If you're looking for yarns to read, there are a few books.
- Harper Collins has recently published a book by Warren Fahey, titled “Classic Bush Yarns”, which includes his favourites about Sandy the Shearer, which you may have heard him tell.
- I talked earlier about Bill Scott and his book “The Long and The Short and The Tall” published by Western Plains and which you might find in second hand book shops, as I think it is out of print now.
- Ron Edward's book “The Australian Bush Yarn” was re-published by UQP a few years ago and I think you can still get some of Ron Edward's own books which are self-published, by writing to him at Ramskull Press.
- It is also worth hunting through the many books by Bill Wannan. He's reworked a few of them over the years, but they are still worth thumbing through for all sorts of interesting bits and pieces he's collected or researched. My only disappointment with one of his major works “The Dictionary of Australian Folklore” (Viking O'Neil) is that he left out the many gems of Australiana such as Ted's reference to having “a dingo's breakfast” which is basically what others would call “a cat's lick”. Isn't “dingo's breakfast” much more descriptive for Australia!
I hope that with the help of everyone at Jamberoo in 95, I have been able to add a few more yarns to our folk collection. And I hope you have enjoyed this read with me. I would like to think that this is going to be a continuing discussion about yarn-spinning in Australia. But as I said earlier there's much more to write about as well and I'd be happy for your comments on those topics. There is so much to talk about with regards Australia's continuing folk tradition and fascinating folk heritage. That's why I still love folk and everything to do with it, the tradition, the folk heritage, the art and the performance and I hope I can continue to contribute in some way or another. If you would like to, you can always send in your comments and suggestions and especially the yarns that you enjoy (keep'em clean please). All you need to do is send them to me David Mulhallen, c/- Simply Australia.
Til the next issue of Simply Australia! I'm David Mulhallen.
David Mulhallen/Simply Australia © 2002
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