INTRODUCTION LOLA WRIGHT THE SOUTH COAST BUSH BAND of the FIFTIES SONG: The Hungry Miner

Life stories from the Oral History and Folklore collection of The National Library of Australia

Lagerphones and Lefties

Lola Wright

by Bruce Cameron

Towards the end of November there's something about the Newell Highway out Narrandera way guaranteed to bring out the Rambo in the mildest mannered of car drivers.  It's that swarm of wheat trucks and B-doubles hurtling across the endless flat landscape showering everything with rocks, chaff, dust and 'surplus animal liquid', reminding you there really is quite a lot of NSW west of the Cumberland Plain.

Prompted by Russell Hannah's fascinating article on Lola Wright and the South Coast Bush Band, Rob Willis suggested he and I should pay Lola a visit to record her story and songs for the National Library's Folklore Collections.  It would be an easy run across the Riverina to meet Lola after attending a Folk Alliance Australia committee meeting at Holbrook.

Every town needs at least one claim to fame and Holbrook has two.  The first is a submarine, HMAS Otway, perched in a park in the middle of town a mighty long way from anywhere you would reasonably expect to find a submarine.  The second is the Woolpack Inn Museum - home to Australia's oldest lagerphone, constructed almost 50 years ago by John Meredith's brother, Claude, from an original design by an anonymous "rabbit poisoner from Lankey's Creek".  All bush band performers should make at least one pilgrimage to the Woolpack Inn Museum in Holbrook to see this genuine musical icon.  The rest of the Museum is worth a visit as well.

Woolpack Inn Museum in Holbrook

It was mid morning when we turned off the fearsome Newell into the quiet village of Morundah.  We were confident we would have no trouble finding Lola Wright - small town, not many houses, seemingly logical layout of streets, no worries.  The street address wasn't where it was supposed to be, so the first challenge was to find a human to ask directions.  The only signs of life appeared to be a couple of dogs and a pet chook.  The dogs offered us nothing and the chook just seemed confused, but eventually we found our way to the right place to be greeted by Lola and her partner, Bill, along with a blue heeler who responds to selected commands in both German and Norfolk Island creole.  Useful skill for a dog to have, we thought.

Their house sits on an acre of ground near the edge of town - in Morundah almost every house is near the edge of town.  Like so many other small communities in the bush, Morundah no longer has services most of us take for granted and its residents make their decision to stay or leave accordingly.

Perhaps not everyone in our society needs easy access to schools, supermarkets, banks, fast food outlets, town water, public transport and somewhere to buy a skim milk decaf latté but, in a sign of changing times, Bill complained that their modem connection was so slow that email was costing much more than it should.  (We agreed that Telstra probably uses fencing wire instead of cable out there.)  That' s not enough to make Lola and Bill want to move away from what has become their home, much preferring the peace and quiet and relative isolation of Morundah to life 'back on the coast'.

South Coast Bush Band c1955 courtesy Lola Wright

Lola sang us songs from her days at Armidale Teachers College, old parlour songs, political songs, bush songs and parodies and spoke at length about her fascinating life.  Russell Hannah's article quotes Lola describing her involvement with Australian music as "something of an honour to have been in on the ground floor".  It seemed to us that this forthright and committed woman of the left has found herself in on the ground floor for most of her life -  a passionate life of active involvement in industrial and political issues, of working to improve gender equality, and of promoting Australia's musical identity.

After a couple of hours recording Lola and Bill, it was time to procure a suitable liquid accompaniment for Lola's spag-bol lunch.  We discovered Morundah's particular claim to fame, proudly advertised behind the bar in the local pub.  The town hosts an annual Carpathon, in honour of those introduced rats of the rivers, the European carp. Rob and I now each wear shirts proclaiming "Morundah - Carp Capital of NSW".

As well as sharing her repertoire of songs Lola also donated several songbooks and copies of photographs of this early bush band to the National Library, an invaluable resource for those who will study our country's folklore in future years. The other good news is that you will get the chance to again hear Lola sing her songs at the Illawarra Folk Festival at Jamberoo next year and Bill will be there to tell us a yarn as well.