THE BUSH ENTERTAINERS

How times change.
If I were to make a sexist or racist remark these days or sing a sexist song I would be (rightfully) admonished. Yet if I were to drop a short sharp word starting with F nary anyone would turn. In this era of equality many women can also keep up with the best of the blokes in this department and swearing in a group is common. This is a fact, I am guilty of it quite often myself.

Humour on our television 'variety shows' relies to a great degree on blatant coarse language. Don't knock it – I am a great fan of Billy Connolly.
This is the style of humour in OUR era.

However if we go back to last century and the music halls and Vaudeville era of Australia we find a different scenario where sexism and racism were rife and the use of straight out coarse language was not acceptable. Artists such as Roy Rene 'Mo' were masters of innuendo at such venues as the Tivoli but would not come out with the aforementioned F word.
This was the style of humour of THAT era.

Over the years I have developed an interest in the music hall and vaudeville of the bush and how this genre was taken and interpreted in outback country halls,. The greatest exponents of this were the Baulch Brothers of Mystic Park near Kerang in Victoria. John Meredith and I were recording in the Lake Charm area of Victoria in the late 1980's when we recorded a very sexist song entitled "you can't change it" from Garnet Robinson. Garnie was reluctant to sing the song because he believed, in the manner of many bushmen, that the song 'belonged to' someone else. In this case that someone was Digger Baulch.

John Meredith (left) with the Baulch Brothers of Kerang

We then started to piece the story together the story of the versatile Baulch Brothers and we arranged a recording date.

Over our years together Merro and I had met some funny people and had been placed in some humorous situations but we both agreed that our recording session with the Baulch Brothers on March 10th 1990 topped them all, we both could not stop laughing.