Following Koala Lou's lead I did a "quick canter" through the piece and made some annotations which might interest people. It took a couple of evenings to complete but was an interesting contemplation.

I have accumulated a total of 56 annotations in all. The piece makes reference to at least 14 folk songs/tunes I can recognize as well as numerous books, plays or operettas and films and at least six identifiable personalities, some of whom have international recognition. Many of the annotations deal with aspects of the folk scene's context that might be of interest to researchers.

Its authorship remains unclear but whoever it is/was (one of the "knock-kneed" girls exacting some retribution, perhaps?) they certainly don't have much regard for the way Danny Spooner conducted himself. They also appear to have an extensive knowledge/repertoire of traditional British folk song (and thus Danny Spooner's performance repertoire) and certainly must have/had a fairly intimate knowledge of the Melbourne folkmusic scene at least as far back as the early 1970s.

For those who are interested in the references I include them as endnotes below. Sorry about the size but I don't have a site for a blue clicky.

The Bollard of Cap'n Schooner(1)
"A ryme of old salte" and ode to a livin' legend; jest arsk 'im.

Come all ye folksong mummers, all ye scraping ballad hummers
And lend your fond attention (if you can);
Here's a saga for the pupils of that Houdini of scruples,
That Methuselah of muses, Great-Ur-Dan.

In '65 (or was it '66?), "Two lads off a whaler" out for kicks
Found Melbourne Town in shanty singing mood.
They heard Moonbeam's(2)soft bellow along a Marty Winding-Road(3)
And joined right in as all good folkies should.

Wee Gordie(4)was a Scot who liked to play a lot
Onna wee Martine acoustical guitar;
The other one, named Daniel, ("Desperate Dan the Spaniel")
Was borne that night upon a wondrous star.

Frankly Traynor's(5)was the Mecca for this folkish trendy setter;
Fishy jerseys, gummy boots rolled to the knee (knee knee),
Singin' salty songs of sail, often mentioning the whale(6)
And "a hoyes me buoys" and a-blowin' out to sea (see see?)

Dandy diddled-oh and bent the alt ego(7); the pleasantry were all there oh,
In sunny Oz where wattle blossom blooms.
Our lad let out his trousers, playing knightly to packed houses,
Shurrup folk clubs and all kinds of baah(8)rooms.

When 'e were only three e' first run away away ter sea;
Saw the ocean's briny deeply…………Salty! Cold!
'E was'is capting's pride (and joy), 'e was the "'andsome gabbin' boy"(9)
And they'd go Jim Hawking, jolly sailors bold.

'Twere no vessel faster than their stately twenny marster,(10)
With freedom of the Thames (and Heartly Pool)(11),
And so the little bugger became first mate of a lugger
Before he even thought of going to school.(12)

Oh tempestuous River Thames!(13) Where the matelot lands ends
And the tarry ring-tailed(14)Rodgers roll ashore!
The boys they all went cockneyed and the girls became all knock-kneed
When they heard the tales of our great commodore.

How he sailed from old Nantucket in a jumbly-sieved gut bucket
Out by Greenland's fairy islands and beyond;(15)
And remember? How with one grab he sequestered Cap'n Ahab
And caught the great white whale way underground?(16)

A queer Queeg(17)for 'ard sailin', 'e was a terror at the whalin'
All Berts(18)and You'uns better "Stand aside!"
In iceberg or in monsoon 'e would ply 'is hardy harpoon
On his Stormy(19)sudden notions wild and wide.

Up the great St Lawrence seaway, Dan Rosbif (20)gave no leeway
When the staunchly Admiral, Brave Benbow(21)and he
Scaled Abraham(22)and Alma(23)(Monty Zuma?(24)Monty Karma?);(25)
The bravest Wolfe to sail the seventies.

In his lunchbreak he was legend. You just could not imagine
How 'e played right out, won Spurs for Arse 'n' all
And centre half wit' Chelsea (or was it left harfwit wit' Swansea?),
An' 'ow the 'Ammers could've 'ad 'im inner goal.(26)

In the square ring he was mighty, an Olympian for Blighty!
Once 'e knocked down seven wit' one blow(27)(me bully boys, blow!).
He clearly was no chump at the noble art of thump;
See the meddle ribbons glistening, all in a row?

'e went big-hewin' doon the mine (jest by way of overtime)
And 'eld the great Mc'Coalls within 'is 'and.
And when he singly sung the fishin',(28)some L'arners(29)they was wishin'
They could be just like this oarsome fishyman.

And while we was just survivin' O O Dan was M.I.5n'(30)
And bored the white man's burden far away.
Fifth columnist or commie were no match for 'super pommie';
That's why the Hempire's wiv us still today!

Now, this blustery, blistery bloke could, in one bluff blinding stroke,
Becalm the fulsomely informed, on every subject.
Though sometimes the shpiel he shpoke weren't quite the same as wrote,
It all sounded as real as a brick object.

"I was there wiv Nelson!"(31)he would mutter, and sententiously utter
All the misremembered record sleeves of yore
And the cringing adulation of the lost sheep of Folk Station
Only made him think the poor fools wanted more!

Jacker Ryan(32)(and Dan), jammin', fiddled mightily with Tamlin,(33)
On the roof(34)and 'round the mulberry tree,
While the populace, enraptured, never realized 'twas captured.
Truth's an exponential riddle game. (You see?)

And the Fenian, (Vile Colonial!)(35), with sceptic insult only
Will disturb the poise of Noble Deacon Dan,
So be banished, lonely seeker!(36) To the old stockade, Eureka,(37)Where truly blue(38), the Bush Band Boom(39)began.

Some "other singers", it must be told, were unbecoming, bold;
It's hinted that they too were valued, subtly.
But their questions hypothetical were condemned as quite heretical;
They were excommunicastaway, quite utterly!(40)

"They don' luv fo' music!" he would say "And don' know the way.
They 'ave transgressed the great unwritten law!
For Lord Dan, He are the greatest(41), an' they are jus' the latest
In a rough riff-raff of folksingers impure!"

Who dares to come and say it could be any other way
Than Goshpell from the Bishoprick of Dan?
"Only innit fer a quid!" Did Dan say that? Yes he did!(42)
"A bit mean" I thought, from such a wholly man.

Once, an ethnomusicologist (neither fawning nor apologist),
Tried to ascertain; was there a grain of truth?
His questions, calmly posed, showed the Emperor with no clothes!
'Smithsonious Felonious' forsooth!(43)

For the 'Ruler of the Queen's Navee'(44) never rooly went to sea
("'cept Soufend, goin' on a summer 'oliday")(45)
And 'the old crew' (mostly scattered) can be seen (some bruised and battered)
In the Tattered Remnant Folk Club, not OK!

So, as the lofty ship of state (are you still awake?),
Wears its tacky way through fairly stormy weather,
The poor bewildered crew are left blubbering in the stew,
For "Cap'n's gorn!" and POQ'ed their Endeavour.(46)

But his laurels rudely wrested where the cuckoo-bardies nested
Are backstaged to avoid all complications.
Noughtical medals and diplomas, high degrees (or vague misnomers?);
A pretty plethora of dubious qualifications!

"Yeah, but worrabout a 'K'?" Is there anyone to say
He DON'T deserve the gracious sovereign's gong?
Sir Paul, Sir Mick, Sir Elton,(47)why he'd give them all a beltin';
There's none of them could sing his mighty song.

Now a vain, though fragile, man (By Appointment(48), Prophet) Dan
'aunts the draughty 'alls of 'igher learnin' classes(49)
And from eminences folklorix the old tory waxeth prolix,
Casting erudition's pearlers 'fore the masses.

And interminably we suffer from excess of this old buffer,
The endless bo'sun of 'is deeds the mast before;
Yaw yaw yawning day and night! Oh, how piteous our plight,
Slowly dying from hex caliber, small bore!

But, all hail the hoary folker! Be ye topman, be ye stoker,
Be ye joker in the quarterdeck of fate,(50)
With the delicacy of Flashman(51)he now lectures to the trashcan;
A fishy 'roamer lingering in his wake………….Wake up!

What a testament to man! (Note resemblance to P. Pan(52)
Or Wandering Matthew, Master Marineer)
Ah, the cruel sea(53) still rages while our Dandy hardly ages
But spreads the Bounty blithely(54), year by year.

So while we poor mortals stray, in our strangely folked-up way,
The "Living Bible" leads us mile by mile,
Down the path so broadly winding that the elf-queen showed with warning(55)
Still he leads us on and on, smile by smile.

His career has been so glorious, self-aggrandisment so stentorious
He surely shouldn't stop; not yet awhile?
But the thing that I find oddest, is now he's so 'credibly modest
In a fine, upstanding, grand, old-fashioned style.(56)

ENDNOTES
1 This could be translated as Ballad of Danny Spooner, with reference both to his East London accent as well has the alleged self aggrandisement.
2 Brian Moonie, who had then an almost exclusively Irish repertoire sung with a heavy brogue.
3 Martin Wyndham Read, who has since moved back to Britain and performs there and in the US as "the expert on Australian folksong." In this he follows the example of AA Lloyd, who visited Australia in (I think) the 1930s, worked for a while in the bush and became familiar with some bush songs, and then returned to England where he published and performed as the expert on Australian folk music.
4 (The late) Gordon MacIntyre, who then accompanied his songs on a Martin guitar; his rendition of Blackwaterside rivals that of Annie Briggs.
5 Frank Traynor's establishment was both a jazz club and folk club and provided the start for many careers
6 A wench, a whale and a pint of good ale, featuring the above singers, was the title of a record later released.
7 Perhaps the first of many references to the allegation that Danny Spooner's background was not quite what he claimed; see Annotation #12.
8 AA (Bert) Lloyd's style of singing has been much copied.
9 The handsome cabin boy is one of many songs celebrating women's attempts to enter male domains by cross dressing.
10 A reference to The Irish Rover, a lovely fantasy/parody of forebitters.
11 Possibly a reference to the song (whose name I can't recall) celebrating an event during the Napoleonic Wars where a monkey was washed up onto the beach at Hartlepool after a storm at sea. The townspeople, believing it to be a French spy, put it on trial and subsequently hanged it
12 If Danny Spooner had been content to present himself as a leading performer of songs on the folk revival his reputation would match his performances, which were generally excellent. Like many before and since he liked his introductions of items to be informative; in an attempt to be seen as more authoritative than a mere performer in the folk revival Danny tended to describe himself as an active participant in almost all the activities referred to in his material.
13 It is now believed that the full extent of Danny Spooner's maritime experience is, at best, limited to a quite short stint as a crewman on barges along the Thames Estuary.
14 "Ring-tailed sailors" is a phrase from Whip jamboree, a shanty popular among Melbourne singers at the time.
15 Perhaps a concatenation of references to various ballads in the Childe collection; The Greenland whale fishery and many ballads involving fairies appear in this collection.
16 Refers to Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
17 The captain of the USS Caine in the film The Caine mutiny.
18 See Annotation #8; another reference to Lloyd.
19 Several popular shanties refer to Stormy or Stormalong.
20 Rosbif is a tune recently popular in sessions around Australia.
21 A forebitter by this name and in the Captain Kidd format celebrates this popular admiral.
22 A British action on the St Lawrence estuary during the Indian-French War is celebrated by the song Brave Wolfe.
23 The heights of Alma celebrates a British action in the Crimean War.
24 The halls of Montezuma are mentioned in a much loved American parody of the Song of the British Grenadiers.
25 Perhaps a reference to the waves of alternative (cults?) religions which swept through the Melbourne folk scene at the time. The Hare Krishnas, Divine Light (often referred to as the Divine Blight) and the Bagwan Maharishi (often referred to as the Guru Murrumbidgee) all gained adherents from among folkies there.
26 Hotspurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Hammersmith refer to English football (called "soccer" by others) teams.
27 Reference to the children's tale of the same name.
28 Ewan MacColl's Radio Ballads, on various topics and produced for the BBC, provided a rich source for Danny Spooner's repertoire; he often introduced such songs implying that he had been a competitive footballer and boxer and had worked both down mines and on fishing boats.
29 Probably a reference to Chris Larner, a school teacher and fine singer, with whom Danny Spooner was associated during the 1970s. It is quite possible one of her ancestors was one of Ewan MacColl's informants when he was collecting along England's east coast and preparing his Singing the fishing.
30 Clearly a reference to "007", the hero of Ian Fleming's novels; M.I.5 is the name by which part of the British Intelligence Service is popularly known.
31 Another popular British admiral.
32 The song Jack O'Ryan tells a story of a master fiddler being usurped by his apprentice.
33 The various versions of this song are thought to celebrate Tamburlane.
34 Reference to the musical (both stage and film versions were popular at the time) Fiddler on the roof.
35 This may be a reference to a particular person (many Irish in Australia seemed unimpressed by Danny Spooner's claims to fame) but is likely to be a general reference to the increased interest (around Australia's folk scene of the mid-1970s) in instrumental music. Sessions and dances started concentrating on developing the Australian tune repertoire, which had been largely Anglo-Celtic (Scottish as well as Irish); the 'new' concentration was mostly on Irish material. This diverted much attention away from Danny Spooner's repertoire; while his guitar accompaniment was adequate his concertina playing was of the "three chord wonder" variety.
36 Possibly a reference to The Seekers, a well-known Australian group of singers of great harmonies.
37 December 2004 saw the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade, the most effective armed uprising in colonial Australia. One of the leaders was Peter Lalor (also Irish), who later became Speaker in the Victorian Parliament. As part of the anniversary Keith McKenry has recently published a paper on the songs associated with the Eureka uprising and its aftermath.
38 True Blue, by John Williams is currently a popular song celebrating "Australian values."
39 "Bush Bands" is the descriptor applied to bands which concentrated on the Australian repertoire for their songs and Anglo-Celtic tunes for traditional social dances of the colonial era. Often held in woolsheds (and thus away from urban centres), these events were (and often still are) called "bush dances".
40 Almost certainly a reference to a stoush between Danny Spooner and Peter Parkhill, witnessed by dozens of people at the 1973 National Folk Festival, held at Melbourne University. The Port Philip Folk Festival Committee (who ran that "National") were mostly members of Canterbury Fair (an a capella group which included Danny Spooner) and they asked him to run a workshop on traditional British songs about revenants. Danny Spooner asked another well-respected singer in the Melbourne folk scene, Peter Parkhill, for some specialist advice on an aspect of revenants (ghosts and similar visitations), which Peter gave him. At the workshop it became clear to many in the audience (which included Peter) that Danny was making some errors in his presentation. During question time Peter asked a diplomatically constructed question designed to help Danny give the correct information. Danny's response was, "What the (expletive deleted) would you know about it, Parkhill?" The audience was taken aback by this and Danny lost the respect of many in that audience as a result. To my knowledge Danny Spooner has never published any substantive articles about traditional or folk music whereas Peter Parkhill has published his ethnomusicological researches extensively to serious academic acclaim. This stanza may also refer to another of Danny Spooner's habits which I observed on several occasions. He was very encouraging to people he saw as 'junior' or subordinate in some way, especially if they wanted to develop a capella harmony singing. As soon as they were recognized as good (and independent) performers of such material he could be quite dismissive and would (very obviously) 'cut' them; perhaps he saw them as potential rivals threatening his domination of that sphere of activity.
41 A reference to Muhammad Ali who, at the time, was quite famously using a similar phrase.
42 This is actually quoting Danny Spooner verbatim as I have heard him say it as well.
43 I wish I could remember the name of this person who, aware of Danny Spooner's potential as a 'first hand' informant, sought to interview him on the details of how he had come by such a treasure trove of folk material.
44 Try Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.
45 "We're all goin' on a summer holiday" is a phrase from a song popular in (I think) the 1970s whose name I can't now recall.
46 Australians would recognize the Endeavour as the name of James Cook's ship which mapped the east coast of New Holland in 1770.
47 Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Elton John were all knighted for services rendered to music (or some similar phrase); see earlier postings to this thread concerning the dating of the document.
48 American readers might not be familiar with the phrase but there was (and may still exist) a process by which a purveyor of particular (and allegedly "superior") goods to Britain's royalty could advertise such exalted status.
49 The then Dean of the Arts Faculty at Melbourne University had an interest in drinking similar to that of Danny Spooner. This connection resulted in Danny being appointed to that university's History Department as a part time Tutor. Many at the university regarded this as a victory for trivial populism and an appeal to the masses over substantive academic ability. Others regarded such an appointment as merely echoing a similar promotion of Geoffrey Blainey to the position of Professor in the same Department. Danny Spooner's role was to clarify aspects of social history by performing relevant songs during tutorials. He later used this part of his CV to gain a teaching position at one of the more expensive private secondary schools in Geelong.
50 For those unfamiliar with the niceties of social practice at sea in the 19th Century, the references to "before the mast" and "the quarterdeck" would become clear by reading Richard Dana's Two years before the mast and any of Patrick O'Brian's series on Captain Aubrey.
51 I must be getting tired, as I recognize the literary reference but can't recall its precise details.
52 Peter Pan (as described by JM Barrie) never was able to grow up and assume adult responsibility.
53 The cruel sea was written by Nicholas Monsarratt.
54 William Bligh was the commander of the Bounty when Fletcher Christian led the famous mutiny; I know of no songs celebrating any aspect of the mutiny, Bligh's subsequent navigation in an open boat to Timor (a feat perhaps equalled only by Shackleton's navigation of a similar boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia) or of the mutineers' subsequent colonization of Pitcairn Island. William Bligh later became Governor of the colony of New South Wales and was on the receiving end of a similar mutiny known as the Rum Rebellion. I can't recall any but perhaps Bob Bolton may tell us of songs celebrating that aspect of Bligh's history.
55 A reference to True Thomas, one of the Childe Ballads.
56 Previous postings have suggested these last lines allude to possible sources of the document's style.