G'day Landlady's Daughter,Nice to see Denis's and Seamus's words. I was listening to a recording of another Sydney singer of that period, Bill Berry (now living up in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney) - now he has put some of his repertoire onto tape and a friend has popped them onto CD. Bill does quite a good version of Across the Western Suburbs.
Incidentally, the song is, of course, ultimately from Across the Western Ocean, but the intermediate step was Across the Western Plains, a song of the cattle drovers. Quite a lot of sea songs turned into droving songs in Australia ... it's a surprisingly simple transition.
I'm surprised to not see Across the Western Plains in the DT. I must check to see if I have posted it (I notice that the version available for downloading is still 1999 ...). If Across the Western Plains hasn't been posted, I will post it.
BTW: As I said, Denis is living up the mountains, but Seamus is down in Canberra these days. I may see him down at Jamberoo (Illawarra Folk Festival - Spring edition), weekend after next, and I will suss out just how far away he will be when you grace our shares.
Oh: Woolloomoolloo - but don't worry ... most Australians get it wrong, if they ever try to spell it ... I seem to remember there once being a memory-jogging song to remind people of the correct sequence of double and single letters.
Regards,
Bob Bolton
Note: The "across the Western Plains" version is here (click) in the Digital Tradition, but Bob's version below is much more substantial, and has been submitted as an addition or replacement.
-Joe Offer, June, 2003-