Orley Benson
Orley Benson, Cudgegong, NSW provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive, as described by John Meredith, also collected by Reg Kurtz.
Orley Benson "played a big two-row 'Corso' button accordion and had the same smooth, sweeping style of playing which I first heard from the Holland brothers. Born in Linburn in 1910, Orley's first job as a lad was working at 'digging out' -- eradicating rabbits the hard way -- at Cudgegong. One of his work mates, Albert Franklin, had in his tent a small button accordion which Orley bought from him for five shillings. He took it back to his tent, and in twenty minutes had learnt to play 'Home Sweet Home' on it." -- J Meredith, R Covell, P Brown, Folk Songs of Australia Vol 2, UNSW Press, 1987, p40.
There are photos and recordings of him in the National Library of Australia in Canberra, search the NLA catalog for "Orley Benson".
See also Vince Holland.
