Oh, who hasn’t heard of Euabalong Ball, Where the lads of the Lachlan, the great and the small, Come bent on diversion from far and from near, To cast off their troubles for just once a year.
These are the words from the first stanza of a song written in the 1880s by A. L. Lloyd and typify the enthusiasm the early settlers of this country had for dancing. He used Euabalong as a typical small outback town located in Cobar Shire NSW. From the earliest colonisation of Australia, dances were an important form of social recreation. They were good fun, and everyone dressed up a bit. They were also a great way to get the locals to mix it up and interact with each other, especially during the progressive dances.
Such was their popularity that legends were born of the dance phenomena. Here is a story, believe it or not, that occurred about 100 years ago, “An American Journo heard of a very popular dance that was seen as almost sacred in the Australian Bush. It was called the “Butcher Dance.” He made the long trip and was eventually guided to a remote town in Outback Qld. The boys from the bush, being as they were, with a serious face, told the journo that he was the first American ever to see this most sacred of Outback rituals. He was told he must remain silent while he set up his camera and began recording. The people gathered until he saw what he perceived to be a Holy Man calling for the people to gather in preparation. Wearing a large wide-brimmed hat and riding boots, the Holy Man began a loud call accompanied by the rising rhythmic sound of ukuleles. Then the bushies, as though in a trance, began to sway as the stirring music of the full bush band began to ring out. The Holy Man became caught up in the fervour of the moment himself. This was it. The American realised beyond all doubt that his long trip had not been in vain. The boys told him that he was about to witness the ultimate performance of rhythm and movement to have ever been conceived. The Holy Man strode to his position in the circle and, in a big booming voice, started to sing, “You butcher right arm in. You butcher right arm out. You butcher right arm in, and you shake it all about….”
The first migrants to our shores, both freeman and convict, English, Scot or Irish, all brought with them the dances of their homelands and a deep desire to “dance on.” Later came the Germans, Poles, and Americans. The folk dances they brought were already very old when they arrived in Australia. Around 1650, an Englishman, John Playford, published a collection of country dances under the title “The Dancing Master” that had been designed for teaching dancing. These included the Haymakers Jig, Irish Trot, the Country Bumpkin, and the Cheshire Rounds. The” Cheshire Rounds” has been published consistently in dance manuals since Playford’s The Dancing Master. By the time it was recorded in the Sydney Gazette of 1803, it had acquired the status of a favourite folk dance.
During the nineteenth century, whether in the ballrooms of Melbourne, Brisbane, Cunnamulla, or in the shearing sheds of the great Outback, people loved to dance, and they did. All over Australia, regular dances were booming out their presence. Some were to celebrate the end of harvest and others the finish of the shearing season. In the cities, there were balls for the upper class where debutantes could be introduced to their social class. Many famous dance rooms were attached to hotels.
By the 1870s, the Waltzes and Quadrilles were by far the most common dances in Australia, and Ball programmes of the period tended to include only two or three of the old country dances. The Schottische and the Varsovienne were then at their most popular, and the 1890s saw the introduction of the Barn Dance, the first of the sequence dances, now called Old Time Dances. Just after the turn of the century, the Valletta Waltz and the Boston Two Step became fashionable, followed later by the Macarena and the Pride of Erin. These dances were popular till after the First World War and represented an era of transition between the older colonial ballroom dancers and the big band dances era when dances like the Foxtrot and Quickstep were the rage. With the introduction of radio and television, we were to see rapid changes in entertainment throughout the world.
Everywhere dances were done, they were done with enthusiasm. People would often travel from miles around and dance till dawn. These early Australian dancers were familiar with polkas, waltzes, galops, the Schottische, the Varsovienne and the Lancers. Of course, not to forget the Hokey Pokey. And everyone who came knew them all. So it was that the Australian Bush Dance began its roots from the very early settlement of the colony. Initially, it was influenced by the styles and customs of the early settlers but evolved to be an amalgam of the early colonial style and dances from Europe and America.
As miners and settlers came to Australia, it became the form of social dancing that was popular in both the country and the city but only got its name during the folk revival in the 1950’s. It is now a style of dance unique to Australia, particularly where the music is provided by a bush band, with the Bushwackers being influential, but many other excellent bush bands still play for public dancing. It is likely you were taught some of these dances at primary school. Contemporary dances, more recently composed in the traditional style, are also featured at bush dances.
In the years after WW1, the white population of Bribie Island hovered around 5000. With few recreational activities available, many residents missed the enjoyment of dancing they had known in their countries of origin. Several families would often gather together at one family’s home and dance to whatever musician was available. They decided they needed a hall with plenty of room for their traditional dances. The community organised a committee, and in 1920, a dance hall was built. It soon became a popular centre for dances, which many knew from their countries of origin. The watercolour depicted here was painted by Gladys (Blundell) Federik. She is the (deceased) Aunt of Celtic Minstrels member, Mike Watts and a member of the Celtic Minstrels. Bribie’s first lawn bowling green was constructed near the dance hall. Sadly, about 1929, it was taken off its stumps and moved down the hill to become the club’s first clubhouse.
In 1942, a big change in dancing arrived with the US Military. Brisbane doubled its population as American GIs arrived in force. “It is not proposed to make total war total misery,” came a statement from Parliament, and “Dancing will not be included in the recreations that are to be restricted to prevent interference with the war effort.” Indeed, for many, dance was synonymous with their experiences of life in the Second World War. American GIs brought with them new and exciting dance styles, and dancing itself was a way to escape the pressures of life under the restrictions placed on the population. Many people of the day, as stated in a newspaper, had “The fantastic illusion that the war was being conducted in American swing time as most radio stations broadcast nothing but American dance music.” It also reported that, “The Services are keeping dancing alive, as there is more dancing during this war than there was in peace-time years.” It went on to state that, “Wherever the fighting men of air, sea, or land camped down, and girls were to be got, they organised a weekly dance.” After the war and its swing era came jive, rock’n’roll, then disco, and except in a few isolated country areas, the colonial ball had become almost extinct.
During the late1950s and ’60s, there was a worldwide folk revival. And here in Australia, collectors set about researching our past and resurrecting the dances of our colonial days. Bush bands, which proliferated through the 1970s and 80s, have fused these early dances with an odd mixture of oldtime dances and folk and country dances from Europe and America. Bush bands then remodelled the instruments of the orchestra to include guitars, bass, and even synthesisers to reflect modern tastes. And so, Bush Dancing was born. The music for the Bush Band is borrowed from the playing of old Bush musicians as well as popular imports from Scotland, Ireland and America. Today at the Bush dance, you will find yourself whirling to polkas, the Dashing White Sergeant, Virginia Reel, waltzing to the Pride of Erin, and the Swedish Masquerade. You may also trip the light fantastic to a Scottish waltz, Berlin polka, or Gypsy Tap. You could even find yourself doing the Hokey Pokey, the Chicken Dance, Macarena and Nutbush.
For the last several years, anyone strolling along the path next to the Pumicestone Passage near the bridge would likely have been entertained by the Celtic Minstrels. The Minstrels were regulars at “The Jetty” in Bongaree and loved to play sets of tunes, with musical friends from around the district joining them at times. In a small town just West of Bribie Island, the people of Wamuran love their bush and old-time dancing. Timber cutters and selectors settled at Wamuran in the 1880s, and in the early 1900s, new selectors moved into the dense scrub to harvest the timber. Today, they dance at the hall, at the very spot where the locals built their f irst dance hall in 1917. The Wamuran Community Hall was opened in April 1985, replacing the old Albert Hall, which was built in 1921. Many functions and activities are held in the hall, and the regular Wamuran Dance is still being held. A number of their musicians often join the Celtic Minstrels to add to both the sheer enjoyment of their music and the wonderful entertainment of the locals.
The Celtic Minstrels have started to teach Bush Dancing for Fun in the Bribie U3A classes and are having so much fun playing for the dancing that they hope to continue throughout the year in any venue that could host a Bush Dance. Two of the band members, Mike and Beth, have been involved with playing bush dancing for over 30 years, starting in Tasmania, where it’s cold enough to warrant a lot of leaping around in the evenings. They are enjoying the challenge now of playing for several hours, with 7 or 8 dances being on the programme. Beth is the caller. She teaches the dance, which may be in longways sets, circles, square sets, or progressive, and could be in jig time, polka time, reel time, march time, and quite often, waltz time. The caller continues to assist once the music starts, but the music itself tells the dancers when to come in, go out, spin, change partners, or progress onwards. The Minstrels are pleased to have been included in the U3A classes, as it’s a first for Bribie to have bush dances such as Waves of Bribie, Strip the Willow, the OXO reel, Haymakers Jig, or Troika. The Celtic Minstrels also teach a dance from the “Dancing Master” titled “Upon a Summer’s Day.”
Dancing still holds a special place in the social calendar of every Australian community and with all the sophistication and technology of modern society, we are yet to find anything more entertaining or exciting as a good old time bush dance.
