Musical Instruments
Some background on the various musical instruments, including homemade instruments, used to create the music of the bush band.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN THE AUSTRALIAN TRADITION
Some 25 plus years ago I prepared a booklet, Australian Folksong Guide, for the CBC Bank – a name now disappeared from use – as a giveaway at their New South Wales branches and at their stand at the Royal Easter Show, Sydney. It proved extremely popular and is now reproduced for all those itching to build a bush band. You know who you are! The booklet also included some songs to sing with the band and plenty of historic photographs. – Warren Fahey
AUSTRALIAN FOLKSONG GUIDE: HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN BUSH BAND



The Songs They Played

The Lagerphone

Bush Bass

Mouth organ and gumnut castanet

Bandicoot flute

The spoons

Concertina
The concertina has a fascinating and confusing world history. It comes in all shapes, sizes, sounds and styles. It is part of the squeezebox, bandoleon, conzertina, melodeon, accordion, and associated button-box family. The harmonica is also a close member of the family. The concertina is by far the daddy of them all in regard to versatility and complexity. Most people identify it as the small instrument ‘played by sailors’ or, in Australia’s case, shearers. In truth it was created to play far more highbrow music and is sympathetic in musical versatility to the violin. In the 19th century it would have sat firmly on the pianofortes or sideboards of the upper class.
It is an extremely sweet sounding instrument and used to play a variety of music from classical to traditional dance. This article is predominately about the concertina and melodeon in Australia and predominately about their role in traditional music making.
In the 1950s The Ram’s Skull Press, Victoria, published a small folio titled ‘The Banjo, the Violin & the Bones’ where John Manifold discussed the popular instruments of the bush. It should have more appropriately been called ‘The Violin, the Concertina & the Melodeon’ for these three instruments, along with the harmonica (or mouth organ), were the most commonly played musical instruments in the Australian tradition.
The concertina was invented in England, around 1830, by Sir Charles Wheatstone, who also pioneered the Telegraph and the appropriately named, Wheatstone Bridge. . The instrument was initially a scientific curiosity until, in 1836, it was marketed as a serious musical instrument, leading to its patent in 1844. By the 1850s the firm of Wheatstone & Co. was manufacturing tenor, bass and baritone versions in two different systems known as the Anglo German and the English. They were hand-made and assembled and, in most models, used the finest timbers, bone and available metals.
The first concertina had 48 keys and offered a full chromatic range which made it popular for ‘parlour’ music and especially light classics and novelty pieces such as ‘The Flight of the Bumble Bee’ and ‘Greensleeves’.
The English 48 button concertina | ![]() |
As the instrument gained more acceptance, other firms such as Lachenal and Jeffries were established (usually by ex-Wheatstone employees) and the cost of concertinas lowered. With a more affordable price the instrument moved out of the drawing room and into the world of popular music.
![]() | The Lachenal logo |
Several new styles were introduced including bass, tenor and baritone instruments. New keyboard systems were also introduced on the theory of ‘building a better mousetrap’. Classical music was written especially for the instrument and, especially in England and America, concertina bands were formed.
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Concertina bands
The most successful new style came with the Anglo German concertina, which offered a different note on the push and pull and therefore a completely different sound and playing style. It was also less complicated to manufacture and repair, and was therefore cheaper. It was also easier to learn and play. It’s main limitation as that it was restricted in the keys it offered. The most popular was the C/G concertina.
Both the English and Anglo German concertina were extremely popular in 19th century Australia as they were light, relatively affordable, portable and were ideal for dance music and song accompaniment.
British companies like Lachenal and Wheatstone commenced exporting to Australia very early on in their history supplying an eager market, especially on the gold fields, from the 1850s onwards. There are reports from both the Gulgong and Ophir mining camps of people playing concertina music on the streets and in the hotels.
By the 1870s the instrument was well and truly part of our local musical line-up. Australia was built on a mainly male, itinerant workforce. The concertina suited the traveler and it also suited the environment of the bush. It could be played solo or alongside other instruments, it was relatively hardy and remained in tune, and its music echoed the emerging traditional music that was predominantly influenced by English, Scottish and Irish music.
It sounded right for the rough and tumble nature of what has become known as Australian bush music. It had the sound of the campfire and seemed comfortable as an accompaniment to campfire conversation and a billy of tea.
Music was extremely important to the bushman and the settler as it provided a gentleness often missing in outback life. The young women of the homestead were expected to play keyboard but the concertina was more likely to find itself being played by a man more used to shearing sheep, droving cattle or bending barbed wire. Seeing and hearing such men play sweet tunes and songs must have been a dramatic departure and a civilizing tonic for all.
The melodeon or button accordion travelled a similar road. The Melodeon was developed from the harmonica and other free reed instruments early in the 19th century. The Melodeon fingering system is still basically the same today, very similar to a Harmonica on the right hand, with a different note on the push & pull of the bellows, and bass notes and chords on the left hand.
The instrument has a naturally rhythmic sound, and came to Australia around the same time as the concertina.
The melodeon was mainly used for playing dance music tunes and was available in one-row and two-row instruments. The basic melodeon has one row of 10 treble keys, and 4 bass keys. The instrument was fairly loud and, with its distinctive pumping action, ideal for dance music.
There is very little documented evidence of traditional players actually singing to the accompaniment of either the melodeon or the concertina. This is primarily because the Australian tradition tends to be an unaccompanied tradition.
In the 20th Century, reflecting the massive changes in popular entertainment, the instrument fell out of favour, and one by one, the manufacturers closed or went out of business. Wheatstone’s (by this time owned by the music publisher, Boosey & Hawkes) closed in 1968.
For many people their first encounter with a concertina came through films that featured concertina music or, occasionally, a player. If any one film influenced how we perceive the instrument it would have been John Houston’s ‘Moby Dick’ (1957) featuring the legendary British player Alf Edwards playing on an English concertina – it immediately became associated with sailors and the sea. Here’s a short list gleaned from www.mediarare.com
The Gay Divorcee / /1933
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, RKO Pictures. The alternative male love interest (played by Erik Rhodes) “plays” an Anglo concertina (and sings for real) at length in the grand production number “The Continental”. The sound of an accordion is heard briefly, as Mr Rhodes starts, then fades out under the orchestra. The film is very Art Deco/stylish — the concertina, for example, is an almost pure white, with big buttons
Oliver / Carol Reed / 1968
Peter Honri played the MacCann Duet and a miniature Anglo German.
Camille / /
Greta Garbo/Robert Taylor/Lionel Barrymore. There is a brief scene with a country peasant on a wagon playing an anglo concertina, about midway through the movie.
Back to Oklahoma / / 1936
Tex Ritter is in a jam and wires Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys for help. They arrive by stage with Tex driving and the Playboys sitting on top of the stage, playing and singing. Arkansas Slim, Tex’s sidekick, gallops behind the stage on his mule, playing an anglo concertina. Later, Slim, on concertina, and the Playboys accompany Tex’s singing by the campfire. It’s then time for Tex and Slim to ride into town and outfox the villians. Slim hands his concertina to Bob Wills and says, “Here Bob, hold my wrinkle-box.”
Night to Remember / Roy Ward Baker / 1958
B/W. One scene showed the steerage passengers dancing to a concertina. It was a nice 56 key metal ended Aeola and the person holding it was actually playing it.
The Magic Box / John Boulting / 1951
features a Concertina and stars Glynis Johns, Richard Attenborough, Sir John Gielgud. Herbert Greene played the concertina in the Crystal Palace Fairground sequence (“Knees up Mother Brown”).It was based on the life of Movie Inventor, William Friese-Green.
Mary Poppins / Disney Production / 1964
Bert “plays” an anglo concertina (heard as an accordion) as part of his one-man-band in the opening.
The Milagro Beanfield War / Robert Redford / 1988
Features, prominently, a little old man (who is actually an angel), dancing around the town (he is invisible except to one of Milagro’s old-timers) playing his beat-up Anglo concertina. He is faking it.
Nightmare before Christmas / Tim Burton
A cute little stuffed Christmas Bear seated under a Christmas tree plays a (if you can call it one) Concertina in one of the scenes of this film. The Concertina is toy bear sized and basically only a bellows with two hexagonal ends.
Locally, writers and songwriters have also reinforced the concertina and its association with the bush. Henry Lawson mentions the concertina and there are ‘bush songs’ like ‘The Man With The Concertina’ that toast the instrument.
The first concertina I ever heard live was played by Mike Ball, an Englishman who was instrumental in the Australian folk revival in the 1960s. later I heard Carol Wilkinson play her English and then Colin Dryden (I bought his English concertina in 1970) and Mike Eves. Mike Ball’s playing is heard accompanying Declan Affley on the recording ‘Rake and Rambling Man’. Also in the 1960s I heard several recordings of the legendary British singers A.L.Lloyd and Ewan MacColl who were accompanied by Alf Edwards and Peggy Seeger, respectively and respectfully. I have always loved the sound of the instrument as an accompaniment to song.
I play a 48 key concertina that is the same as the first instrument to be made by Wheatstone & Co. Mine, a Lachenal, is around 120 years old and still going strong.
It is hard to explain the enjoyment I receive from playing this instrument. It is ideal to accompany songs and for those who tend to get baffled by learning an instrument allow me to say that I had quite a battle to get my fingers and head around playing. I taught myself music by carefully picking out the notes until eventually I managed to knock out some tunes. It was only recently that I stopped reading the dots and started to play by ear. It worked and I can now play most songs and tunes I hear in my head. It’s a wonderful thing!
The surprising thing about the history of the concertina is that it appears to be extremely popular in the 21st century. It had a revival in the 1960s through the 1950s and 60s international revival of interest in folk music and has steadily increased its popularity. This is a tribute to Wheatstone and his fellow inventors and to the players who have championed the instrument. Countless recordings have been issued over the past fifty years, concertina virtuoso players have emerged, repairers and restorers kept busy and a quick look at the Internet will reveal chat-rooms, blogs, sites and all manner of things ‘concertina’. Ebay has a whole section devoted to the buying and selling of the instrument. Australia has two master craftsmen manufacturing excellent Anglo German concertinas.
THE CONCERTINA DOCTOR OF BATHURST
Who was the ‘Concertina Doctor of Bathurst’?
In 2005 I began a search for this legendary character who advertised regularly in the first two decades of The Bulletin magazine, and this led me to undertake some associated research on the general history of the instrument in Australia.

Around 1880 a Mr. John Stanley opened a concertina factory in Bathurst and advertised his Stanley Concertina, modeled on the English Lachenal concertina, and also his repair shop.

Stanley’s advertisements in The Bulletin, then known affectionately as ‘The Bushman’;s Bible’, always carried the legend ‘The Concertina Doctor’.
Situated in William Street, Bathurst, the firm did business for at least twenty years with the final Bulletin advertisement being placed around 1900. This was the only concertina actually made in Australia despite the popularity of the musical instrument for more than fifty years. We can only assume that there were other repairers or instruments were sent back to England for repair.
In his advertisements J Stanley claimed to have “the cheapest and largest range of Anglo Concertinas in Australia. Guaranteed extra loud and guaranteed to last two years.’ Mr Stanley was never shy, applauding his own work and criticizing his competitors.
In the January, 1884, Bulletin advertisement he suggests:
“Reader! Did you ever rob a priest? Or a church? Or a blind man? If not, you are unfit to keep a music shop in Sydney! Send for my price list and see how you are fleeced to pay for heavy rents. Look into any instrument in Sydney, and you will find it is botched with a bit of old candlestick, reduced with a rasp – and then compare it with my work, and laugh!” |
It would be interesting to know which music store (or stores) he was referring to in his cheeky advertisement. Palings and Nicholson’s Music House were in the city Central but there was also a Wheatstone and Lachenal agent and retail outlet in Queen Street, Woollahra. Alberts Music, a company that still survives and, amongst other activities, looks after the publishing and masters of the super group AC/DC, also imported and distributed concertinas and accordions.
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It is not known how many Stanley Concertinas were made by the enterprising Bathurst merchant however several fine examples do exist and are regularly played by folk musicians across Australia. The instruments are recognised for their craftsmanship and their loudness. Stanley prized this feature and devised a method of screwing down the levers so the instrument’s musical articulation would not vary in the heat of the bush. Richard Evans (d 2023), of Bell, was Australia’s ‘concertina doctor’ and told Fahey that in repairing old Stanley concertinas he discovered that the Bathurst maker had used clock springs to make his reeds, and that he often inscribed the fretwork with the name of the purchaser.
The Stanley Concertinas were sold across Australia and were popular in the shearing sheds, droving camps and homesteads of the golden age of Australia’s colonial expansion. Stanley imported some of the parts but modified them to withstand the idiosyncrasies of the Australian climate.
Searches of the Mitchell Library and Bathurst Historical Society revealed no manuscript files (or anything else for that matter) and a lengthy article published by the Bathurst Advocate in 2005 (based on the above information) also failed to make contact with any of Stanley’s family. One reader did make contact saying he had a Stanley concertina that had been played by his grandfather.
The late Bob Bolton, a longtime member of the Bush Music Club and a continuing font of knowledge, advised me that the late John Meredith had undertaken some work on Stanley’s history : “Merro did have a long article about John Stanley in one of the popular magazines … probably Pix – some time in the ’70s or early ’80s. Unfortunately, the information from his family was a bit biased (or just selectively remembered!) and the impression is given that he made everything himself. Examination of actual instruments of his various grades indicates quite a lot of standard Lachenal in his cheaper lines … and some parts, like action boards, were still based on standard Lachenal components … even in his top models – those where he hand-fretted the customer’s name into the ends.
However, he applied a number of his distinctive local modifications, such as stamped-out, screw-fixed action pivots to replace Lachenal’s ‘pinned’ or ‘brass staple’ pivots – and felt gaskets in the joins in the ends and between the bellows frames to take up any warping in the heat and dryness of Bathurst.
Richard Evans worked on a number of his concertinas of various grades and can identify Stanley’s very good reed tuning and voicing, so he was good at his game. A set of new reeds, in D/G, made by Richard for my original 20-key Lachenal (Bb/F!) were made with a good look at Stanley’s techniques … and proved to have a really good sound, especially for a quite low-pitched set .”
Chris Ghent, concertina maker, has embarked on a full research program on Stanley and I look forward to reading more information.
Valda Low, editor of Simply Australia e-magazine (and my website designer/patron) also did some digging in the public records:
A very quick search shows a John George Stanley married in Bathurst to Lydia Brown in 1879 BUT . . . a Lydia and a John George had 6 boys including a John F. (1866), all born in Bathurst between 1866 and 1879, so they were still there in 1879 which would fit your time frame. But if so, all out of wedlock??A John G. Stanley also married in Bathurst in 1865 to an Emma Pontifex but no children recorded in NSW.John G. died in the Bathurst district in 1913 (so this would most possibly be your John Stanley Sr. |
![]() | The campfire was a natural stage for the concertina |
The image of the lone bushman, seated by a campfire, playing a concertina replaced the earlier image of the instrument being played by shanty-singing sailors. The instrument also became associated with the Salvation Army who often incorporated it into their street crusade bands because of its portability and their desire to equate their music with the working class Australian.
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In searching through various newspapers as part of my recent Folklore of Sydney project I noticed a series of advertisements in the West Maitland News circa 1870/80s for Paskin’s Music Shop of West Maitland, NSW. This store exclusively sold Cases Concertinas and this led me to searching out information about this British manufacturer.
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My old friend Marcus Turner in New Zealand unearthed some very informative sites: Professor George Case and his concertinas:
http://www.d-and-d.com/contributions/tinas-jones2.htmlhttp://www.d-and-d.com/contributions/tinas-jones2.html
(Also from http://www.lvcott.fsnet.co.uk/others.htm).
“George Case – 32 New Bond Street. ‘Professor’ George Tinckler Case seems to have been much more of a musician and tutor, although Neil Wayne says that he originally worked for Wheatstone. He produced many tutors and arrangements. From 1851 to around 1856 he had his own company, which George Jones says was taken over from Scates, and later sold to Boosey & Co.. The earliest ‘Case/Boosey’ labelled instrument in the Horniman is No.1571, and the nearest ‘Case’ to that No 960. However Case was buying from Wheatstones in 1851 and 1852,(as was Boosey) so it is possible that some Case labelled instruments may carry Wheatstone serial numbers.”
Another significant influence on the concertina in Australia was ‘Professor’ John Hill Maccann. (aka McCann)
67 key Maccann Duet concertina 1922 (manufactured by Wheatstone & Co) | ![]() |
The first successful design for a Duet concertina was patented in 1884 by a young performer, “Professor” John Hill Maccann. Maccann based his design on an earlier Wheatstone & Co. model, but licensed his patent to Wheatstone’s competitor Lachenal & Co., and wrote both a tutor for his new instrument and a more-general “Concertinist’s Guide” to promote it (his patent and both of his publications are available in full on this site). Fine-quality Maccann-system instruments were also made by Wheatstone & Co. after Maccann’s patent expired in 1898, but Wheatstone never used Maccann’s name to describe them.

Maccann had great success performing with his new concertina, including a command performance before HRH the Prince of Wales and a North American tour in 1890–1891, and his “Improved Duet Concertina” became the instrument widely used by professional performers in the late-Victorian music halls. Its popularity continued until 1939 but did not survive the interruption in production caused by World War II, and the art of playing the Maccann Duet had become almost lost by mid-century. During its production, a total of a few thousand instruments were manufactured. Today there are perhaps fifty people world-wide who play antique Maccann Duet concertinas.
More information available: www.maccann-duet.com
‘Professor’ Maccann toured Australia in 1922 and, one assumes, brought a quantity of his concertinas for the local market attending his ‘lectures’.
Concertina.net reports:
A new document has been discovered, a booklet authored by John Hill Maccann. It is reliably dated to 1902, and this copy was discovered in Australia where Professor Maccann was making an extended performing tour during that year.
The text of the document consists of two sections:
- a part of the “how to play” text from Maccann’s earlier publication The Concertinist’s Guide (1888); and
- an interview with Professor Maccann reprinted from The Era theatrical newspaper of London, issue of 25 January 1902.
In addition to the text, the booklet contains some new photographs of Maccann, including the first known photographs of him playing the concertina.
On the web at www.maccann-duet.com/
Pictures of all pages are available in two sizes, and the entire document can be downloaded in PDF format.
In my work recording Australian traditional players and singers I have met several concertina and melodeon players. Mrs Susan Colley of Bathurst played a beautiful Anglo German style and played dance tunes and song tunes. She was a noted player in the district and took great pleasure in telling me how she would dance around the floor playing the concertina behind her partners back – not too sure how this was done but it must have been interesting to see and hear. (refer Australian Folklore Unit recording/National Library/W Fahey Collection). Lionel Piesch, near Forbes, played English concertina (see Australian Folklore Unit/NLA) and Joe Watson (see AFU/NLA) told me how he played the Anglo German however he had not played it for several years and no longer had an instrument. I also recorded several button accordeon/melodeon players of bush dance music – Dave Matthias of Forbes and Charlie Lollbach of Grafton were two players in the AFU collection.
As I mentioned earlier, none of my informants actually played an instrument to accompany song. Joe Watson told me he had played his Anglo German to accompany the singing of his magic lantern show partner, Paddy Doolin, but never his own singing. This is not to say it was not part of the tradition however I think John Meredith and other collectors had the same experience of players being players and not singing to their instrument. The Salvation Army players I have recorded are an exception. In each case these men, and they were all men, used their concertinas to replicate organ music, and very chordal. They rarely played non secular music.
The melodeon was extremely popular in Australia, definitely much more widespread than the concertina. The most popular were the single and double row melodeons. These fairly basic instruments provided a wonderfully emphatic melody and bass line ideally suited for the dance music for the polka, schottische and lancers. It could also be amazingly gentle for the waltz and slower dances like the Pride of Erin.
In telling the story of the melodeon in Australia, and that takes in other related folk free reed instruments, it would wrong to concentrate solely on the Celtic/Anglo heritage. The German settlers who pioneered South Australia, Victoria and the Clarence River (three main German areas) had a strong influence on our traditional dance music. Musician and dance music collector, Dave de Hugard, has done considerable work in researching this influence. The Italians, French and other European settlers also saw their music and playing styles enter the tradition. In fact the free reed instrument family extends right around the world and is STILL SQUEEZING.
A visit to any folk festival, national or regional will show evidence of all sorts of instruments and all types of players.

















Over the years I have collected quite a lot of fascinating images related to the concertina. Many came from snapshots taken from digitized newspapers and magazines. I’ve been playing for many years and, thankfully, now have a relaxed relationship with the instrument and that’s the most important thing about music. Go with the flow.

That’s me against the green wall and I am playing my favourite English concertina, a Lachenal Edeophone manufactured around 1905. It has an easy action, beautiful fretwork and nickel buttons. These are expensive beasts. I bought this on Ebay several years ago, probably ten, and it cost US $4000 plus another $850 to bring it up to scratch. A mate of mine bought a brand new Wakker English, top-of-the-range, in 2014 and paid around $10,000. This figure might surprise some but it is on level with many other musical instruments. Maybe folks think concertinas are more like toys – how wrong they are. He still says it was a good purchase and expects it to appreciate over time. Such an instrument is a good investment for a serious player. There are a couple of concertina makers in Australia, Chris Ghent makes beautiful anglo concertinas and Richard Evans makes an anglo under his Kooka Concertina brand. Both are expensive because they are hand-crafted in every respect. I have other concertinas – a beautiful Lachenal rosewood and nickel from the 1890s, a baritone Wheatstone with deep and dark sounds ideal for accompanying some songs. It is unbelievably heavy and I can’t believe anyone could carry this around and play. I have a Wheatstone tenor but it has a tone that doesn’t please me so it doesn’t get played too often. Lastly, I have a Crane Duet, a system I have not mastered because playing a concertina is a mind and body game – your fingers need to be very familiar with patterns. At this stage I will stick to my 48 key English. I have often thought I should sell all my instruments and invest in a newly made one, probably Wakker, but, even then, there’s a waiting list. In the meantime there is something nice about the look, smell, feel and sound of the old instruments. Squeeze on. I hope you enjoy this gallery of cartoons and photographs.
Little Boy Blue

Larrikins were late 19th and early 20th century street gangs. Their girls were called ‘donahs’ and, apparently, the larrikins and donah liked nothing better than dancing to the music of the concertina. Most dances were couples dances like the polka or waltz.




Drawing the dance. Australians loved to dance – sets, polkas and hornpipes

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The Concertina at war. Being portable and light, the concertina, both Anglo-German and English, found itself on the front lines of WW1 and WW2. It had already been to war in the Boer War and Boxer Rebellion. Its music entertained the troops on endless nights





Smith’s Weekly. 11 May 1946
He Made Music From Routine Orders.
DIGGER, interned in a POW camp with Aussies, Italians and Poms, was the proud owner of an expensive and ornamental concertina, upon which, however, he was an indifferent, if enthusiastic, performer. “Itie” made a slighting reference to his fumbling on the keyboard, whereupon the Digger thrust the squeeze-box at him and said: “OK, mate, you have a go.” POW assaulted the night with a florid rendition of “O Solo Mio”, ‘Santa Lucia,” and other sentimentalities, with all the stops out, ending on a triumphant flourish. Digger concealed his chagrin with a thoughtful mien, nodded sagely, and said, “Not bad, pal, not bad. Just wait until I get my music — Aussie music.” He ducked into the orderly room and emerged with a sheaf of routine orders.
“Here,” he said, “hold this and give a real musician a go.” Peering closely at the roneoed typescript, nodding solemnly when he reached the bottom of the page for the POW to turn the sheets over, he put the concertina through every possible evolution its maker could have dreamed of and a few more. The din was imposing, even if it was impossible. Climax came on a magnificent crescendo on the last sheet, whereon was published promulgation of sentences imposed at recent courts martial. He looked rapt. He’d been carried so far away on wings of inspiration. the provosts should have been after him.
POW stood there uncomfortably holding the RO’s until the Digger condescended to return toearth and notice him. ”Well.” he said, “how do you like Aussie music?” “Itie” handed over the sheets. “Buono,” he said. “Maestro.” And walked away quietly, dazed, deflated.


In the bush of Australia.




Newspaper stories.




The concertina often appeared in children’s columns in newspapers. These (below) are typical.


(These three) Newcastle Herald , NSW. 1949

This cartoon series (below) Adelaide Mail, 1938








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Cartoon strip with exploding concertina.




Professionals. Over the years many professional players toured Australia and New Zealand. Some billed themselves as ‘Professor of the Concertina’ and others ‘Doctor’.





Praise the Lord and Squeeze the concertina.

The concertina received wide circulation after the Salvation Army adopted it in the late 19th century. Apparently, the Sallies were keen to have an instrument the bush workers would feel comfortable with.


































The banjo came to Australia in the 1840s and was mainly used as novelty instrument to accompany ‘Ethiopian’ black-face theatrical pieces. Bell’s Life in Sydney & Sporting Reviewer Nov. 1848 gives an account of the instrument being used in a farce. The performer, George King , alias Jem Brown, alias the N… King “whose cymballic and banjo-vocal accompaniments delighted the numerous frequenters at Mrs Stone’s Concert-rooms, Pitt Street, Sydney”. King was listed as a member of the Wandering Street Minstrel Society. A year later, the Sydney Morning Herald (7 February 1849) advertised Mr John Dettmer (from London) “Who will sing (for the first time in this colony) some of the most popular Ethiopian Melodies (in character), and accompany himself on the Banjo – an instrument unknown in this country.’
In March 1850, the Sydney Morning Herald advertised Blythe Waterland’s Serenaders in a performance featuring the banjo. Mr Blythe Waterline was a noted stage performer from Hobart, Tasmania. In the same month, the SMH mentioned the performances of another minstrel show by the Ethiopian Serenaders featuring the ‘banjo and the bones’. This was followed in April by the Ohio Serenaders, featuring Mr F Howson on banjo, appearing at the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney. The blackface minstrel shows were a mix of songs, instrumental dexterity, theatrical sketches and humour. A typical line would ask, ‘Why are the Ethiopian Serenaders like a pair of Wellington boots? Because the oftener they are blacked, the more they shine.”
In an advertisement in Adelaide Times on 3 April 1850, George Coppin is mentioned as the banjo player. Coppin was the father of Australian vaudeville theatre and the original Australian ‘Billy Barlow’. This begs whether Coppin played ‘Billy Barlow’ in the Maitland season in August 1843 at the Northumberland Hotel. Considering the style and length of the song, it is highly likely that a banjo accompaniment was employed. If so, this would be the first documented appearance of the banjo in Australia. You can read all about ‘Billy Barlow’ in this site’s Early Australian Theatre section. It’s quite a story.
The goldrush era commencing in 1851 saw many minstrel troupes touring Australia and local minstrel groups established. Their songs received widespread favour; many were also used as parody vehicles for topical songs and eventually became bush songs.
By the 1890s, the banjo had become a popular instrument and was advertised regularly in the commercial songsters, noting “Anyone can learn to play the banjo”. Banjo clubs were formed across Australia. The nineteen twenties introduced the jazz era, and the banjo increased in popularity.
The international folk music boom of the 1950s saw the banjo reach a new audience, primarily through the popularity of the American singer Pete Seeger.
The sales of bluegrass and old-timey music on recordings played by leading American performers like Earl Scruggs, Uncle Dave Macon, Ralph Stanley, Doug Dillard, John Hartford, Bela Fleck, and the English singer George Formby cemented the popularity of the instrument. Film and television also played a role in the banjo’s story. Earl Scruggs ‘Ballad of Jed Clampett’ as the theme for the Beverley Hillbillies, Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandrell ‘Dueling Banjos’ for Deliverance and Ralph Stanley’s banjo playing in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
Australia’s earliest star of the banjo was Melbourne-born (1870) Bessie Campbell. After visiting London in 1884 she recorded “’took a great fancy to the five-stringed banjo’ and was taught by Joe Daniels. After returning to Sydney the next year, she learned from the American Hosea Easton for three months. In the early 1890s, she studied under Walter Stent, who taught her different American ‘systems of finger-picking (playing different arpeggio arrangements with the thumb and fingers); she deplored people who used a plectrum.
Bessie Campbell began to appear in concerts for charity in about 1891. In September 1893 she played a solo at the American Banjo Club’s concert at the Centenary Hall, York Street, Sydney, in aid of the Seamen’s Mission. By 1897 she had been acclaimed as ‘Australia’s greatest lady banjoist’, had become the first female member of the American Banjo Club, and received ‘six to eight letters a week for concerts great and small’. In April 1904, she was paid five guineas for appearing at the Bathurst agricultural show. Billed as ‘The Banjo Queen’, in 1907, she toured the northern rivers with the National Concert Company: one critic found her ‘a wonder for she plays the banjo with so much ability as to render it almost a classical instrument’. Bessie Campbell died in 1964.
This site’s Early Australian Theatre section has lengthy articles on the banjo, minstrel troupes, and the in fluence of minstrel music on Australian bush tunes.
The mandolin and the guitar would have also been played by the minstrel musicians, however, the mandolin was also considered a classical instrument. Around the late 1890s and through until the twenties, there were numerous Guitar, Mandolin and Banjo Clubs. The repertoire would have mostly been described as light classical. Although we associate the guitar with folk music, it was not seen popularly as such until the 1940s. The mandolin appears to have rarely ‘escaped’ into the bush and was more likely to be found in singalong clubs. It definitely went to war and was popular in WW1. Being smaller and lighter than the banjo or guitar, would have had something to do with its popularity. Variants of the banjo, including the tenor and banjo mandolin, were particularly; y popular, no doubt influenced by early recording artists like George Formby.
The following photograph dates back to 1909, Melbourne.

Musical Saw
Col Wotton. I recorded this demonstration of the musical saw at Miles, Qld, on the Darling Downs in 2014.