G'day John Mehlberg,

Thanks for your scholarly researched ... at least I know that I don't have to beat around my old friends, in Corryong, from 36 years back, to trace the parody posted by John in Brisbane, back on 09 Dec 04 - 08:04 PM. I see there is a fair degree of difference ... either from a diffent source ... or poorly remembered. As I told John in Brisbane, there were old-established 'Germanic' settlers ... from at least as far back as the mid 1850s goldrushes ... in the Upper Murray Valley area - so I felt it unlikely that it related to the influx of German-speaking workers on the Snowy Mts Hydro schemes.

I would guess the poem on the card (which was from an hotel-motel in a small country town, at the foot of the Snowy Mts, in the Australian state of Victoria) was just a standard text left set by the local (well ... probably 120-odd kilometres away, or ~75 miles, back then, in Wodonga) printer ... to drop in whatever business name was paying for a "saucy" Christmas card/promotional card. We were only just getting used to motels, at that time, and they had definite overtones of illicit liaisons!

Regards,

Bob