G'day,
I sometimes wonder how much of our bush band culture existed in the bush in earlier times & how much is simply an invention of the latter half of the 20th century.

My mother grew up in Grenfell in the 20s & 30s. As a gold rush town & the birth place of Henry Lawson can you find a better example of an Aussie bush town? Yet she had never heard of bush dancing until I introduced her to it from Sydney in the 1990s. OK, one person from one town is a very small sample, but it would be hard to grow up in a small town & not know of any bush dances being held anywhere for miles around.

Cheers,
Alan