The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #154724   Message #3632523
Posted By: GUEST,Fred McCormick
12-Jun-14 - 12:53 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Aussie versions of Child ballads?
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Aussie versions of Child ballads?
Brian. That's an interesting point, the one about dates of settlement, and it probably plays a part somewhere. Certainly, I agree about the Appalachian repertoire being something of a snapshot of the C18 Northern English/Scots repertoire.

So perhaps we shouldn't expect too much from Australia in this respect. However, when one considers the numbers of Scots and, even more so, Irish convicts who were settled in Australia, surely some of them must have carried ballads with them. Did The Rich Shipowner's Daughter never make it to the Antipodes, or The Outlandish Knight,or The Seven Yellow Gypsies, or the Holland Handkerchief?

To be honest, this is something which has never crossed my mind before, and I throw in the suggestion about the lack of a broadside trade as one possible factor; as clearly is the comparative lateness of Australian settlement.