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The sea has always held a romantic place in the heart of travellers but no more so than in the days of sail when mighty clipper ships ploughed the oceans of the world. Hear salty tales of early sailors, cruel sea captains, cross-dressing female sailors, and the times and troubles of ‘Jack Tar’ at sea and ashore, including the songs and shanties he sang. Illustrated by songs, rare maritime photographs and drawings.

A snapshot of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancient and modern history looking at migration, language, craft, art, music, dance, and social and political change. Warren Fahey has spent many years visiting indigenous communities and has released some of their most important sound recordings. Talk includes rare archive photographs and recordings.

The recording industry from tin foil to digital.

The fascinating story of how recorded sound developed from wax cylinders, wire recording devices, wind-up gramophones, shellac 78s, LP records, cassettes, and digital transfers in the 21st century. This is also a cultural history of the international recording, music publishing and entertainment industries spanning three centuries.

“The mysterious world of record companies”

The 21st century poses many technological, marketing and piracy challenges for the music industry  – and artists are crying poor despite increasing income. Where is the industry headed, and how do artists get their rightful share of the 17 billion dollar pie? Did video really kill the radio star?

Discover how alcohol was discovered, nurtured and became popular. This fascinating history looks at the highs and lows of drinking, how most early sailors were pickled by grog; how ancient Romans turned water into wine; how ’Merry England’ became merrier; how the Roaring Twenties were fuelled; and why Prohibition was thirsty work.

Explore the curious history of Australian and New Zealand food, drink and bush life in colonial days, including the correct way to make billy tea, how damper fed an army of hungry bush workers, why the iconic campfire was considered ‘neutral territory’, and why most sheep station cooks were feared and loathed.

The curious history of Sydney’s three earliest burial grounds – The Old Burial Grounds *George Street), Devonshire Street ‘Sandhill’s cemetery, and ‘Rookwood Necropolis. This talk examines the good, bad and ugly of notable people buried in Sydney’s cemeteries, the changing attitude to death, and the customs associated with early burials. Educational and entertaining and based on the 2022 book of the same name.

We all commence ageing from the moment we’re born, and when we reach a ‘certain age’ (and get that valued Senior’s Card!) it is vital that we keep those twinkles in our wrinkles.
Warren Fahey refuses to grow old gracefully and prefers to celebrate getting ‘riper’ through songs, poetry and humour.
As a long-standing Senior’s Week Ambassador, Warren believes that ageing is a question of mind over matter – if you don’t mind, it won’t matter! He sings songs and ditties about yesterday’s Australia – from both the bush and the city – and firmly presses nostalgia buttons, pointing out, ‘You don’t stop laughing when you grow old; you grow old when you stop laughing’.

The Australian city of Melbourne is a testament to the success of the 1850s gold rush, which contributed so much to the Colony of Victoria’s growth and power. Once considered ‘one of the world’s grandest cities’ it saw extraordinary architectural development and social change. Today it is seen as one of the world’s most liveable cities. We scratch at its history and culture and why it received the nickname of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’.

Guaranteed to push nostalgia buttons, this talk explores the magical world of children’s creativity as expressed in playground games, rhymes, stories and other traditions. Warren Fahey will share some of the gems he has collected over the years. Guaranteed to push nostalgia buttons. Based on his latest book, ‘A Hop, A Skip & A Jump’

Recognised as a ‘national treasure’ in his homeland Australia, Warren Fahey has been collecting, writing about and performing Australian folklore for nigh on 50 years. In the late 1960s early seventies, he travelled Australia with a tape recorder to record the stories and songs of people born in the previous century. He delights in sharing these stories and songs that tell so much about the unique Australian identity.

Warren Fahey was ‘born and bred’ in Sydney and provides his audience with an insider’s view of his home city including history, cultural change, dining style, slanguage and, of course, the best places to discover the vibrant city’s tourist and off-the-beaten-track secret attractions.

Australia’s unofficial national anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, was inspired by the itinerant swagmen of the late 19th century. Warren Fahey explores the mystique of the bush, how ordinary people lived and worked in the outback, and how the famous song came to represent the Australian identity at the time when most Australians had left the bush for life in the cities.

Australia and New Zealand share many common bonds, including a strong sense of humour, much of which reflects their unique pioneering histories as British colonies. They have fought together as ANZACs; shared itinerant workers, especially during the nineteenth-century gold and shearing booms; joked about their cultural differences and fought over who created the first pavlova. Discover what makes the Aussies and Kiwis laugh.

The Australian and New Zealand soldiers were renowned for tenacity and in WW1, fighting alongside each other in the Great War, they became the ‘Anzacs’. Their survival in the horrors of the frontline trenches is a riveting story of bravery and sometimes foolish bravado. Songs, stories and humour maintained their moral.