The Rambling Bilbies

Wanneroo Folk Club Come-all-ye this Friday at the Dorchester Hall in Warwick. doors open 7pm. more info at

West Australian Folk Federation – Promoting Folk Music, Dance and Spoken Word to Western Australia in the Folk Tradition WELCOME to the West Australian Folk Federation (WAFF) Welcome to the pages of the WA Folk Federation. The WAFF was established in 1970 with the principle aim of promoting Folk Music and Dance in WA and attracting the National Folk Festival to WA which we hosted in 1978 in Fremantle & 1985 at The Uni...

The WA government has decided to spend $5.6Million to create a roundabout on Morley Dve and Bath St. What they don't mention is this very close to the roundabout for the Tonkin Hwy entry and exit which is a nightmare in itself. Bath road is not a major road, surely a roundabout would be more beneficial at the next road along Morley Dve which is Emberson Rd and is fairly major Rd. Who makes these crazy decisions. Morley Dve in this area is bad enough now. As you drive east on Morley drive on the other side of the Hwy it is a short drive to Beechboro Rd and then Hampton Senior Highschool. This new roundabout so close to the Tonkin Hwy interchange is not going to improve traffic flow it is more likely to cause more congestion.

Here are a few pics from last night at the Wanneroo Folk Club. We had a night of really good music and if you weren't there you missed a great show. Sea Swallow introduced some new songs as well as a few of their oldies. Richard Mortimer gave us a few of the songs from his new CD and John Ralph sang some of his indigenous inspired songs. And the Wanneroo choir still had a chance to join in a few choruses. Next month is a Come-All-Ye.

This Friday is Wanneroo Folk club night with the wonderful Sea Swallow. Doors open 7pm. more info at www.wafolk.org.au

So the senate has an inquiry into live music due to the cancelling of many events over the last few years. The government restrictions over the previous years did not help and has caused a loss of confidence in running events. We never really knew if an event would be closed down at the last minute, which happened a lot. The small and medium venues are still struggling to get people to go to music events and have a good night out. The organisers have to pay the expenses, if only a few turn up they run at a loss and in time this becomes unsustainable. One suggestion is to have a local artist as support for international acts. This is what the unions put in place in the '70's to support local artists. Problem was that they picked artists who were simply not ready for the big stage. What would help is for venues and insurance to be less expensive, which some local government councils are addressing. There is help needed in the cost of putting on the events, it costs a lot to run concerts, festivals, dances etc., we don't get the audience in the door we can't keep doing it. Answers are not easy to find but we need the general public to get off their bums and come to see the music that is out there, most are really low priced to entice an audience to turn up. Things are improving but it is a slow grind.