From the Archives - Bush Music Club Archives mentioned in Mulga Wire.

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AGM Committee reports were introduced at the 1983 AGM, but the Archives report wasn't included until 1985. 

Not all items produced by, bought by or given to BMC have survived.  Not every item donated was stamped, and as they were stored or used by different members, many were lost track of.

We occasionally come across tantalising reports of interesting items - see the report on the Robert (Bob) Michell bequest below (Mulga Wire no. 43,  June 1984), only a few marked books in our library exist from that bequest, the other items cannot be traced.  The 1995 Rod & Fran Shaw Bequest similarly lacks many items. 

Mulga Wire, no. 48, April 1985 for calendar year 1984

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There was no Archives report in the published reports of the 1986 AGM.

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Mulga Wire no. 60, April 1987, report to 1987 AGM

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Mulga Wire no. 66, April 1988, report to 1988 AGM
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Mulga Wire no. 72, April 1989,  report to 1989 AGM

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Mulga Wire, no. 78, April 1990, report to 1990 AGM
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Mulga Wire, no. 84, April 1991, report to 1991 AGM
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Mulga Wire, no. 90, April 1992, report to 1992 AGM
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Mulga Wire, no. 96, April 1993, report to 1993 AGM

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Mulga Wire, no. 102, April 1994, report to 1994 AGM
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Mulga Wire, no. 108, April 1995, report to 1995 AGM
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Later AGM reports will be added as located

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Articles about the Archives 

Mulga Wire 23, Feb 1981, p.6 - ... amassing of a great many sound recordings, photographs, publications, etc ... in addition to the normal consequences of Club activities ...
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1. Mulga Wire no. 43,  June 1984, cover  - 

caption of cover photo - Photograph of Brian Loughlin taken from a television screen , found in Alan Scott's albums

2.  .Perhaps it's the onset of our thirteenth anniversary ... over the last last year or so we have received large amounts of early club papers from ... Dale & John Dengate ... Gay and Alan Scott ...Ronda & Jamie Carlin ... There are always interesting questions raised by looking at old photographs and many were raised  ... when Alan Scott gave me a package of old shots of the Bushwhackers and the Bush Music Club Concert Party ... 

3. Alan Scott collection -Concert Party in Lithgow, on the weekend they met Sally Sloane, photo taken by John Meredith

4. Alan Scott collection   - Concert Party at the Banjo Paterson Festival, 1960  

5.  THE ROBERT MICHELL COLLECTION p.6
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6. Mulga Wire no.93, Oct 1992, p.S1.  Photographic Memories, more wanderings in the Archives. 
... Bushwhackers at Dame Mary Gilmore's 90th birthday party - 16th August 1955. - Dame Mary, Chris Kempster, Alan Scott (obscured), John Meredith ...  Concert Prty at 

7. Bushwhackers at Dame Mary Gilmore's 90th birthday party - 16th August 1955. - Dame Mary, Chris Kempster, Alan Scott (obscured), John Meredith 

8. Top - Concert Party, Mayne St Gulgong, Jan 1959, L-R - Standing - Gay Scott, Jack Barrie, Lorna Lovell, Duke, Seated Peter Francis, John Meredith, Alan Scott, Jamie Carlin. Ernie 'Son' James (1892-1974) in hat & braces.

Bottom - Page S3 - Bush Music Festival, 1975, Australiana Village, Wilberforce. Band L to R, Tony McLauglin (banjo), Jamie Carlin (concertina), John Dengate (guitar), Frank Maher (bones), and Alex Bowker (button accordion) ... This picture shows a bit of interaction going on at Wilberforce, with Tony, Jamie and Frank from the resident band (Reedy River Bushmen), plus John and Alex from the club's Concert party playing for a mixed group of BMC and passing public.  The dance is the Circassioan Circle ... John Kyvett (waistcoat) ... Jenny Fraser (daughter of Brian Loughlin ...) behind to his right. The girl  with the long dark hair, in the foreground is Bridget Bannear ...

9. ... cautionary tale ... In Folk Songs of Australia Volume 2, John Meredith has four tunes from the repertoire of Ernie 'Son' James, passed on from the collection of Bruce and Reg Kurtz of Stoney Creek, near Mudgee.... Unfortunately I never met Walter Allen, nor his nephew, 'Son' James, but by the greatest of good fortune, Bruce and Reg recorded James ... in 1974. Ernie James 1 ...  Since then John has been supplied with prints of several BMC archival photographs, including this one, and Mudgee locals have identified the man second from the left in the crowd (hands in pockets and wearing hat) as Ernie 'Son' James ...

Page S3 2 - Bush Music Festival, 1975, Australiana Village, Wilberforce. Band L to R, Tony McLauglin (banjo), Jamie Carlin (concertina), John Dengate (guitar), Frank Maher (bones), and Alex Bowker (button accordion)  ... Festivals begun in 1975 with Workshop, Sessions and Concert at Sydney Technical College followed by a Sunday outing to Australiana Village at Wilberforce where our social activities interacted with the regular Sunday performance by Reedy River Bushmen. This picture shows a bit of interaction going on at Wilberforce, with Tony, Jamie and Frank from the resident band, plus John and Alex from the club's Concert party playing for a mixed group of BMC and passing public.  The dance is the Circassioan Circle ... John Kyvett (one of the keen dancers and callers of the 1970s who got the dancing revival moving) at the right of the men in the centre ... Jenny Fraser (daughter of Brian Loughlin ...) behind to his right. The girl  with the long dark hair, in the foreground is Bridget Bannear ...

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From the Archives - An undated song leaflet advertising weekly meetings at 189 Clarence St. (Jan 1968 - Feb 1969)

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BMC met at 189 Clarence St between Jan 1968 and March 1969 

1. The Old Bullock Dray

2.  Drover's Dream 

3.  Flash Jack from Gundagai

4.  Jog along till shearing.   
If you have enjoyed singing songs tonight with the Bush Music Club, you mihght like to attend their weekly meetings which are held Tuesday night at 7.-45 p.m.. Third Floor, 189 Clarence Street, Sydney, for information Telephone 630-5107 

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Life Members - information on our 25 Life Members - part 2 - Herb Gimbert, Alan Scott, Gay Scott, Brian Loughlin, Pam Loughlin

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Foundation Member John Meredith, unveils new Life Members' Board before launching his new book Duke of the Outback at the Bush Music Festival Oct 1983
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Herb Gimbert (1888-1973)

Mulga Wire, 26, August 1981, p. 6-7

Folkloric recording: Herb Gimbert plays tin whistle, mouth organ and Jeff Young recites and sings, at a house party /​ recorded by Alan Scott

Herb on accordion 1959 (BMC Archives)
Irish musicians recording, Herb Gimbert plays mouth organ, Bill Tovey interviewed by Chris Woodland and Colin Webb in the Chris Woodland folklore collection [sound recording] Herb Gimbert plays tin whistle, mouth organ and Jeff Young recites and sings, at a house party in Surry Hills, N.S.W. in 1955. extract - Herb Gimbert playing two tin whistles at once: Valley of the Moon; Sweet Kat
Margaret Stapleton, Keith Stapleton, Mrs Smeed, Herb Gimbert, Joy Durst, Mrs Parker and Mrs Sprike perform for the John Meredith folklore field recordings, 1953-1961 [sound recording]

Memories of Herb from Noel Ricketts member of Concert Party in the 60s - Herb was knocked by a car & walked home where he made a shanghai & potted passing cars!  (conversation 20th May, 2020)

Information about Herb from Dengate papers (BMC Archives)
Herb Gimbert, Jeff Young, John Meredith, Mrs Sprike and Mrs Parker perform in the Alan Scott folklore collection [sound recording]

Herb on whistle 1959 (BMC Archives)
Under the Coolibah tree, 1956 New Theatre Herb was in the cast of New Theatre's 1956 production of Under the Coolibah tree An Australian musical by Dick Diamond. The play is based on Australian traditional folk and contemporary music, and the history of the paddle steamers of the Murray and Darling waterways.

(Concert group, Singabout, 5(2), 1964)
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Alan Scott (1930 - 1995) - a member of the Bushwhackers and foundation member, made a Life Member at 1965 AGM.

Photograph by John Meredith published in Real Folk (BMC Archives)

Gay & Alan Scott (Scott family archives)
Bill Scot's talk about his parents - NFF 2012
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Gay Scott (1930 - 2013) - Foundation member (Newsletter, May 1969, page.1), made a Life Member at 1965 AGM.

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Brian Loughlin (1925-1975) - a member of the Bushwhackers and foundation member, made a Life Member at 1965 AGM.



Shearers band, c.1958 (BMC Archives)

Brian Loughlin washing up after lunch at Camp Eureka, 1950s. (Photo © Ron Nixon, Pam's nephew, used with permission)

Brian recording information about Aboriginal carvings for an article he & John Meredith wrote for Walkabout, in the early 50s. (Photo © Ron Nixon, used with permission)

Brian & Pam's daughter Jenny at 2017 National Folk Festival - Ann Maher, Jenny Loughlin, Chris Woodland, Sandra Nixon, Frank Maher   (photo Virginia Woodland)
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Pam Loughlin - foundation member, made a Life Member at 1965 AGM.

P019 - Jan Jones's 21st birthday, Merro, Jan, Pam & Brian Loughlin, Alan Scott, Gay Terry

Heathcote Dance Group and Bushwhackers. Back Row - unknown man, John Meredith, Jack Barrie, Brian Loughlin, Harry Kay?, Pam is in front of John Meredith (photo supplied by Jenny Loughlin) 

Pam in the 50s (Ron Nixon collection)

Vale Pam Loughlin,  Mulga Wire no.6, April 1978, p.7

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From the Archives - Mulga Wire no. 78, April 1990 - CLUB "LIBRARY" : Selected publications available for loan to members, 1990.

1. Brought to book. This issue lets me deal with some of the literary side of the Club's activities. We let you know what lurks in the Club's library and I slip in a plug for a good book I came across recently. CLUB "LIBRARY" : Selected publications available for loan to members.  
A bang tail muster by WF Frost (not in NLA collection) ... these poems convey some of the humour and traditions that fed the Bush Music and Bush Songs we enjoy today.  (2020 Accession number  )

Breeches & Bustles. An illustrated history of clothes worn in Australia 1788-1914.  (2020 Accession number  SCA 178)
Colonial Ballads by Hugh Anderson.  (2020 Accession number  AND 019 + Rev. ed AND 026 ) 

2.  The Colonial Minstrel by High Anderson.   (2020 Accession number AND 021) 
Favourite Australian Bush Songs by Lionel Long & Graham Jenkins.  (2020 Accession number  LON 136) 
Folklife Our Living Tradition by Hugh Anderson, Gwenda Davey, Keith McKenry.    (not in Library)
I can song by Don Henderson.    (2020 Accession number  HEN 407) 
The Possum Stirs. Conference proceedings 2nd National Folklore Conference, 1986.   (2020 Accession number  HOL 485) 
Report 21st Australian National Folk Festival, Alice springs, 1987.  (not in ABS Library or National Library) 
True patriots all by Geoffrey Ingleton.   (2020 Accession number  ING 371) 

The wearing of the Green, by Bill Wannan.  (2020 Accession number  WAN 291) 
Who Wrote the Ballads? by John Manifold.  (2020 Accession number MAN 382) 

3. Magazines -
Singabout Journal of Australian Folksong, 1956-1967. 
Australian Tradition - Victorian Folk Music Club/Victorian Folk Music Club, 1964 to date

Mulga Wire (including Singabout), 1977 to date 
Cornstalk Gazette 1985 - to date (now electronic), formerly NSW Folk Federation Newsletter 1970-85