Over in the Music Department Harold Hort ruled the roost and what a strange roost it was! Harold was a charmer of the old school but highly eccentric. He and I lunched regularly at the Woolpack Restaurant or at one of the small Italian restaurants in the Cross. He was a Buddhist of sorts and a vegetarian but he also loved a glass of wine and bawdy poetry and songs. We had a great time and, with his blessing, I churned out program after program of Australian folk material. We never did produce the definitive program on bawdy songs but we talked about it often enough. I suspect Harold used me to shock his old school ABC Music Department staff. I was a very eager pup in those days, fresh from school and already playing at radio.

Christopher Lawrence, later to become and important classical presenter, was a young and enthusiastic producer and he teamed up with me to work on some major folk series. We remain good friends to this day.

Time has confused my memory of the early ABC folk programs but I certainly remember these key ones. I wrote all the scripts and performed in most productions.

Navvy on the Line � a three part series on Australian railway songs and lore and performed by the earliest incantation of The Larrikins (Warren Fahey, Jack Fallis, Paddy McLoughlan, Ned the Fiddler). It became the basis for the Larrikin LP of the same name.

The Great Australian Legend. This was a very ambitious project � 16 half hour programs tracing the history of Australia through folksong. It featured Peter O'Shaughnessy and Declan Affley and was really successful.

The Song Carriers. A twelve half hour program series where I used my field recordings and discussed the folklore flow from singer to singer.

A World of Music. This was another 16 program series and, as far as I know, the first such series to look at the folk music of the world. It was the late sixties and 'world music' was known as 'ethnic music' or 'international music'. Duh!

While The Billy Boils. This was my second attempt to track the history of Australia through song and dramatic readings. The 16 programs were produced by Christopher Lawrence, in the Victoria Street, Chatswood studios which were mainly used to record the orchestras.

It featured the Larrikins (Jack Kevans, Cathie O'Sullivan, Bob McInnes, Declan Affley plus guest singers and a number of leading actors including Lex Foxcroft. The ABC issued it as a 16 cassette set and, apparently, sold over 50,000 copies. In those days, unfortunately, we didn't receive a royalty.