Bundy Mob Memories

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thestoryteller
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Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Mon Jun 20, 2016 10:41 am

In 1996 I began reading in the local newspaper about The Bundy Muster that was to be held in March and it appeared that a large gathering of poets would be converging on Bundaberg, who wrote rhyming verse and performed their poems in various categories in competition.

I contacted a chap by the name of Neil McArthur who lived not far from me in Bargara and he dropped over for a visit. He said he liked my poems and that I should come along to the Muster. Neil was a bloke with a way out sense of humour and a great comic who later went on to pursue a career out of his performances. Neil would also do the foreword for my first professionally printed book, “Tales of Uncle Jim.”

I was amazed to find a good gathering of folk, who called themselves bush poets, and what they performed was bush poetry. They had in fact formed an Australian Association and were becoming popular at the Tamworth Country Music Festival and such competitions as the Bundy Muster were on the rise.

I entered the original category and was surprised to pick up a finalist spot.
“Well that’s a start I thought.”

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Looking back, I think that my sense of dress needed a little attention.

I continued to be a part of the Bundaberg writers group, but there was thought that a Bundaberg Poets Association should be formed to concentrate and help established and emerging poets and also co-ordinate the 1997 Bundy Muster as the previous Co-ordinator had moved away.

The Gympie Muster held in August had also incorporated bush poetry in their format and a competition was held to seek the King of Rhyme. I had written a poem called Basher Brogan’s Pride and was keen to give it a run. It proved to be a rather daunting task as I walked onto the stage with a huge audience out front only to find I couldn’t see anyone for the lights. So I figured you just had to get on with it. Sadly I had a blank part way through but figured that it was all part of parcel of the game. Even bobby Miller found he couldn’t remember one of his while performing.

In the meantime I continued to enjoy being a part of this new scene and one could keep up to date with what was happening Nationwide by subscribing to the Australian Bush Poets Associations Newsletter that was edited by Ron Selby of Drayton, Toowoomba.

The Australian Bush Poets Association had been established back in 1994 when it became obvious that there were a number of poets converging on Tamworth for its Country Music Festival and were performing at various venues around the town.

A meeting was held and as a result the Association was formed and it is always joked about how they had their first competition in a phone box and there were still seats spare.

In September of 1996 I travelled down to Toowoomba to participate in a new competition being co-ordinated by Ron Selby at the Downs Hotel and still very much the new comer I must admit.

Bush Poetry competitions were held in a format where it was divided into different categories such as Traditional, Contemporary and Original. I had a go at the traditional and original sections in that competition and was chuffed on my second performance on a stage to take out third place in both categories.

It was at this competition that I was approached by a chap wearing shorts and thongs and asked if anyone could have a go at this poetry business. I advised him that he could and he then waited his turn and did an old Edward Harrington poem called, Pulling Tits and the crowds loved it. It turned out to be a bloke by the name of Peter Riddle and I would have a lot of association with him over the years and invited him to join our shows on a number of occassions.

The following month I joined two Bundaberg poets, Liz Ward and Carol Reffold, on a trip down to the Mapleton Yarn Festival held on the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Some poets were making a name for themselves and becoming popular performers at such festivals and it was great to meet them as they were a friendly community.

There were different categories such as The Yarn Spinning, What Cheeses Me Off and the Ernie Setterfield Club Challenge. The Club Challenge involved two poets from a Poetry Club and each had to perform a poem. Liz and Carol joined up and fortunately the rules allowed me to represent myself twice with two different poems and much to my delight I took home the trophy.

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Over this period of time I had learnt a few tips from attending bush poetry workshops and I was intent on reviewing my early self-published book, “Tales of Uncle Jim.” I printed a new release and decided to launch it at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January 1997. Neil McArthur had kindly written the foreword for me and had been a source of encouragement.
Last edited by thestoryteller on Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:07 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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thestoryteller
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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:04 am

1997 was going to be a busy year as there were many opportunities available to perform at various Festivals.

It was my first visit to the Country Music Capital and The Imperial Hotel was home to the Tamworth Poetry Group who held a well contested competition there. Carmel Randle was a well-respected writer and reciter and I approached her with my new book for her appraisal. She read the first two lines of the first poem and bluntly said,
“You’ve got some work to do there yet young fellow.”
I felt a little deflated but was more interested in where I was going wrong and after purchasing her book, “Help” I saw the problem and at once began working on a remedy.

Some of Australia’s best performance poets competed there and the Blackened Billy was a prized win for those who entered the written competition. Former rodeo clown of renown Bluey Bostock

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also ran a competition out at the Oasis Hotel and right from the start I found myself getting involved with helping with the organizing and doing some Mcee work. I remember going down into Peel Street to sell my book and setting up near the National Australia Bank and two hours later a chap came up and said,
“You’re in my spot mate!”
So I packed up and moved over to a corner in front of Grace Bros, near Frank Turton, the chook man, [right] and that is where I stayed for years to come and kindly thank Frank for being kind enough to give me some time and encouraging me to perform my poems.

My first visit to Tamworth was an eye opener and one could see that to be accepted by one’s peers as a good performer and writer of bush verse was going to be a challenge.

Liz Ward and Carol Reffold were also enthused by their visit and we were keen to pursue establishing an Association back in Bundaberg to encourage others who had shown a keen interest in bush poetry.

On the 15 January 1997 a meeting was held in Bundaberg to establish a group called The Bundaberg Poets Society that would cover various genres of poetry and provide a committee to run the Bundy Muster in 1997.

Liz Ward was elected as President, Ross Keppel – Vice President, Merv Webster – Secretary and Carol Reffold – Treasurer. We were surprised to see so many people interested to join and we had a healthy membership right from the start. I also began publishing a monthly newsletter to keep folk up on what was happening within the Society.

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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:10 am

The Bundy Mob, as we became known, was eager to attend various festivals that included bush poetry in their format and in March 1977 I went over with Liz Ward to attend the Jondaryan Woolshed Country Music Rush. Bush Poetry was gradually being accepted at various music festivals and I sense that it worked well for both genres.

There were a number of aspects judges required when performing and I was slowly getting the hang of making each section work for me. The original section was always my favourite as it was the performer’s own work and that appealed to me most. I was happy to walk away with a 2nd prize spot in the Original Section for men at this Festival.

Yarn spinning was also a genre that seemed to be accepted at most Bush Poetry Festivals and having done well at Mapleton the year before I tried my hand at the Camp Fire Yarns at Jondaryan and come up with a first spot. Liz Ward and Carol Raffold picked up places and Bundy went home being well represented.

In April of 1997 I had decided that I would go out to the Australian Bush Poetry Championships that were being held in Winton, Queensland and take in a few other Bush Poetry events as well. Dad had retired and I invited him to join me for a few weeks on this trip. I suggested that he should learn a few poems too and enter as he also had a love of bush verse.

Our first port of call was Charleville where dad had lived as a youngster and completed his schooling there. The Charleville Bush Balladeers were having a weekend of concerts and competitions and dad and I were keen to get involved. It was a great weekend and got to meet some up and coming Balladeers as well as some old poet friends.

Our next stop over was at Longreach where the local Performing Arts Group put on a great night in front of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and I had the opportunity to perform.

From there it was on to Winton for the Australian Championships and it proved to be a busy week. We stayed at Bert and Janette Swindle’s Matilda Caravan Park, which was the official residence there for the bush poets. The camp fire nights were a great time get together and all shared a tale and then the Championships started. It was a great experience and one got to see some great performance poetry.

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Some of Australia’s best performance poets were competing and first you had to make the finals, which I did, and I was pretty happy with that. Dad did a great job as well.

A number of the Bundy Mob had come out too and the club performances down at the old open air picture theatre were a ton of fun and lots of laughs.

After it was all over we had a great picnic out of town and it was so good to just enjoy each other’s association and have a beer and a feed and a swim too if you felt inclined.

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We finally left Winton in a good frame of mind and had been invited to perform at Caufield on the Hughenden Road. The pub had been burnt down apparently so a temporary pub had been set up in a shed across the road. The locals treated us to a wonderful lunch and a number of poets returned the favour by putting on a show.

From there it was on to a property on the Hughenden – Muttaburra road called Elab. It was owned by relatives of Bill Hay who was known as the grandfather of bush poetry. We all camped over at the shearer’s quarters and had a great night putting on a show for many of the locals. Louise Dean who had won the novice section at the Championships camped with her husband in the room next to dad and I and apparently she had the bed against the wall closest to me. Next morning Louise related how she was woken by loud snoring coming from the thin wall next door and when she finally got up to find another room she found that all the rooms had some pretty good snoring coming from them all. Poor mate didn’t get much sleep that night. I believe she wrote a poem about the experience and related it later on at the Bundy Muster.

Dad and I worked our way back to Longreach where they had a poet’s brekky one morning at the Drover’s reunion and enjoyed catching up with everyone again. Then it was on to Rockhampton for the Inaugural Central Queensland Bush Poetry Championships. I was chuffed to get a second place with a poem I had written called Reminiscing with Henry.

After a great few weeks it was time to get back to Bundaberg as we had to get organized for the Bundy Mob’s Bush Poetry Muster and I had taken on the job of Co-Ordinator and there were lots of things to do to get ready.
Last edited by thestoryteller on Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:16 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:29 am

Poet’s from many States converged on Bundaberg in June for the 1997 Bush Poet’s Muster and it would be a three day event held at Across the Waves. Professional poets were invited to judge and also perform at Saturday night’s big three hour concert. Over Friday, Saturday and Sunday others would compete in various categories for prize money and trophies.

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The Bundaberg Poet’s Society had also created a new written competition called The Bush Lantern Award which would be presented to the winner of the best written poem judged by three judges. The winner and a selection of poems would also be put into a publication called The Bush Lantern Award.

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I had also written a second book called, “In Days Gone By” and well know poet, Bobby Miller would be kind enough to do the foreword for me and I would release it at The Muster.
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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:21 pm

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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:24 pm

Last edited by thestoryteller on Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:46 am

Chris was starting to take an interest in the bush poetry and had come along to the Bundy Muster and decided to join me on a trip up to Cloncurry for their Bush Poetry Festival in June 1997. Michael Darby had organized it and it was great to get some recognition as most improved performer and won a voucher for a 2000 kilometre pass on Greyhound.

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Liz Ward also went to the Festival.

We called in at the Homestead Caravan Park in Barcaldine on the way up and performed a show there one night. The Homestead would come to play a big role in the years to come.
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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:52 am

The Bundy mob was always happy to help support those holding Poetry Competitions and in early August a number of us went down to Hervey Bay to join in their Whale Festival.

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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:56 am

Chris and I headed off in August to go out to Surat’s Battered Bugle Bush Poetry Competition and stayed at the shearing shed on Newinga. It was a great weekend and I was surprised to find that Ron Selby and I had tied for the Battered Bugle Trophy.

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Re: Bundy Mob Memories

Post by thestoryteller » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:01 am

After blowing my chances at the Gympie Muster in 1996 I was determined to give it another go in 1997. We had been asked to perform the week before down the main street of Gympie and after having warmed up there a bit I performed Picaninny Dawn in the Original section and came up triumphs with a win.

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