National Library of Australia - Gateways>

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 50| April 2001


In Memoriam: John Meredith

John Meredith

John Meredith, OAM: 17 January 1920–16 February 2001

The National Library’s extensive collection of field recordings of traditional songs and dance music recorded by the late John Meredith had its roots in the combination of three seemingly separate events in his life. At the age of 13 he bought a book of Banjo Paterson’s Bush Songs, a penfriend awakened an interest in photography, and his mother encouraged him to play the button accordion.

John became a skilled photographer in his hometown of Holbrook, New South Wales, before moving to Melbourne in 1944 where his camera was stolen and he was unable to replace it due to wartime shortages. He grew tired of city life and worked his way to North Queensland before settling in Sydney in 1947. Here he purchased a second-hand camera and revived his interest in photography.

John had played the accordion at local dances in Holbrook, and in 1952 he and a couple of friends in Sydney formed a group called the Bushwhackers. They sang Australian songs accompanied by traditional instruments such as the button accordion and the mouth organ. Whilst searching for suitable material for his band to play, John met an old shearer and borrowed a friend’s reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder to record the man’s entire repertoire of bush songs. After purchasing his own tape recorder, he collected many recordings of performances by people who were willing to pass on this aspect of the Australian heritage of traditional songs and music for preservation. He also photographed these performers ‘to see what sort of people kept it alive and passed it on for others to enjoy.’

In1968 John published, jointly with Hugh Anderson, Folk Songs of Australia, a volume of collected material, illustrated with his 1950s photographs of the performers. The National Library acquired his 1950s tape recordings and John continued to research and write about Australian folklore and social history while committed to his weekend farm in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

After selling his farm in 1980, John was again free to travel and record songs, music and increasingly, reminiscences of life in years gone by. He continued to photograph the performers, often with their instruments in their own surroundings, which he felt gave an insight into their character and the era in which they lived. The National Library assisted his collecting by providing him with financial support and by supplying him with field recording equipment for this renewed activity. In return, he lodged his field recordings in the Oral History Collection.

In 1988 the Mudgee Bicentennial Folklore Festival provided a showcase for Real Folk, an exhibition which John prepared as a tribute to the people of the Mudgee district where he had collected a great deal of valuable material. Soon after, the National Library held an exhibition of the photographs from this collection and these subsequently formed the basis of its 1995 publication Real Folk— featuring many of the pioneer performers, recorded by John Meredith, who gave so freely of their time, their songs and music for others to enjoy.
—Mary-Jill Johnston

| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |

Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

Gateways logo