G'day Richard,

I will get the dots down into my music program (MusicTime) tonight and do a conversion to MIDI, then to ABC for posting to MudCat.

I presume you have the necessary application to read this - it was written by Alan Foster and there is a link attached to the file to get a free copy of his MIDIText and TextMIDI apps. this seems to work for most people - although I find some glitches going back to create sheet music.

If you would prefer, I can email a B/W GIF of the published page in The Overlander Songbook or Great Australian Folksongs to you non-MudCat email address. I don't think I can post with attachments to your Personal Pages. I haven't done the song for many years but it was part of the Bush Music Club's Great Goldrush Show in the 1980s.

BTW: Where, to you, is "here"? I'm in Sydney and I take it from your query that you are not in Australia. I'm intrigued by your reference to "German hurdy dancing girls "! This song is interesting in studying Australian music, because it is one of only two 19th century folk songs that mentions the guitar.

Back then, guitars were quiet civilised instruments for young ladies to play in chamber music - west of the Great Divide, they disintegrated in the harsh, dry weather ... and collapsed under the strain of tight tunings and hard play to be heard in over a rowdy, frontier society. Both songs have the guitar played by a female, and both talk of the guitar concerned as being "cracked".

If you are pursuing songs of the Australian Gold Rushes, I have a few specialised books on the subject, particularly those by Hugh Anderson, dealing with the Victorian Gold Fields and their attendant Music Hall performers such as Charles Thatcher. Some of these books are still available from the Bush Music Club, from a bulk purchase of Red Rooster Press books we bought when hugh retired and moved house - he just couldn't move a garage full of folk music books!

Regards,

Bob Bolton