Hi Lockkeeper,
As I remember it, there was almost a two tier sort of folk scene around Melbourne with the "hard-core" folkies centred around Traynors where they sang a lot of English, Irish and Scottish songs plus some blues or at the Bush Music Club where the music was either Australian or the English, etc. songs that had been collected here. Then out in the suburbs there were lots of little coffee lounges where you were more likely to hear "pop" folk. Also in this category were the church youth clubs that ran folk nights. These were good places for younger musicians (like myself) to practice their art but they would also often hire the top line artists and fill the bill with locals so there was a lot of cross over. If I remember rightly, the Seekers played at a coffee lounge in Toorak called the treble clef (where they met Judith Durham) and took off after that. Mind you as the marbles get shaken around with age, this could all be a load of old cobblers so correct me if you like.