For what it's worth - I was Melbourne's first licenced busker. In the late 1970s I walked into the council offices and asked if they had permits. They didn't so they gave me a typed letter stating that I was allowed to busk in the streets of Melbourne. A year or so later they started giving us all proper cards to pin on our clothes. I dressed as a sort of poor-but-honest flower seller and went out and sang in the very middle of Melbourne's main street. Scary - but once I'd put myself there there was no turning back. I had some wonderful experiences, over about 5 years, and was given several nicknames - "The Angel of Bourke Street", "The Bourke Street Thrush" (not so sure about that one since I'm a nurse). I usually made more money, as a busker - around 10 dollars an hour, on my day off from nursing. It was the fun of it that really attracted me though. The idea that people could stop and listen or ignore me. I feature in lots of tourist photos, I'm sure, posing with people I'll never meet again. Funny, touching and sad things happened. I'll write about it all one day. Joy