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Complete Book of Australian Folk Lore
For such a young country, Australia has a strongly developed and unique folk lore heritage. With its origins in an amalgam of the more rebellious elements of British society, the Australian character quickly developed traits that were more than a mere sum of its antecedent parts. Ties with England, Scotland, Ireland, and America flavoured the development of much of Australia's folk the tunes of folksongs are those the early settlers brought with them, the words are very much Australia's own. The tall story (the bush lie) is perhaps the most distinctly Australian form--and is still flourishing. Rhyme and rhythm are great aids to memory. So, in a society that was at one time largely illiterate, verse was a popular form, and the poems and ballads have a drive and simple directness of language that is their particular charm. Using material written at the time, this book looks at the history that shaped Australia's traditions--the initial struggle for survival, the sufferings of the convicts, the isolation from all that was familiar, the distances tramped from one job to the next, the necessity for 'sticking together' which formed the code of mateship, the struggles of the squatters and the free selectors, the excitement of the gold rushes and the hardships of the diggers, and especially the daring exploits of the bush rangers.
- GenresAustraliaNonfiction
414 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
About the author
Bill Scott
16 books2 followersWilliam Neville "Bill" Scott was an Australian author, folklorist, songwriter, poet, and collector of bush ballads and Australian folk history.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 10, 2016
An intriguing new acquisition of mine. First published in 1976, in the aftermath of the removal of a quintessentially Australian Prime Minister and the beginning of a national debate about our culture in the lead-up to 1988's bicentennial, this book is - as noted in the dedication - an attempt to preserve folk songs and tales that would otherwise have been neglected and, perhaps, lost. In the headlong rush to the 21st century, and with a lack of interest by my generation in reading the background or history to, well, anything, there is a real sense that we see the past and its culture only as a surface reading. Only interested in how a quote can be used at the bottom of a meme, or how a book can be reworked somehow into a musical-based-on-a-movie-based-on-a-videogame-based-on-a-classic. And if Americans or Brits think they have it bad, try living in Australia where we gulp down overseas entertainments while crossing the street whenever we see an Aussie film, book, or musician coming the other way.
Bill Scott, in his introduction, seeks to defend the tradition - he argues, unique to Australia - wherein our popular folk culture of the last 200 years is combined with our literary and serious inheritances from our motherland, and protect it as we enter an uncertain, global future. A good half of the book, interestingly, is taken up with traditional songs and ballads, including basic musical transcriptions where available. It's an immensely valuable resource. Alongside a brief history of Australia since Captain Cook, Scott includes numerous "tall stories", a series of traditional tales to define life in Australia during the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, a range of poems, and various errata, ranging from explanations of dance moves to Christmas advertisements of the mid-20th century. It's a delightful if esoteric bundle.
This is not perhaps a collection you'll return to with great regularity but as a younger Australian increasingly discovering my own history, I'm pleased to have it on my shelf.
It's worth noting that this is a history of what we might call "colonial Australia". In his introduction, Scott clearly indicates his sorrow for the tragic way white people gained this country, however this is not a book about Indigenous folk lore nor, for that matter, about the European or Asian or African migrant experiences. This is a book about the folklore of the English and Irish settlers and the culture they created. There's nothing wrong with that - my father's people have been here for 200 years, so this is very much my culture and these are very much my stories. But it's worth noting that anything else lies outside this book's purview.
Bill Scott, in his introduction, seeks to defend the tradition - he argues, unique to Australia - wherein our popular folk culture of the last 200 years is combined with our literary and serious inheritances from our motherland, and protect it as we enter an uncertain, global future. A good half of the book, interestingly, is taken up with traditional songs and ballads, including basic musical transcriptions where available. It's an immensely valuable resource. Alongside a brief history of Australia since Captain Cook, Scott includes numerous "tall stories", a series of traditional tales to define life in Australia during the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, a range of poems, and various errata, ranging from explanations of dance moves to Christmas advertisements of the mid-20th century. It's a delightful if esoteric bundle.
This is not perhaps a collection you'll return to with great regularity but as a younger Australian increasingly discovering my own history, I'm pleased to have it on my shelf.
It's worth noting that this is a history of what we might call "colonial Australia". In his introduction, Scott clearly indicates his sorrow for the tragic way white people gained this country, however this is not a book about Indigenous folk lore nor, for that matter, about the European or Asian or African migrant experiences. This is a book about the folklore of the English and Irish settlers and the culture they created. There's nothing wrong with that - my father's people have been here for 200 years, so this is very much my culture and these are very much my stories. But it's worth noting that anything else lies outside this book's purview.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review