THE AUSTRALIAN FOLKLORE UNITABOUT THE UNITI decided to use the Australian Folklore Unit as my umbrella moniker covering my work as a folklorist. I always say I graduated in folklore studies at the School of Hard Knocks and then obtained a Master's Degree at the Dingo University. In truth I did most of my study in 'the field' and especially in the seventies when I did a lot of travelling including a full-year collecting up and down the east coast of Australia. Of course there was no course in folklore in Australia.
I developed my own style of recording, however, compared to today, it was fairly basic. I would make contact and ask if I could visit and then, after explaining my mission, I would ask if I could make some recordings. I had a Nagra reel-yto-reel tape recorder on loan from the Music Dept of the ABC in Sydney. It was heavy but good quality. The major problem, especially since many of my informants were elderly, was that they would automatically grab the microphone. This was the natural thing to do ö it was large and cumbersome and, unfortunately, an easy target to grab. This resulted in clunking noises that would compete with the living room cuckoo clock, bell chime and barking dog and, worst of all, passing trucks. All in a day's work for the oral historian and folklorist. Nowadays the microphones are extremely small and the recording machines compact. My early tapes are housed in the Music Dept of the National Library of Australia and some in the Macquarie University Library. There were also several tapes in the Larrikin master tape file held at Festival records and, now in the Screensound archive, Canberra. Like all folklore collectors one regrets not paying more attention to this area. Most of the tapes were recorded reel to reel which is now almost antiquated and certainly restricts their use. Hopefully the various institutions are now transferring these to digital. A large number of my early tapes are at 7.5rpm and some at 3.5rpm (I think that's the speeds) I have never stopped collecting or writing about folklore. Maybe I am obsessed but it is my life and my work. My current program is a two-year job and the most exciting challenge I have ever faced. I would also like to acknowledge the sponsors for my current project (2004-2006) to record an oral history collection and survey of the folklore associated with Sydney as a city. Namely: The City of Sydney Council, Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, Latent Image in association with the State Library of New South Wales and the Oral History and Folklore Division of the National Library of Australia. I would also like to acknowledge the sponsors for my current project (2004-2006) to record an oral history collection and survey of the folklore associated with Sydney as a city. Namely: The City of Sydney Council, Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, Latent Image in association with the State Library of New South Wales and the Oral History and Folklore Division of the National Library of Australia. |
When collecting I followed a fairly standard system: I would arrive in town, set up my Australian Folklore Unit VW Kombi and then visit the local newspaper and ABC radio station. I did interviews with both describing what I was after and where to contact me (usually the local caravan park). Fortunately, because of my regular ABC folk broadcasts I was not completely unknown.