G'day Charlie,

I tried to look up what the Nine Miles to Gundagai in the DT looked like, but that was about when Mudcat sank to the bottom over the US weekend. Anyway, it is essentially the same. The comments about which song (Nine Miles to Gundagai or Road to Gundagai [commonly called Lazy Harry's] here) is a parody of which are off line.

The two songs mentioned are definitely different songs, each with long traceable histories of variants and modification to new circumstances.

We do drink a bit of scrumpy here ... I saw (drank) more of it in Tasmania ("The Apple Isle", as it was known before the Tourist Department came up with something more ridiculous) although I prefer better grades of cider. I have heard the song (or one on the general 'dead dog' tale) ... again down in Tasmania.

Australia has been suffering from exotic imports ever since the first lot ... eleven shiploads of Pommies (English) in 1788 - but I don't intend to go back to anscestral England ... Ireland ... Netherlands ... ?!?.

Regards,

Bob Bolton