Pearly Watling
Pearly (Pearlie) Watling, (1905-1996) Goulburn, NSW provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
The National Library of Australia holds aural recordings of interviews conducted with Pearlie Watling. She was interviewed by
- Bill Scott and Don Brian in June 1978, [1], Ron Travis and Pearlie Watling interviewed by Bill Scott in Goulburn CAE folklore field recordings collection.
- John Meredith in [2], Fred Collins interviewed by John Meredith and Chris Sullivan ; Fred Collins and his sister Pearlie Watling play for a bush dance at Wingello.
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 [3].
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.
