About Warren Fahey
About
The Australian Folklore Unit is the moniker I use for various folklore projects, including collecting and research programs.
I like to say I graduated in folklore studies at the School of Hard Knocks and then obtained a Master’s Degree at the Dingo University of the Outback. In truth, I did most of my study in ‘the field’ and especially in the seventies when I did a lot of travelling, including a full-year collecting up and down the east coast of Australia. Of course, at that time, there was no course in folklore in Australia, so I read as many relevant books about collecting and folklore as I could find.
When collecting, I followed a fairly standard procedure. I would arrive in town, set up my Australian Folklore Unit VW Kombi (pictured above with button accordion player, Dave Matthias of Forbes, NSW) and then visit the local newspaper and ABC radio station. I did interviews with both describing what I was after and where to contact me (usually the local caravan park). Fortunately, I was not completely unknown because of my regular ABC folk broadcasts.
I developed my own recording style; however, in retrospect, it was fairly basic compared to today. I would make contact and ask if I could visit, and then, after explaining my mission, I would ask if I could make some recordings. I had a Nagra reel-to-reel tape recorder on loan from the Music Dept of the ABC in Sydney. It was heavy but good quality.
Many of my informants were elderly and would automatically grab the microphone. This was the natural thing to do – it was large, cumbersome, and, unfortunately, an easy target to grab. This resulted in the occasional clunking noise competing with the living room cuckoo clock, bell chimes, barking dogs, and passing trucks. All in a day’s work for the oral historian and folklorist. Nowadays, microphones are extremely small, and recording machines are compact. Most of the tapes were recorded reel to reel, which is now almost antiquated and restricts their use. Thankfully, various institutions have transferred these to digital. Many of my early tapes are at 7.5rpm and some at 3.5rpm.
I have never stopped collecting or writing about folklore. I am now collecting by videotaping on my Apple iPad – brilliant!
Mrs Susan Colley (holding great grandchild) had a large repertoire of songs and concertina tunes. Recorded by Warren Fahey 1973, Bathurst.
My early tapes are housed in the Music Dept of the National Library of Australia and some in the Macquarie University Library. There were also several tapes in the Larrikin master tape file held at Festival Records and then transferred to the National Film & Sound Archive, Canberra. Most of my field recordings are housed in the National Library of Australia; several have been digitised for public access.
One particularly interesting project under the Australian Folklore Unit banner was a two-year program (2004-2006) to collect the folklore associated with my home city of Sydney. The City of Sydney Council, Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, Latent Image in association with the State Library of New South Wales and the Oral History and Folklore Division of the National Library of Australia all assisted me in various ways in undertaking this project. The ‘fruits’ are scattered throughout this site, and the twelve-program ‘Sydney Stories’ video series was created in 2021. Other projects followed, including a major video installation for the 2010 Biennale of Sydney and, in 2014, a series of films on the history of Rookwood Cemetery.
In 2022/23, I created twelve ‘Outback Stories’ videos – these are scattered throughout this site.
Larrikin Lad – Documentary
A 56-minute documentary about Warren Fahey’s work in collecting folklore, performing, producing records, retailing music through his Folkways Music store, and writing and championing Australian stories. Contains early film footage. Produced by Rebel Penfold Russell’s Latent Image Films and directed by Pat Fiske. The documentary was screened on SBS, the Arts Channel and a three-month stint on Qantas inflight.
Explore My History
Concert & Event Producer
Family History
Photography Gallery
Radio & Television
Recorder Producer
