlie Mopps - The Man Who Invented Beer. He had a famous song recognising his contribution. Or A Pub With No Beer?

Will BEER have an honoured place in The Australian Cultural Centre? Absolutely! It is both important and culturally Australian. This post is just a small preview of what we have on this remarkable subject ....

Photos :

1.This gem from the Collection is the vintage sheet music of Good Wholesome Beer, composed I think in England, but nevertheless popularised in Australia by the publisher Allen & Co. and performed by The Stargazers.

"Hikers walk miles for it
Farmers climb stiles for it
Everyone smiles for it
GOOD WHOLESOME BEER" etc

2. A page from the magnificent book "The Australian Beer Companion" (originally $50) by Willie Simpson; devoted to the story of Australian Beer and its disciples.

3. A tin of a short-lived but popular brew called "Blacksmith Bitter" (440ml... a proper size!). It took some ringing around to get the very last carton of it very many years ago. This one is now in my collection and I suspect is the only full tin of it left in existence. Seems a shame to open it!

Cheers!!! Gary
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Wed Oct 13, 2021 8:02 pm

Australian Autograph Books

One bloke I knew, used to run around garage sales and op-shops chasing Dean Martin material! Another one had a thing about collecting Christmas decorations.. and so on.

We all became pleasantly familiar to each other, even if only through passing nods and winks in our rush. I was just as eccentric and dedicated .. except I think that my interest was more broadly based.

There are collectors of old Australian autograph books.

As a child, a big influence in developing my interest in proper rhyming poetry was my mother's childhood autograph book .
Other than signatures of schoolmates, there were many delightful verses from Mum's childhood friends. A marvellous and simple wonderland of poetry that while not actually composed by the children, were nevertheless loved and inscribed by them.

I will post a few pages here because I am certain that fellow ABPA members would appreciate it.

1. The first photo is a verse inscribed by my late mother (Hilda Cook) at the book's start. Very, very sad actually.

God saw that she was weary,
The hill too steep to climb.
So He gently closed her tired eyes,
And whispered "Peace be thine"

Hilda Cook, Ararat, 16 years old. 1943

2. "Love God, Honour the Queen
Shoot strate, and keep clean"


Rudolf Simpson 10 years, 1944

3. "Never trouble trouble
Until trouble troubles you.
For you only double trouble
And trouble others too."

Dorothy Cook 19th Feb 1939

And of course that most wonderful and important family inscription to her....

"My pen is broke, my ink is pale,
But my love for you will never fail"
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Shelley Hansen » Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:04 pm

What a lovely heirloom, Gary!

I had two autograph books as a kid - one for my friends, and another for my teachers to sign and add words of wisdom.

The quality of the friends' entries is extremely mixed, as you'd expect. Some entries are rubbish, but here are two of my favourite pieces of "wisdom":

Mary had a little cat
She fed it on tin cans.
When the kittens came along
They arrived in Ford sedans.

AND

A peanut sat on a railway track,
His heart was in a flutter.
Round the bend came an express train -
Toot! Toot! Peanut butter!


Edifying stuff indeed :D

Teachers, on the other hand, seemed to feel duty bound to inscribe something of benefit to the intellect or to motivate the better side of the human personality. Like you, my early love of classic verse and quotes was greatly enhanced by some of these literary gems. In some cases these were my first introductions to their famous authors. Here are some examples ...

Do all the good you can to all the people you can
by all the means you can in all the places you can
at all the times you can as long as ever you can.

- John Wesley

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long.

- Charles Kingsley

She who loses wealth loses much,
She who loses a friend loses more,
But she who loses courage loses all.

- Miguel de Cervantes

Laugh and the world laughs with you,
weep and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth
but has trouble enough of its own.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us
that it ill behoves any of us to talk about the rest of us.

- James Truslow Adams

I was angry with my friend. I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe. I told it not, my wrath did grow.

- William Blake

In this wide and universal theatre, there are more woeful pageants than the scene wherein we play.
- William Shakespeare (As You Like It)

Music when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Life is mostly froth and bubble
Two things stand like stone -
Kindness in another's trouble
Courage in your own.

- Adam Lindsay Gordon

And probably my favourite of all, penned into my book by my beloved music teacher, and which I have quoted many times and incorporated its substance into poems of my own ...

This is the luxury of music. It stirs all the hidden springs of sorrow and of joy.
I love it for what it makes me forget - and remember.

- Belle Brittain

Thanks for the trip down memory lane with your post. It made me dig out my autograph books and decide to digitise them, as, dating from the 1960s, they are now becoming rather fragile after many readings.

Cheers
Shelley
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:14 am

I have previously touched on the subject of Nine Miles From Gundagai. Now, and just for FUN!, here is another aspect of Gundagai.

The Road to Gundagai

1. As eveyone would know, Banjo Paterson wrote a poem entitled The Road To Gundagai. This photo is a screen-grab of a video of Leonard Teale reciting it.

"The mountain road goes up and down
From Gundagai to Tumut Town.
And, branching off, there runs a track
Across the foothills grim and black,
Across the plains and ranges grey
To Sydney city far away.
"

All the LP's of Len reciting Banjo's poems are from a standard set. I am fortunate to possess a very rare (video) recording of him performing some other lovely Paterson poems as well. I am delighted to have it because it was a bit frustrating hearing the same ballads.

Pictured is Len (at his home I think?) performing poems you will not find on his LP's or CD's.. such as The Ghost Of The Murderer's Hut, The Melting of The Snow, The Amateur Rider ... etc.

I am a big admirer of Leonard Teale and there is a sizeable section in our proposed Australian Cultural Centre featuring him.

2. The sheet music of Along the Road to Gundagai. (Jack O'Hagan)

My own copy is in near perfect condition. Tatty ones (that you really do not want to own) can sell for $50 while the top copies can sell for several times that.

"There's a track leading back to an old fashioned shack,
Along the Road to Gundagai." etc

3. The vintage 78rpm record of the song On The Road To Gundagai. As previously mentioned it is the theme of Dad and Dave. My copy of this 78 record is in very good condition.


At The Australian Cultural Centre, for the first time we present Banjo Paterson and all the great Bush Poets (around forty in all) to the public magnificently. If there were writers of the high standard of these old bush poets around today, they would be included. The youth of today and tomorrow can admire and maybe even emulate their literary talents and entertaining writing. Why hide it all away from ordinary people in the dungeons of Government Libraries in the name of so-called "preservation"? Ridiculous.

I believe that we all stand on the shoulders of those Australians who came before us. They give us our sense of identity today. A country that loses its National Identity has lost its way and becomes weak and vulnerable.

The Australian Cultural Centre
(we are never a "Museum") represents Australia's one and only chance to rescue its National Identity from its current path to oblivion. To love and save Australia... and to stay Australian!! Otherwise it will certainly all be gone forever...with not a hand raised in objection. Overwritten and absolutely Destroyed.

No second chance. This project MUST succeed.

So..... even as only two people, we are rolling up our sleeves and going for success! :)
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Thu Nov 04, 2021 11:57 am

Our regular article in Beacon Magazine this time features a funny story about Henry Lawson and his good mate Jack Moses.

https://thebeacon.com.au/magazine-publications/

Edition 24, page 36 - 37

Jack was featured recently in another Beacon item (and a post here too) that discussed "Nine Miles From Gundagai".

As said in our current article, this brief story/clipping fell out of an old book and so it really cannot be attributed.
However I do suspect that the article might have been in The Lawsonian of years ago but then that may not be the case. Perhaps it came from Bohemia (Bread and Cheese Club)?

This anecdote has been uniquely reproduced by us and beautifully presented for Visitors ...on a large, rigid display board and is in the extensive Henry Lawson section of The (proposed) Australian Cultural Centre. Like Banjo Paterson's section, Henry's area is large and colourful.

We pride ourselves in doing things that are entertaining and not found anywhere else.
It is all very special and very Australian.

As can be seen, we added a twist at the end of the story...

"One is left to wonder what may have become of the chicken. Did it grace the festive table or did it escape its fate that Christmas Eve and survive to tell the tale?"
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:43 am

In a previous post I showed the stunning 1 : 10 scale Queenslander house that we possess. It was made in 1935 by a Maryborough (Qld) builder and will form an important part of the Australian Architectural Culture story.

A piece of 1926 sheet music (shown here) illustrates an early Australian Settlers Cottage. It is entitled "The Humpy I Have Built For You". (Alf. J. Lawrance)

Chorus :

"You'll never be dumpy in the humpy I have built,
When the morning dew is falling
And the Kookaburra's calling.
You'll never be grumpy if you listen to the lilt
Of the swagman's song as he tramps along
The bush track to the "Billabong".
The dingo, by jingo, and the noisy cockatoo,
With the magpie and the 'possum,
And the fragrant wattle blossom
Will all keep us company with mister kangaroo,
When you share this cosy humpy
I have built for you."


These are song lyrics and thus not properly metered ballad poetry of course.

The intention is to couple this scarce 1926 sheet music with a 1 : 10 high-quality scale model of the Cottage/Humpy shown in the cover illustration.
It will then form part of our section dealing with Australian Architectural Culture.

Just how this proposed model Settlers Cottage will be done and by whom remains to be seen. Maybe a model-builder from somewhere? The Men's Shed? Ah well... we shall see... but done it certainly will be. :)

Gary

** Chatting casually to an older bloke I met in McDonalds at breakfast. When I described the Australian Cultural Centre Project he was enthusiastic, and after a while ran out a list of suggested potential (high-profile) Partners (most of whom I had already approached getting everything from no reply at all, to being declined). What really impressed me was when I departed, he shook my hand and said seriously "Whatever you do mate, don't give up."

Meeting fine Australians like that is rare and when it happens is a delight. Very inspiring. He had tried to contribute something Real in the short time we spoke. I left McDonalds "stepping out much lighter, while the morning sun seemed brighter".
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