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From the Western Herald (Bourke) Friday 8 November 1968 p. 6. "SONS OF LIBERTY" "Come all you sons of liberty and listen to our tale, A story of our early days we will to you unveil; We'll tell of our first settlers, the convicts and the free, Of this who made our nation great - the Sons of Liberty." There are many stirring stories of the early years of settlement in Australia and of the pioneers who helped build our nation. The Bourke High School has taken a selection of these stories and has pre- pared a specially written survey in words and music of the first hundred years of European settlement in Australia. This musical, entitled "Sons of Liberty," will be performed on Wednesday and Thursday, 27th and 28th November in the fourth courtyard at the High School. Patrons will be familiar with some of the traditional songs to be presented: "Botany Bay," "The Springtime it Brings on the Shearing," "The Wild Colonial Boy," "Andy's Gone with Cattle," As well as these, the play includes some lesser-known hut very catchy songs such as "The Death of Ned Kelly," "The Little Fish," "Ten Thousand Miles Away," "The Girl With the Black Velvet Band;" and "By the Eumerella Shore." The play opens in a court room in England and soon moves to the wharf and then to the voyage out to Australia. This section of our early history is told almost entirely through the traditional convict songs of the period. The difficulties of the early years of settlement are shown in the dramatic sequence, "The Long Wait." This features Greg. Green, Kevin Hatch, Brian Sutton, Greg Howchin, Gay Gaiter and Maureen Jones. The singers return to advance the story through the pioneering period of the 1840's. One of the highlights of "Sons of Liberty" is an episode from the career of Australia's most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly. This sequence stars Jim Rice as Ned Kelly, Lloyd Campbell as Joe Byrne, and Charles Ashford, Des Clark and Les Wielinga as the victims. "Sons of Liberty" concludes with a traditional camp-fire scene. The main soloists are Glen Helm, John Buster, John Kissner, David Sommerville, Louise Buster, Barbara Cameron, Bronwyn Murphy, Carol Foster, Margaret Gardiner, Beverley Spencer, Kathy Boone, Carol Lewis and Joanne Robinson. Vicki Gaiter, Megan Gaiter and Glenda Cockburn are the Narrators. A special feature of this presentation will be the use of an overhead projector to project drawings and sketches onto the backdrop behind the singers. Bookings for this programme are now open at Towers Drug Co. and at the High School.

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australian traditional songs . . . a selection by mark gregory