G'day Compton,

I have not seen any new records for several years - but they do have a website at: Bushwackers, so you can chase up their history and current doings.

(I note that they mention a new CD Ned ... presumably concerning my great-great-great-uncle Ned Kelly - but this record is not in their site's (2½ years out-of-date) list.

Don't take too much of the information on the site as gospel ... I recognised quite a few errors in a quick scan - and the 'Wackers' were never noted for letting the truth stand in the way of a good story (and they used to thrive on the publicity of looking innocent when anyone pointed out their errors!).

Their (full) name: "Bushwackers and Bullockies Bush Band" was sort of filched from the title of a 1960s/70s LP record with Martyn Whyndham-Read, Phyl Vinnicombe and Peter Dickie - called Bushwackers, Bullockies and Booze. The "Moreton Bay Bushwhackers" they mention on the website where actually a Queensland spin-off band from the original Sydney group just called "The Bushwhackers Band". In the late 1950s, all of what we would now call "Bush Bands" tended to be called "Bushwhacker Bands" because the Sydney group created the first definition of such a band.

(BTW: I was intrigued to note that the current incarnation of the rock-based "Bushwackers" has a graphic of the group ... in front of a lot of Sydney 'icons' - the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Australia Square, &c ... rather than views of their 'native' Melbourne. Well, as a Sydneysider myself, I think that's natural ... but ... ?)

Regards,

Bob Bolton