An introduction to Australian traditional singer Carrie Milliner.
"These songs are for everyone... they're meant to be shared." - Carrie Milliner

We had just finished a performance at the National Folk Festival in 1997 when we first met with the incredible enthusiasm of Rob Willis and heard words we've thankfully heard many times since, "I've got something I think you might be interested in.". A short time later, a tape recording of Carrie Milliner (nee Bobbin) arrived by post. Rob had drawn our attention specifically to a song by the name of "Bonnie Moon", and what a beauty it was. We were so caught up in listening to and learning this song, that for a week or so we didn't even listen to the rest of the tape. When we finally did, we found a number of remarkable songs, many of which we'd never heard before. The ones we had heard were brought to new life by Carrie's feeling and delivery, singing in the traditional, unaccompanied style. We enthused to Rob over what we had heard and shortly after received 5 more tapes!
Carrie Milliner (nee Bobbin, born 1926) grew up in the bush of "The Nullica", eight miles from Eden, on the far south coast of NSW. The large extended family lived hard working lives as sleeper cutters. In fertile isolation, this family of singers aurally maintained a fantastic collection of songs.
Some of the songs have a traceable history in the family for generations. Carrie in particular found a passion for remembering the songs and sung many of them for Rob Willis, who thankfully passed them on to us.
Beautiful and seemingly forgotten stories and melodies, unified by Carrie's stories from her early life provide a fascinating glimpse of the Australian aural tradition at work.
Carrie in particular found a passion for remembering the songs and sung many of them for collectors Rob Willis, John Meredith and Kevin Bradley, who thankfully passed them on to us.

Quotes from Carrie Milliner's memoirs, and from her field recordings.

"Dad's place was a meeting place for the songs.....they'd all come to Dad's and sing....that's how I've got hold of so many of their songs…"
"Mum would have our tea cooked, and after the washing up was done Dad would get us around the fire and make us sing one song each, then we were allowed out to play."

"...when I sing their songs, I feel they're close...they're there with me as I sing 'em…I try to sing 'em like Grandfather would, I try to take all their voices off as much as I can when I sing their songs...we just naturally followed the way our parents and grandparents sang. If you don't put feeling into a song, what's the point of singing it? You've got to sing it from the heart."

 "…Mum would pack our lunch and put it in a flour bag, Bill always carried it, sometimes we'd decide to have a bit of fun with Mr. Lee's bull, and a bit of fun with our teacher. Bill would climb a big tree in the middle of Mr. Lee's Duck Hole paddock and hang our lunch in it. We'd tell Mr. Lynch we had to go home for lunch, and we'd go back to the tree, and when we were all safely up the tree after pulling and pulling Claude up because he couldn't climb, we would bellow for the bull to come and keep us up the tree so we wouldn't have to go back to school".

"...he'd be singing or humming a tune while he worked, we'd snig the sleepers and we'd have the times of our lives, never thought about being tired - only one day Phoebe said to me "I'm terribly tired" - I said "Well don't tell Dad because he might not let us go to the next dance"...we used to have the times of our lives!".

"Some of the growers decided to send a truck up to Kelly's gate for us, Mr Shelley sent Mr. Grandbour for us and we decided we'd have a bit of fun with him. We'd all get right at the back, and the front wheels would lift off the ground and he couldnt' steer it. This frightened Mr. Granbour, he said to Mr. Shelly "Them kids are mad, I'm not going to pick them up anymore", so we had to walk again. Dad said "I don't know why Shelley wont send a truck for you kids", but we knew why."

"..Mum and Dad and us kids, the uncles and aunties……are like one big happy family and that's how we got though everything at "The Nullica"……everyone pulled together."

Many thanks to Carrie Milliner and The National Library of Australia.
We highly recommend Rob Willis' field recordings of Carrie Milliner (National Library-Willis Collection TRC 3042).
 
"Navvies Camp" by permission of The National Library, Tyrrell Collection
 "With tent behind and blaze before, three loggers in a row, sang all together joyously, pull up the stakes and go."
from "The Wanderers", a poem collected from Carrie Milliner, set to music by C & J Roweth copyright 2000.