song
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Your Place or Mine
by Amie Brûlée I did a PhD on the cultural side of wine between France and Australia and the sometime animosity between the old world and the new. Continue reading
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The Year of the Fire
by Kerry Maguire This is a true story of the Scott family who lived in Queenstown, Tasmania and the North Mount Lyell mine fire of 1912. All the tunnels in the mine were lined with King Billy pine, which has an incredibly high oil content. The fire took hold and it was an inferno; 42 Continue reading
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Taking it All Away
by Don Cowling Written about the Ash Wednesday bushfires back in 1983. Continue reading
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Drinking Wine
by Xueqian Zhang This is an ancient Chinese poem (饮酒) that I have turned into a song. The original poet was a politician who gave up his career in order to return to the countryside. He lived out the rest of his days in happiness, picking flowers and admiring the mountains. He felt like he Continue reading
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Built Like Us
by Felicity Dowd I come from a family of six people and a dog, so moving to Uni for me was a massive shift – especially because I moved into a house by myself. I very quickly realised the importance of family and just having them there as people. Continue reading
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an iolair
by Cal Clugston Here’s another miserable song about World War 1. This one tells the story of a troop ship that sank off the isle of Lewis in the days after the war when the soldiers were returning. Continue reading
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Stuck by the Road
by Jeremiah Rose Composed in 2016. Lyrics Verse 1 One morning when my car broke down Stuck by the road And the sun it shone like gold and ochre I had nothing to do for three sweet hours Apart from listen to the sound Of the sheep and of the cows And I wish that Continue reading
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Shackled
by Ruth Hazleton This song was written for Nûdem Durak, a Kurdish musician sentenced to nineteen years’ imprisonment in Turkey for teaching young people traditional song and dance. The song also references the feminist Kurdish female fighters of the Yekîneyên Parastina Jin (YPJ) who play a fundamental role in military operations in the region. Durak Continue reading
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The Rains
by Marcus Bornstein Composed in 2018. Lyrics Verse 1 Won’t you tell me, if or when we’ll ever see those rains again. I’ll wait for you at the main bus station with a coffee cup full of patience I’d sing to you and ease your worries I’d stick with you like sweet sweet honey You’d Continue reading
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Norfolk Pines
by Niall Trainor A song about a young man migrating to a coastal town called Port Fairy in Victoria. Originally performed in Ab with a capo on the 1st fret. Composed in 2021. Lyrics Verse 1 Roving trail carved by you Winter is gone and the flowers start to bloom Well I’ve go a Jon on Continue reading
About Melbourne Tune collection
Melbourne Tune Collection records and publishes original folk tunes and songs from around Australia.
I started this project after realising that I barely knew any Australian folk tunes, even though I’ve been playing the fiddle for almost two decades. It wasn’t that Australians weren’t writing tunes, it’s just that there was limited publishing opportunities for them.
I thought maybe if I collect these tunes and put them together, they would have a better chance of getting played. So in early 2019 I set off with my camera and recorder, first around Melbourne, then across Australia.
This site is the result of these travels. Its purpose is to make Australian folk music as accessible as possible and promote the incredible music that’s being written today. I genuinely believe that there’s something special happening in the Melbourne and Australian folk music scenes right now.
I hope you enjoy playing through these tunes as much as I have!
Katherine Oleinikov
Melbourne Tune Collection 