Click on pictures for full-screen image
(all photos © Sandra Nixon)
Pine sighted by Captain Cook in 1774 who saw Norfolk Island pines as masts for Naval ships.
Quality Row & Kingston from above
10 BMC members & 4 folkie friends of BMC were among the 30+
people on Don & Sue Brian's recent 7-day Norfolk Island Folk History tour. Don & Sue spent 5 years on the Island & researched
the convict, whaling & Bounty history. Don's
fellow Roaring Forties members Chris Maltby &
Margaret Walters joined him in presenting the songs he located. A
great time was had by all.
Don & Sue have since discovered more fascinating information, and will have even more by late August 2017 when they present their second tour. Preliminary details are on the Norfolk Island Travel Centre site for those who are interested in joining them.
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Why the tall Norfolk Pines were no use for ship's masts -
the branches grew out of/into the trunk. But the wood has many other uses. (Sandra Nixon photo)
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Unearthing Norfolk Island's untold stories
Earliest existing gravestone, 1794
Thomas Wright, Australia's oldest convict - sentenced to Botany Bay in 1799 aged 60 & to Norfolk Island in 1839 aged 102!
American whalers spent a lot of time on the Island & in the area.
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Tales from the artifacts (museums)
Sirius anchor
Convict built settee, 1830s
Whalebone arch 1975
Whalebones inside museum, 2016
Whalebone milking stool
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Convicts of the Second Settlement - The New Gaol, a pentagonal prison
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Norfolk Island on the Middle Ground. The Middle Ground was the whaling grounds in the Pacific - between the Arctic & Antarctic grounds.
Sydney, Norfolk Island, later renamed Kingston
Whaling station
Heave away to the south, me lads
Where sperm whales do dwell
Distribution of whale kills by American ships, 19th century
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Pitcairn Settlers Village tour including a talk by builders of replica of local NI whale boat 'Rhonda' & a plaiting class by Sue!
Blacksmith's shop
Modern replica whaleboat Rhonda and tools from the whaling days
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Musical tales of the land & sea
back - Sue Brian, Gavin Holmes, Chris Maltby, Don Brian, Sharyn
Mattern, Louise Murray, Prue Cancian.
front - Moir Holmes, Sandra Nixon, Chris Woodland, Margaret
Walters, Dale Dengate.
(photos - Sandra Nixon)
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Christina's interest in bush music was
awakened when she met Rob Willis at a folk festival who said to
her I have a recording you might be interested in and she has
never looked back. You can expect an evening of Australian music
and poems, collected, found or imagined. There will be songs from
the fringes, working songs, migrants' songs, the odd sea shanty as
sung by her lovely assistant young Tomas, and all this will be
tastefully interrupted by some spoken work comedy of the bearded
kind provided by PP Cranney with whom Christina collaborated on the musical play Lola’s Keg Night and more recently 1917:STRIKE! a show developed as a
tribute to the late Brian Dunnet.
1917:STRIKE! will be
premiered in full at the Illawarra Folk Festival and performed by
Christina, Pat, Catherine Golden and Chloe and Jason Roweth.
Christina has been a community choir leader for close
to 20 years and is a composer, sound artist and performer. As a
community choir leader she has worked with grass-roots choirs all
over the state and has organised special place-specific weekends
(Sing Cockatoo, Sing Canowindra, Sing Dubbo, Forbes Festival)
which combine community harmony singing and exploring place and
culture through song.
She performs as a soloist and has sung
with various vocal ensembles including Blindman’s Holiday. She
recently completed a soundscape project with seniors’ groups for
Hurstville and Rockdale Councils and has produced numerous of her
own and other people’s recordings including John Warner’s Yarri
song-cycle. Her debut solo cd is Rumours of Summer (2011)
In
2009 she was granted the annual Folk Fellowship from the National
Library of Australia to unearth songs from the Oral History
archives and arrange them for a massed choir.
In 2014 she
produced and was musical director for a full-length play
Lola's Keg Night with
music, (Merrigong Theatre) created in
conjunction with playwright PP Cranney.
In 2015 she created Amulet, a project for Hurstville Council combining singing,
storytelling and photography
Bush Music Club
Tritton Hall, Hut 44
Addison Road Centre
142 Addison Rd, Marrickville
Map of Addison Road Centre http://www.arcco.org.au/contact/
Door opens 7.30 for 8pm start. Session 10.00-11.30pm
BYO songs
Cost - $10
Bring something to drink & a plate for supper
Enquiries - Sandra 9358 4886
Duke's place, named after our honoured early member Harold 'Duke'
Tritton (1886-1965), is the place to go once a month for a great
night of Australian songs in concert and session. Duke was a
powerful singer who supplied BMC with many songs he had learnt in
his younger days while working as a shearer and at other bush jobs.
He was also a songwriter and poet giving us songs that have entered
the tradition such as Sandy Hollow Line and Shearing in the Bar.
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I needed a photo of our "band" for a festival application, so I took my camera along & started snapping -
Mrs Mopps
Rick Hull
Cliff Grant, retired opera singer with Rick Hull
Cliff singing opera to Rick's banjo
Pete Cahill
John Burch (ex-Reedy River Bushmen), who recently returned to BMC after an absence of several decades talking to fellow Reedy River Bushman Ralph Pride.
Sharyn & Rick pondering on the ramp
John Poleson's piano accordion case, repository of some very interesting posters & set lists - c.1990!
Moira Cowie & her flute
An excellent picture, but they wanted a square one!
back - Mark Poleson, John Burch, Terry Pybus, Rick Hull, Pete Cahill, Sharyn Mattern, Eric Eisler, Kerry Doherty, Dave Moir, Ralph Pride.
front - John Poleson, Ann Maher with 50+ year old family lagerphone, Karen Fong, Gail Copley, Moira Cowie, Mariamma Mitchell, Frank Maher.
another good one ...
... this one lacked the gravity of an official portrait!
The picture sent with our application.
back - Terry Pybus, Rick Hull, Pete Cahill, Sharyn Mattern, Eric Eisler, Kerry Doherty, Dave Moir, Ralph Pride.
front - Ann Maher with 50+ year old family lagerphone, Karen Fong, Gail Copley, Moira Cowie, Mariamma Mitchell, Frank Maher.
(photos Sandra Nixon)
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Distribution of whale kills by American ships, 19th century
back - Sue Brian, Gavin Holmes, Chris Maltby, Don Brian, Sharyn
Mattern, Louise Murray, Prue Cancian.
