G'day Stewie,

Warren Fahey, in his current incarnation as some sort of consulting guru with Festival Records, Sydney, is planning a comprehensive CD set covering the Folk Revival years in Australia (presumably 1960s - 70s). The last estimate I had from him was ~22 CDs and he was still researching.

All this is apparently apart from the first band of the Australia "Folk Revival" - The Bushwhackers of 1953 - 57 ... not to be confused with the 1970s - present (even if they are up to their 50th band member!) Bushwackers an important Folk/Rock fusion group.

The Bushwhackers pioneered the performance of Australian material and even made a few small dents on the hit parades of the mid-1950s and their half-dozen (or so) 78rpm records are soon to be released by the National Library of Australia. There will also be a CD of material from the field collecting (1950s and 1980s/90s) of John Meredith, a founder of The Bushwhackers and one of Australia's most important folklorists. This CD will be a joint National Library/Bush Music Club project - if I can keep it moving.

Anyway, the Harry Robertson material i promised to look up:

The book Whaling Songs of Harry Robertson was published by Albert Publications (J. Albert & Sons Ltd, 139 King Street., Sydney, NSW, Australia) in 1972 to accompany his record Whale Chasing Men - Music for Pleasure #MFP 8272 Stereo. The items printed are:
The Modern Whaling Fleet (a spoken prologue)
Casting Off (recitation)
Whale Chasing Men
The Antarctic Fleet
Processing the whale (description)
Blubber Laddie
Whaling Wife
Wee Pot Stove
Norfolk Whalers (about 19th century shore-based whalers on Norfolk Island – and their wives)
Ballina Whalers (1950s coastal whalers)
Queensland Whalers (1950s coastal whalers)
Murrimbidgee Whalers (yeah, well the Murrimbidgee a fresh-water river …)
Time for a Laugh and a Song

Unfortunately, I can't find a consolidated publication of his other songs. Some may be in Tradition, the magazine of the Victorian Folk Music Club, 1960s/70s … of which I have a bound set … but it is getting a bit late … indeed the witching hour approaches apace! (At least, when I was chasing this up - after Backblocks musicians went home from their session in my living room.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton