G'day Rev,

I'm interested to hear the results of your reading. As I said well above (and just over three years back) the sailors would have been able to buy inexpensive German concertinas, which had brass reeds, so they would not have had any real rust problems.

I think the English revival of concertina interest from the 1950s / '60s on led a lot of those seeking to "raise" the image of the concertina to disown any connection with scruffy sailors. As well, they were dismissive of the German (and 'Anglo / German) system ... and totally contemptuous of German-made instruments. This misled the early folklorists involved in the rediscovery of Australian song history to take up the English System concertina - which was rare as hens' teeth in the outback - and to ignore the fact that all the good old players in the Bush played (Anglo-) German system.

Good luck with your dissertation ... Can we expect to see a link to it somewhere - or is this just a minor sidelight to matters of deeper import?

Regards,

Bob Bolton