His is an interesting story and one I have only recently come back to, thanks to a set of 'On The Track With Bill Bowyang' given to me not long before I left ABC Radio by folk historian Hugh Anderson.

line drawing © Ron Edwards

There are six books in all, published by Red Rooster Press, in which Hugh Anderson tells the story of Alexander Vennard and Dawn Anderson edits the selection of bush recitations which Vennard collected, mostly in the years 1922 – 1947 through his column 'On The Track' in the paper 'The North Queensland Register'. At the time, somewhat inspired, I approached Warren Fahey to help me produce a radio program based on the books for 'A Swag Of Yarns', which we did. But it wasn't until much later that I really began to understand just how significant a person Vennard was, especially in terms of his role in the continuing of the Australian folk tradition.

More recently, I have been reading Ron Edwards' 'Yarns and Ballads of the Australian Bush' (Rigby 1981) and was curious to read that the verses he chose to include in the book were taken from the 'Bill Bowyang Reciters', which had been published between 1932 and 1940. Ron had written a note about the verses and told how Bowyang had collected them and how he had selected some of them for his 'reciters'. Of course, Ron was talking about the same Alexander Vennard. It was because of what Ron had written that I was inspired to go back and re-read Hugh and Dawn Anderson's set of books. There was much to read and understand and I found myself not just appreciating the role Vennard had played as Bill Bowyang, but the importance and significance of both his column “On The Track” and his Reciters.