John Meredith Collection

John Meredith spent half a lifetime travelling the bush with his tape recorder, collecting folksongs and folklore in all parts of Australia, writing books on colonial history and folklore, and managing a small farm in the central Highlands. He collected in two major efforts. Initially, at the instigation of the Communist Party of Australia, he collected through the late 50s till about the mid late 60s. He ended up doing this with a number of collaborators who coalesced around the Bush Music Club. This lot of recordings ended up in the NLA as the "John Meredith and Wattle Collection". Meredith's collecting activities took off again in the late 70’s = > 1994, when he collaborated with a number of younger people, including Chris Sullivan, Rob Willis and others. This collection was placed in the NLA separately.

His vast collection of tapes, containing some 5000 items, along with his field notes, now comprise the John Meredith Collection, which is housed in the National Library in Canberra, Australia. This collection is also variously referred to as the "Meredith Collection" or the "John Meredith Folklore Collection”.

This collection was the source of details for a number of the tunes in this archive.

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