Cirrus@Austlit

'How does one write a tribute to Ron Edwards? Taken separately, his work as a collector of folksong, of yarns, of bush craft, as a journal editor, as a folklore indexer and bibliographer, as a writer, publisher and illustrator each place him in the front rank of workers in Australian folklore. Taken together, they elevate him to a rank of his own. His output in a career than (sic) spanned over 50 years beggars belief. To describe him as a giant in the field of Australian folklore is to do him an injustice.' (p. 1)

'Some five years after his death on September 19th, 2003, and more than 60 years after he started his singing and recording career, it is perhaps an appropriate time to consider the life and achievements of one of the most celebrated Australians of the 20th century, David Gordon Kirkpatrick or, as he was universally known, Slim Dusty.' (p. 19)

‘In approaching my researches into the work of Keith Garvey I have developed for myself a problem of epistemology. Which came first the writer, or his topic? Is the writer the product of his topic, or is the topic a product of the writer who shaped and so created it to tease me. ‘(p. 33)

'A bush poet and proud ambassador for Glen Innes whose verses brought to life tales of droving, shearing, bushrangers and boxing tents has died at the age of 91.' (p. 44)

The following article is a short reflection on the already very full life and writing career of Edwin Wilson (b. 1942), a former science teacher and botanist, and, until recently, long time worker in Community Programs at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. The life as recorded to date is deemed peculiarly representative of 'first generation academics/teachers' and working class country children in the later twentieth century. It was particularly occasioned by the issue of the considerable second volume of his autobiography, The Melancholy Dane : A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Man (q.v.)(2006). (Author's abstract, p. 59)

'In this...study a small series of examples of spirit stories from a particular area of the Northern Territory will be considered. They are of course only a fraction of the myriad stories that exist in memory or in fragmentary transcription form.' Australian Folklore no:23, November 2008

The aims of this essay are "to give some idea of Boldrewood's deeply perceptive insights into the evolving social history associated with Australian gold mining and into the contribution of the international contingents amongs miners to nineteenth century Australian development, recording his views in novels which had a very wide readership in the English-speaking world" and to explore "various related aspects of the evolving Australian character and stock, particularly on the goldfields of the nation". Argues that Browne/Boldrewood was right "to regard gold mining and miners as very substantial building materials for the new and even then multicultural nation" (57).

‘Over the last fifty years Children’s Folklore has established itself as a serious subject for study. From the beginning, schools have been seen as rich sites for the transmission of – and thus the recording of – Children’s Folklore.’ (p. 188)

‘Since 1788, when Great Britain established a penal colony at Sydney, and the ‘first fleet’ arrived with their seven hundred and seventeen prisoners, Australians have had to grapple with the subject of their identity – British, but also clearly ‘other’. To understand their dilemma, it is important to take a look at the early history of white settlement and the attitudes that prevailed at that time, not only amongst the convicts themselves, but also amongst their oppressors.’ (p. 240)