Pearly Watling
Pearly (Pearlie) Watling, (1905–1996) Goulburn, NSW provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive, as described by John Meredith and others.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography names her as: "Pearl Amelia Irene Watling" (1905–1996), shale miner and musician, but subsequently refers to her as "Pearlie".
John Meredith refers to her as "Pearly" - "Pearly Watling was born Collins in 1904 ... She was introduced to the accordion by her father Bill, who took up that instrument after he lost a finger in an accident at a local wood-cut one day ... Pearly had two uncles Frank Collins and Lynn Collins ... A remarkable woman for her eighty years, Pearly handled her big double-row button accordion with ease, and since she was used to playing for dances, prefaced each item with an introductory lead-in." -- (adapted from) J Meredith, R Covell, P Brown, Folk Songs of Australia Vol 2, UNSW Press, 1987, p74-6.
Articles on "Pearly Watling" can be found on Trove at the National Library Of Australia. Go to Trove and search for "Pearly Watling". One such article is "Pearlie Watling's humanity is the survival skill".
Pearly Watling was a niece to Frank Collins, another notable musician who lived in and around Goulburn, NSW and grand daughter of Frank Collins Snr who encouraged her to play fiddle and accordion.
