Many years ago, I spent a slightly surreal weekend on the Howqua River in north east Victoria, where, as luck would have it, there was both a mountain cattleman’s gathering and a big enclave of environmental activists holding campaign workshops. Our camps squeezed closer together as the crowds packed in along Sheepyard Flat, and the initial distrust dissolved on the second or third night as we found some common cause in shared music around the fire.
It was one of those nights to remember. I recall that we got on famously, that many songs were traded, and various social lubricants were consumed. What I most remember was the music.
Music is one of those things that defines culture. Any authentic culture has its own music, songs that grow from who its people are and how they live, and also the place they live in. There’s nothing wrong with playing other people’s songs, but almost everything I heard that night was from somewhere else.
Mountain Journal 
May 15, 2015 at 8:49 pm
I understand entirely what you are saying here, but what is really sad to me is that you are completely overlooking Australia’s extraordinarily rich heritage of rhyming/bush verse. What can be more wonderful than reciting some of Banjo Paterson’s classic poems around a campfire? It’s not just Paterson. There’s also Lawson, C. J. Dennis, Will Ogilvie. W. T. Goodge, Barcroft Boake, Thomas Spencer, and many, many others. And before you say, “Yes, but they wrote about New South Wales, not Victoria”, let me remind you that much of this poetry – particularly that written by C. J. Dennis – was written about Victoria. Then we have our own Billy Wye, of course, who wrote extensively about the Victorian Alps. Many of these poems – especially those by Henry Lawson – have been put to music, too. If you are going to turn your back on your own heritage through nothing but ignorance, you are not going to attract much sympathy, I’m afraid.
May 15, 2015 at 8:51 pm
There are also countless numbers of songs and poems about the Kelly Gang, “Mad” Dan Morgan, Bogong Jack, etc.
May 15, 2015 at 9:36 pm
thanks Stephen. I’ve heard of many of these poets of course. I guess in this reflection I’m, most interested in contemporary poets/ musicians. That doesn’t mean I ignore our history. I hadn’t heard of Billy Wye before. I’ll look him up. Regards, yours in ignorance…