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TRIBUTE TO BILL WANNAN
Obit. Bill Wannan
first published in the Sydney Morning Herald

Australians love to put themselves under the cultural microscope in an attempt to identify national characteristics that can be pegged as typical. In the nineteenth century the typical Australian was seen as a wiry-thin, gawky, fag-end smoking, drawling bushman who was more at home in an outback shanty than the 'big smoke' of the city. In the first half of the twentieth century he became a Bluey and Curley character, a dinkum Digger, who was your best mate and a fearless soldier who saluted no man. Things got a bit scrambled after WW2 when our 'Populate or Perish' campaigns encouraged migration from various parts of war-torn Europe however we retaliated with an ANZAC mentality mixed with a suspicious mateship approach best summed up in the mood of John O'Grady's book and film 'They're A Weird Mob'. Just when we thought it safe to say we were becoming sophisticated little Australians along comes a Barry Humphries created character called Bazza McKenzie and it was back to the gawky naivety of the bushman turned city-slicker however this time our Aussie emerged as a bit of a loudmouth larrikin and social thug. One could suggest that there were more signpost typical Australian characters to follow with Paul Hogan's original persona and his later Crocodile Dundee, the Bush Tucker Man, possibly Humphries's swaggering Les Paterson and the recent addition of that crocodile wrestling bloke with the strange accent. I make the note that they have all been men, not surprising considering our male-dominated rural heritage.

As we hurtle towards a global economy and, sadly, global culture it has never been more important that we acknowledge the Australian character and individuality. In our enthusiasm to embrace multi-culturalism there has been a definite tendency to overlook, almost forget about, our pioneering history. We dip our hats to the Australia of yesterday but it is superficial and how many of us truly appreciate the poetry of Henry Lawson, A.B. Paterson or read the great books of yesteryear like Steele Rudd's 'On Our Selection' or the works of Vance Palmer, Lenny Lower, Alan Marshall, Shaw-Neilson and the rest of their literary mates.

William Fielding Fearn-Wannan, better known as Bill Wannan, was one of our greatest cultural flag-wavers and his death leaves a legacy of books, anthologies and tall tales that have become circulated as 'old Bill Wannan yarns'. Bill Wannan, born in Victoria, 1914, was a twenty-year old journalist when he placed his first article with the Melbourne Age, in 1935. A few years later he travelled to Japan for a couple of months where he filed stories warning of the changing political mood and the encroachment of fascism. He joined the AIF in 1942 and served in the Pacific campaign including a stint in Darwin. It was Bill Wannan's enthusiasm for Australia's past that tickled the nation's appetite. Through his many books and articles he reminded us of where we had come from, how we managed in the pioneering days and, in some ways, where we were going as a people. He made us laugh at ourselves and define ourselves through literary example. Bill, like A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson, was a pioneer armchair folklorist who collected by mail. Paterson used the pages of The Bulletin and Wannan his 'Come In Spinner' columns in the Australasian Post Magazine. Bill Wannan maintained his Australasian Post column for twenty-five years and used it as a collecting and recycling depot for tall tales, legends, ghost stories, bush medicine and other Australiana.

His first book was published in 1954 and it became the 'bible' of the bush. 'The Australian: Yarns, Ballads, Legends and Traditions of the Australian People' (Australasian Book Society) carried a forward by Alan Marshall and presented us with bush myths and memories ranging from convict tales to stories of greasy station cooks, singing drovers, bold bushrangers, intrepid explorers, feisty politicians and our Bluey and Curley mates newly returned from the war. His most popular yarns concerned Crooked Mick of the Speewah and the exploits of Dad and Dave.

Book after book followed including his respected recounting of the bushranging era 'Tell 'em I Died Game' (1963), probably the most intelligent work on the highwayman tradition since Charles White's two-volume work in the nineteenth century. 'The Wearing of the Green' (1965) looked at the Irish in Australia, 'Crooked Mick of the Speewah' (1966) collected the various outback yarns, 'Folk Medicine' (1970) and 'Australian Folklore: A Dictionary of Lore, Legends and popular Allusions' (1974) are some of his most successful books. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1991 recognising his service to Australian literature and especially folklore. A shy man, he always told me that he was a 'bowerbird' ever curious for titbits of Australiana that could show us what made us tick.

Bill Wannan moved on to the Long Paddock April 20 aged 87. His half a century of letters, clippings and files will be housed in the Manuscript Section of the National Library of Australia.

© Warren Fahey AM fellow folklore traveller.