2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)

Subject: Obit: Bill Hauritz(Woodford Folk Festival founder)
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Dec 25 - 05:35 AM

"..... founder (1952 - 2025)"

Woodford's CEO Amanda Jackes, has put an OBIT for Bill on the Festival's Facebook page BUT, I am not a member, so if someone could please copy/paste that into this thread, I'd also appreciate it.


I first met Bill and his Swedish wife, Ingrid in 1988, when my late Beloved, Paul Lawler, and I visited from Darwin to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland (Australia) after visiting Brisbane's EXPO and we stayed with them in their legendary Nambour shack, which bordered a National Park.   Bill & Ingrid were good mates with Paul as they had been (along with Paul's first wife Rayner), working and adventuring together in both Clifton, Ireland and Sweden in the 1970s.

Bill also drove us to beautiful Maleny, further into the SC Hinterland, to show us where he and a small group (mainly from the early Naamba Folk Club?) had very successfully put on their first Maleny Folk Festival in Easter of 1987.
Paul and I were then also part of a Top End musical theatre production in 1989's festival, which was also a "National FF"- and only the second National held outside of a capital city ..... the first being Alice Springs in 1980 and the next after Maleny being Kuranda in Far North Qld in 1990. Bill was instrumental in organising that successful FNQ festival too.

The Maleny Folk Festival was much loved and super-successful, which forced it to move to a bigger site (Maleny tends to be hilly, with little flat land) and, (by now held at Xmas-NewYear), 1993 was the festival's last in Maleny.

1994 saw the beginning of the stupendous Woodford Folk Festival, gradually reclaiming the land from an old dairy farm, and building what is now known, over 30 years on, as the community of Woodfordia.   BILL HAURITZ was, from those earliest of days, the Visionary and the Driver.

VALE BILL, old mate - and - Give My Love to Lawls.

R-J

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival fou
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Dec 25 - 10:17 AM

Woodford Folk Festival
9h ·

Vale Bill Hauritz AM
Visionary Founder of Woodford Folk Festival and Woodfordia

With great sadness, we announce the passing of Bill Hauritz AM, founder of the Woodford Folk Festival and Woodfordia. A cultural leader, fierce optimist and creative visionary, Bill transformed the landscape of Australian festivals and community life.
Bill’s journey began with a deep love of folk music. In his early years, it was through tunes, song and story that he found connection, and came to understand the power of culture to bring people together, spark dialogue and build community. That passion for folk music remained at the heart of everything he created.

From the Maleny Folk Festival’s humble beginnings in 1987 to the creation of the 500-acre cultural parkland Woodfordia, Bill’s belief in the arts as a unifying, transformative force never wavered. His work gave rise to one of Australia’s most beloved celebrations of music, ideas and community, the Woodford Folk Festival, drawing over 120,000 people annually to a six-day village of creativity and connection.

Under Bill’s leadership, Woodfordia became a living, breathing expression of what a better world might feel like. His vision extended far beyond event-making. It was rooted in environmental stewardship, respect for Indigenous culture, intergenerational knowledge-sharing, and the protection and celebration of intangible cultural heritage, and a deep faith in humanity.

In 2023, this vision was formally recognised on the world stage, when UNESCO presented Woodfordia with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Award at the Jeonju International Awards for Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage. This honour reflected Bill’s tireless and loving commitment to fostering living traditions through community, creativity and care. Yet it was his humility, humour and sincere belief in people that made him most loved.

Bill didn’t just think in festivals or years. He dreamed in centuries. One of his most remarkable contributions was the creation of Woodfordia’s 500-Year Plan, an audacious, living document that imagines a future shaped by care for country, community and creativity. While others planned for seasons, Bill planned for generations, planting trees whose shade he would never sit under, building cultural systems designed to last. It was both a poetic gesture and a practical blueprint, and it stands today as one of the most enduring expressions of his belief that the best way to shape the future is to start building it now.

Bill was also recognised as a Queensland Great, received the Order of Australia (AM), and was honoured as a Smithsonian Fellow, acknowledging his outstanding contribution to the cultural fabric of Australia and beyond.

https://www.facebook.com/woodfordfolkfestival/posts/vale-bill-hauritz-amvisionary-founder-of-woodford-folk-festival-and-woodfordiawi/1425618922268175/

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival fou
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Dec 25 - 10:25 AM

https://themusic.com.au/news/vale-bill-hauritz-woodford-folk-festival-founder-passes-away/VNXqRklIS0o/08-12-25


Vale Bill Hauritz AM: Woodford Folk Festival Founder Passes Away

8 December 2025 | 9:37 pm | Stephen Green

The founder of one of Australia's greatest ever festivals will be missed by thousands who make the journey to Woodfordia every New Year.

The beloved founder of the Woodford Folk Festival, Bill Hauritz AM has passed away, announced today on social media by Amanda Jackes, the event’s festival director.

While the circumstances surrounding his passing are not known, Hauritz had been suffering ill health, including a stroke during last year’s event, leading to donations being sought for the much-loved industry figure’s recovery.

Starting as the Maleny Folk Festival in 1987, the event took place at the Maleny Showgrounds until 1994 when it moved to its current home at what is now known as Woodfordia. It was Bill’s deep love for folk music that drove the event from being more than just a festival, but to become a whole movement.

Hauritz remained at the helm of the event until 2023 after battling to keep the event alive during COVID-19 where it was cancelled for two years running. He saw the event back on its feet and left the legacy of not just a festival, but of a sanctuary that is far more than just a “venue”.

Woodfordia has become a 500 acre cultural parkland and the Woodford Folk Festival draws over 120,000 people, creating a pop-up village every year celebrating art, music, culture and life to ring in the new year.

Jackes said: “Under Bill’s leadership, Woodfordia became a living, breathing expression of what a better world might feel like. His vision extended far beyond event-making. It was rooted in environmental stewardship, respect for Indigenous culture, intergenerational knowledge-sharing, and the protection and celebration of intangible cultural heritage, and a deep faith in humanity.”

Woodfordia was presented with the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Award at the Jeonju International Awards in 2023, an honour that Bill held dear. He was also recognised as a Queensland Great, received the Order of Australia (AM), and was honoured as a Smithsonian Fellow. However it was his visionary leadership that cemented his legacy. His ability to not just put on events, but to inspire people to action and give people a sense of belonging.

Jackes continued: “Bill didn’t just think in festivals or years. He dreamed in centuries. One of his most remarkable contributions was the creation of Woodfordia’s 500-Year Plan, an audacious, living document that imagines a future shaped by care for country, community and creativity. While others planned for seasons, Bill planned for generations, planting trees whose shade he would never sit under, building cultural systems designed to last. It was both a poetic gesture and a practical blueprint, and it stands today as one of the most enduring expressions of his belief that the best way to shape the future is to start building it now.”

Tributes have flowed for Bill, with Tony Burke, Minister for Home Affairs saying:

“Bob Hawke once told me I would never meet a better Australian than Bill Hauritz. That wasn’t just his conclusion. It was the conclusion of anyone who has spent a moment with Bill. He was enriched by music, passionate about the environment, and his instinct for kindness was matched by his humility. In the Woodford Folk Festival, he didn’t simply create a home for entertainment. He created an example of how people could live with less conflict and more care.”

Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup (The Angels, Gangajang) said Hauritz was a “true visionary” while Bluesfest founder Peter Noble said “What a Diamond; shining, yet just rough enough around some of the edges to be a man of the people”.

Singer Katie Noonan said “I am just so grateful I got to live in his lifetime and see his extraordinary leadership and vision come to life” while Eric Bogle said “Legend is too scant a word to describe what you achieved and the legacy you have left us.”

Bill is survived by his wife Ingrid, sons Tom and Jack, daughter-in-law Mel and grandchildren Elke and Stellan. But it is the tens of thousands of Woodfordians, those who volunteer or play at the festival, people to whom Woodford has become a place to belong and those that have had their lives shaped by the world-view that Bill’s vision of hope has presented who are also mourning today.

This year’s Woodford Folk Festival will no doubt become a tribute to Hauritz, with the community he built coming together to celebrate the legacy he leaves.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival fou
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Dec 25 - 10:33 AM

https://woodfordia.org/woodfordia/



https://woodfordia.org/woodfordia/our-organisation/#

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Dec 25 - 04:28 AM

I also have a document on Bill's "Early Years" which I am just tidying up and will post it this week : R-J

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Dec 25 - 04:37 AM

I've just posted a pic of Bill with Dale Dengate at Woodfordia in 2015, a year after Dale & Seamus Gill planted a tree for John.

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 09 Dec 25 - 10:37 AM

I was sorry to read of Bill Hauritz's death. His work in promoting folk music on an international stage has been a great success. I send my condolences to his wife and family and all those who know and love him. I have added his name to the "In Memoriam" thread. RIP Bill

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 02:32 AM

Woodford Folk Festival founder Bill Hauritz dies at 73

To many he was known as the founder of one of Australia's largest folk festivals but to his family he was a loving "poppa" who wanted to leave the world a better place than he found it.

Woodford Folk Festival's Bill Hauritz died late on Monday afternoon, December 8, after battling a long illness and weeks before the opening of this year's festival.

He held the first event nearly 40 years ago in the hinterland of Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Over that time the event, typically held between Boxing Day and New Year's Day, drew crowds of more than 120,000 people and attracted international and national guests including musicians, artists, performers, politicians, speakers and comedians.

The 73-year-old leaves behind wife Ingrid, children Tom and Jack, daughter-in-law Mel and, grandchildren Elke and Stellan.

His son, Tom Hauritz, said the family was hurting.

This morning he was sent a video of hundreds of monks, sitting in prayer at a monastery in India, specifically for his dad.

"When I see this, along with the many beautiful words and memories being shared across all kinds of media, it is genuinely touching," Tom said.

"For all the wonder and magic he brought to the world stage, the thing that sticks with me most is how much he simply adored his grandkids — my daughter and son.

"They will miss their Poppa immensely … but the healing balm is that my kids inherit a better world for his contribution to it. I can't wait until they are old enough to truly appreciate it and carve their own unique contour into their grandfather's legacy."

Amanda Jackes, the Woodford Folk festival director, said Bill's legacy would live on.

"We will do him proud this year at the festival," she said.

"I was talking with him about a week ago … I asked him which one [festival] do you think was the best of them and in typical Bill response he responded without blinking an eye and said, 'The best is yet to come.'"
'Put folk music on the world stage'

Mr Hauritz was a young musician when he first dreamt up what is now known as the Woodford Folk Festival.

"He came from a background of being a folk musician. He played almost every instrument … he was in a band called The Blowflies," Ms Jackes said.

"He felt his real calling as an organiser and that's where the vision of the Maleny Folk Festival, and Woodford started … from an idea that he wanted to put folk music on an international stage."

Mr Hauritz was 34 years old when the original festival at Maleny debuted at Easter in 1987.

It moved to the larger site at Woodford in 1994.

"He will be in every song sung, in every tune played, in in every compost trip … everything that is about the land, the stories told on it, and the community that lives here … Bill will live on," Ms Jackes said.

She said he was a dear friend, an invaluable mentor and a "pathological optimist" who showed humility and respect.

"I came along to the festival when I was 17 years of age … he created opportunities for people to grow and thrive," Ms Jackes said.

    "We've all been blessed to work alongside a true legend. We feel very honoured."

'A really tall tree has fallen in our forest'

Landscaper and ABC personality Costa Georgiadis, who regularly attended the festival, said he was saddened by the news.

"I found out last night and I texted someone and said a really tall tree has fallen in our forest and it's reverberating around the whole country," he said.

"Bill had this ongoing vision and capacity to just continuously be creative. You couldn't sit there without him jotting ideas down, bouncing thoughts … if you said something, he'd not only value add to it, he'd project it, he'd put a sort of power-bank on it, and just send it even further."

Georgiadis said moving the festival from Maleny to Woodford was a large part of sustaining the event for years to come.

"He had this vision that we need to build certainty, we need to build a place where this festival can flourish forever, and then we can grow and nurture the next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that," he said.

"That's the bit that sets the whole Woodford entity apart, because it's not just a music festival to make money, it's a festival to grow community for generations."

Various Australian personalities shared tributes for the festival founder on social media including Steven Miles, Peter Noble, Leanne Enoch, Eric Bogle, Lindsay Pollock, and Tony Burke.

The Woodford Folk Festival Facebook page also shared a tribute.

This year's festival will run from December 27, 2025, to January 1, 2026, at Woodfordia, Queensland.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/woodford-folk-festival-founder-bill-hauritz-dies-at-73/ar-AA1RZhc9

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 02:49 AM

Facebook post : Julie Witney

Vale Bill Hauritz.
Thank you for all you and Ingrid did to support folk music and the folk community!

Here is a photo from The Gympie Times in 1983 at the opening of the Gympie Folk Club. Jamie and I had met Bill and Ingrid when we attended the newly started Maryborough Folk Club.
Even then, Bill had a vision to develop a big cultural festival. By 1983, Jamie and I had started the Gympie Folk Club at The Empire Hotel in Gympie. Bill used to travel down from Maryborough with a PA system.

The Lineup for the first night was "The Rouseabout Bush Band", Bill, Jamie, Mark Nightingale, Colin Johnson and myself.   Daryl Levy and Ian Wilkes played blues [the duo morphed into The Kandangaroos Blues Band} and Tony Kishawi's One Man Band. The folk club continued for a few years with people visiting from Nambour and Maryborough. { Noel Gardiner, Mark Gillett, Annie Mc Mullen, Gabrielle and Steve Shooting Star] Graeme Hughes [deceased] was a wonderful Gympie musician.

It was a vibrant time on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. After this time, the first Maleny Festival started which outgrew the Maleny showgrounds and became Woodfordia.

Thank you, Bill, for your vision and tireless energy and dogged persistence in developing Woodford Folk Festival. You really are a legend!

https://www.facebook.com/julie.witney.5/posts/10241210374335467/

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 03:48 AM

BILL HAURITZ : Folk Rag Mag profile, Dec99-Jan2000 issue, Brisbane

Bill was born in Brisbane in the early fifties and grew up on a farm west of Dalby on the Darling Downs and in Toowoomba. He was born into a very musical family with a father who was a well trained musician and a mother who could play anything. For many years Bill was influenced by his brother and two sisters singing folk songs at all the family occasions.

The Beatles really got Bill interested in music and starting to play the guitar. It wasn't until he lived and worked in Ireland and met with Paul Lawler that his interest in traditional music began.

Some years later in the early 80's in Maryborough, he started the Maryborough Folk Club and commenced learning several instruments, playing mainly Irish dance music. He became a passionate musician quickly learning the mandolin, tenor banjo. and finally the fiddle. He met up first with the Red Ned Bush Band from the Sunshine Coast and friend Steve Cook who got Bill started on flatpicking. Later Lionel O'Keefe, Russell McKay and Helen Rowe became teachers and friends.

The folk scene was flourishing in the Wide Bay area at the time, with strong folk clubs in Gympie, Maryborough and Bundaberg. There were many visiting musicians from Brisbane and beyond who made the trip. Bill performed in local Bands Old Boots and The Snake Gully Quartet with friends Garry Williamson and Mark Nightingale.

He sees himself as an amateur musician. His personal passion is Irish and Scots fiddle music his favourite musician being Irish fiddler Martin Hayes. But it's the slow Scots airs that really stir him.

In 1985 Bill with the support of friends called a public meeting to re-constitute the Queensland Folk Fedration (QFF) which for the previous two years had ceased to exist. At the time there was a lot of vitriol in Brisbane with various factions of the folk scene. As an outsider Bill was able to bring peace to the camp and get the QFF off the ground again, first undertaking some concerts, re-establishing the newsletter and gaining a new membership, the base of which was on the Sunshine Coast where Bill and wife, Ingrid had moved from Maryborough.

Bill continued performing on the Sunshine Coast with Blowfly for five years until they disbanded in 1992.

In 1987 he was a driving force for the QFF together with the Nambour Folk Club to commence the Maleny Folk Festival. Bill was very ambitious for the event which he saw as a prime force in developing the folk movement in Queensland. The success of the festival is legendary but it was the outgrowing of the Maleny site and the move and purchase of land at Woodford which has tested the QFF and Bill. "We didn't have the money to do what we did but it was either go down that track or die - all of us at the time felt it was worth a go."

The site has cost more than $2 million in development. "While we are largely over the hump it appears now that the dream has worked." but, according to Bill, at great cost. Many people lost faith along the way. "People were romantic about buying the block in the early days but unwilling to march the longer road". For a while the QFF had more than a million dollars in debt. "In September this year it was five years since we commenced work on site at Woodford - it seems longer.The shortage of money has been critical and I¹m not sure people understood the difficulty we've had going down this path." The real beneficiaries of the QFF's work will be the next generation of folkies according to Bill. "They will have a couple of million start but a lot of respect. I hope in future when people will drop the 'just' when they refer to a group as being just a bunch of folkies. I've the view that people in the folk scene are holders of a treasure but have sometimes lacked the confidence to hold it high."

https://folkrag.org/profiles/bill-hau.html

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 04:18 AM

1995 - Bill Hauritz interviewed by Wendy Lowenstein
in the Communists and the Left in the arts and community oral history project
[sound recording]


Bill Hauritz, musician and Director, Woodford Folk Festival, speaks of his early childhood raised in a farming family; having no party affiliation but with the encouragement of the Communist Art Group based in Brisbane, he had revived the Queensland Folk Federation and developed the Maleny Folk Festival which has now become the Woodford Folk Festival; how Woodford has become a world class event, running each year from Dec. 27-31 and constituting the largest folk festival in Australia; how he supported himself with occasional part-time work as a tour manager or a band musician; how the Commonwealth Employment Service kept a picture file of him to promote his festival.
Notes:

       Recorded on July 6, 1995
       Digital master available National Library of Australia

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 04:20 AM

sorry!! I forgot the National Library LINK!!!

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/389630

Subject: RE: 2025 Obit: Bill Hauritz (Woodford Folk Festival)
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 04:33 AM

Australian folk music legend leaves lasting legacy
09/12/2025

Erle Levey

It was a time of celebration, of tall ships and protest … Australia’s Bicentenary in 1988 marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788.

It was also a time of change, as we saw with Brisbane’s World Expo 88 in which the river city moved onto the world stage.

When Expo finished it left a gaping hole in the social and cultural fabric of the community.

People had experienced something wonderful and they were keen to see what could come next.

Bill Hauritz and the Maleny Folk Club had the answer.

There are times when you realise something is going to be important and the timing means so much.

This was one of those moments.

Those first folk festivals were held at the Maleny Showgrounds and followed the spirit of Expo 88. Music, performance workshops, political discussions and food stalls.

Some of the acts who performed under starlight were Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band featuring Tim Conway, and Kevin Carmody singing From Little Things Big Things Grow – something he wrote with Paul Kelly.

It was the story of Vincent Lingiari who was part of the Aboriginal Land Rights movement when the Gurindji people walked off Wave Hill Station in the 1960s, and set up their community at Dagu Ragu.

Then there was Archie Roach with his plaintiff song, Took The Children Away.

The Maleny Folk Festival was to quickly outgrow the showgrounds and moved to its own land at Woodford.

The 200ha site, a former dairy farm, has been lovingly regenerated with more than 140,000 subtropical rainforest trees.

Woodfordia has become not just a national celebration of Australian life through folk music and cultural discussions, but something that is firmly planted on the international calendar.

Bill Hauritz was a big man with a big heart and a big smile. He passed away on Monday morning but will leave a lasting legacy as the godfather of Australian folk music.

Bill was always optimistic despite some serious setbacks through his life and throughout the history of the festival. This year will be the 38th Woodford Folk Festival and the 31st held at Woodfordia.

Bill and the team faced those challenges and overcame them with the wonderful nature he became famous for … and the persistence to make sure the dream came to life.

Woodfordia is the largest gathering of artists and musicians in Australia.

Bob Abbot, a former mayor of both the Sunshine Coast and of Noosa, has been both performer and continual supporter of the folk festival as general committee member.

He said the impact Bill Hauritz made was far beyond generational in that a 500-year plan has been put into place at Woodfordia.

“At the time the idea was ridiculed as being far-fetched. But the idea was always to begin with the end in mind.

“That legacy of what Bill has left for world folk music and Australian culture is immeasurable.

“He spoke of Australia as a country with a very broad base. The strength of the indigenous culture has been there from start but there are now cultures from around the world … and that world is immense.

“What Bill did in particular was brought the folk world together so everyone could enjoy it.

“Folk is about people, about folk. That’s what a lot didn’t understand, but he bought it out in all of us.

“People in suits in the city would turn up in their the tie-dyes and with tents. It is quite an experience.

“Woodfordia is a safe environment, a place where people look after each other.

“This year Bill will still be playing his mandolin … and watching the 500-year plan come together.”

https://noosatoday.com.au/news/09-12-2025/australian-folk-music-legend-leaves-lasting-legacy/