From the Archives - Deaths of early members & friends as recorded in Mulga Wire and other sources

Founder member Tom Durst, 21/2/1983 - Mulga Wire no. 36, April 1983. Obituary by Alan Scott - Tom was inside a dog suit pretending to be the Dog on the Tuckerbox when I first met him in 1954, playing the fiddle and reciting his lines in a thick Viennese accent in the Bushwhacker's HOW MANY MILES TO GUNDAGAI sketch ...

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Tasmanian member Clarence Strochnetter, 23rd August, 1991 aged 52 - Mulga Wire no. 88, Dec 1991. Obituary by Jamie Carlin.  We first came to know Clarrie in 1960 when he began contributing items to Singabout magazine ... When John Meredith and I visited Tasmania a couple of years ago we stayed with Clarrie & Barbara ... (perhaps this visit in 1987 when Tony Rees took this photo)  ...

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Rex Whalan, 1936-1991- Mulga Wire no. 89, Feb 1992. Obituary by Jamie Carlin  ... Rex and I both showed our faces at the very new Bush music club in 1954 ... and with Bill Berry making up a third ... roared around in Rex's infamous string of old bomb cars ... he collaborated with John Meredith in the writing of 'Frank the Poet', the standard work on convict  poet Frank MacNamara ...

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Rod Shaw 17/9/1915-Dec 1992  Mulga Wire, no. 95, Feb 1993 - Obituary by Jamie Carlin  ... the funeral service was attended by  large cross-section of literary, theatrical, artistic and political figures ...  Rod in his printing and publishing business was a  much sought after illustrator ... Singabout ...   Rod was a great artist ... a man of social conscience ...   

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Nancy Keesing - Mulga Wire no. 95, Dec 1993 ... we hope to publish a tribute to Nancy in our next issue. Bob Bolton.   Unfortunately this tribute was not published.

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Leonard Teale (1922-1994)  - Mulga Wire, no.104, August, 1994, p.11

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Janet Wakefield   (- 19th September, 1995) Mulga Wire, no.111, October 1995.

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Don Francois   see photo P024, Sydney Morning Herald,  Sat 20th March 2021 (supplied by Barbara Gibbons)