This is am interesting topic for me having been part of the "bush band' scene in the 70's. There were two important things missing from all the bands of my acquaintance in the very early 70's, which are taken for granted today.

The first was the relative absence of vocal harmonies, plus tunes and songs were largely treated as discrete items. By that I mean that that songs were sung with little or any musical bridges to tunes. The tunes themselves were mostly played to support dancing.

I remember receiving some stick when I first joined a full time band that specialised in harmony singing and Irish / Scots tunes. "Harmonies were not part of Australian bush tradition - in unison and with gusto" was quoted from some noted source.

My memory is that the Dubliners were probably a significant influence in providing musical bridges between songs and trad tunes and in Melbourne it was the Bushwackers (and Bullockies Booze Band) that first made this common practice.

While I readily admit to loving trad music, I've always preferred to be an entertainer first and a musician second. Whatever a bush band ever was it is certainly a different beast today. Having written this I must check out the Bushwackers at Woodford in three weeks time.

Regards, John