ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

just $15.00 plus postage

LET ME KNOW WHAT DO YOU THINK AS ONE OF THE PIECES ARE IN THE AUDIO SECTION FOR YOU TO HEAR

BILL THE OLD BATTLER

Cover looks great Bill. Now I'm off to the audio link.
Wazza

It is great that you have recorded your experiences Bill !! Am enjoying your book so much !

I know that not all of us can go droving, or chase a mob of wild bush horses... or stare-down buffalo!! ...but drawing from the experiences of others, those important times and values can be poetically immortalised for future generations I reckon. By Bush Poets. Agree!?

So gratitude for your work is owed somewhere.... and I firmly believe will definitely be so by those yet to be born ... (and yes those in nappies too )

I reckon (ABPA) Bush Poetry Reciters do a brilliant job in helping to keep Australian traditions alive.

I was a founding and foundation member of the Shearer's Tally Bush Band in Melbourne (it is still going today) and I remember reciting the popular bush poems at all the functions.... coffee shops, the (famous) Green Man, bush dances, concerts, pubs. I knew so many poems then that I could actually call for requests! not today though.
Pubs?

The Wiggles started out as the Cockroaches Band playing the pub scene. (I have their LP)

I recall that years afterwards The Wiggles were asked to compare the pub audience with the kid-audience. They said the kid-audience appeared to have an intellectual edge.... there is probably an element of truth in that.... in some cases, not all though

The inebriated guy boldly coming up, breathing Fosters fumes and slurring "Can youse play Waltzing Matilda....?" (we could!)

Imagine getting to the final lines of Said Hanrahan (John O'Brien) and you are drowned out by :
"... Table 5 , your meal is now ready..." I hated that.

At least it was never "pick up pizza number five". over the last sensitive fading chord, which I have actually seen happen.
... all incredibly good fun though... Unreal, and a golden time.

I learned so much around the campfires of the Monash University Bushwalking Club too.
Isn't the world of Bush Poetry fascinating !!! I could tell lots of stories... but sometimes unless you are there at the time... well, you know what I mean.

.. anyway, thanks Bill. Yeah, this post will probably not be seen by too many, just as well maybe... but those Bush Band days were great.... Maranoa Drovers etc. Hooray!

I still feel it needs some roadkill beside the track, Bill. What about a camel?

Neil

He'd make you eat it Neil! All of it!

Hey Bill, did you ever come across an old mate of mine in your droving days, his name is Teddy Carter, he did a lot of droving around the topend, in your old stomping grounds?

The one's that come to mind Ross are Denny Bell, John O'kane, Ron Bitten, Lofty Rosenthorpe, and Wild dog Reg Anderson
there were others Ross but the old grey matter she's not what it used to be.

bill williams

Well Neil in the throat of a Bull camel is a wind sack. Is that what you use to get bigger
but the rest of him is not bad tucker. Bugger the road kill or can't you shoot straight fresh is always better



bill the old battler

I don't mind a nice piece of fresh camel. Wife and I used to cook Camel Stew for the tourists at Birdsville. Not many around this neck of the woods to shoot though.

Neil

Thoroughly enjoyed it Bill Thank you...you did good and endorse Gary's sentiments as well