Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky’s Repertoire
(Teachers – ask if there’s something you want that isn’t here, as there’s lots more to be drawn on.)
| INDIGENOUS ISSUES | Content |
| Mermaid Ngadiji (Wositzky/Hargreaves) | Song about Yanyuwa women’s Dreaming story from NT |
| Uluru (Wositzky/Hargreaves) | Song about 1985 handback of Uluru to tradional owners |
| Welcome Wominjika (Wositzky) | A thank you song to Indigenous Australians |
| Ab Gub/ Wassa Matta You? (Trad) | Torres Strait dance song |
| Annie (Clapton/Lane/Lambert/Bradley) | Rock legends translated into Yanyuwa |
| Drover’s Boy (Ted Egan) | Song about sexual relations between white men and black women |
| Jabin Jabin (Trad) | Traditional Waka Waka song from Qld |
| Ka Wome (Trad) | Island song from the Torres Strait |
| Khuliliya (Land Rights song) (Bill Davis) | Song in Pitjantjara, from the Ernaballa Choir |
| Land of Broken Glass (Bill Davis) | A lament about grog destroying families |
| Gurindji Blues (Ted Egan) | Song from the 1966 Gurdindji Walk Off, NT. |
| Bunjil and Waa (Trad) | Re-working of Jarra Dreaming story from central Victoria |
| Nama Wells (Bill Harney) | Story about water and a white man who died |
| Numul the Fire (Bozic/Marshall) | Wagait (NT) Dreaming tale, with message of cultural appropriation |
| Kangaroo Tails (ABC radio/Wositzky) | Bizzare outback happening, with blacks, police and kanga tails |
| COLONISATION/ CONVICTS | |
| Jim Jones of Botany Bay (Trad) | Our best convict song |
| Botany Bay (Trad) | English broadside about transportation |
| Shores of Botany Bay (Trad) | Song of Irish immigration |
| 1850’s GOLD RUSH | |
| Gold in the Heart (Wositzky) | 1850’s gold rush, with philisophical musings. |
| Swag Upon My Shoulder (Trad) | Song of a fortunate digger – 1850’s gold rush. |
| Maryborough Miner (Trad) | Song of a rough, lawless gold digger |
| Good Time a Coming (Charles Mackay) | Immigrant’s song of hope in a new land |
| Eureka (John Romeril) | Poem about how gold panicked the rich. |
| 19th CENTURY BUSH LIFE – PASTORAL | |
| Another Fall of Rain (John Shaw Neilson) | Song about the annual round of a shearer’s working life. |
| Billy of Tea (Trad) | Gentle song about the delights of travelling in the bush. |
| Four Little Johnnie Cakes (Trad) | A swaggie sings of contentment in the bush |
| Jog Along Till Shearing (Trad) | The rowdy, drinking siong of a shearer’s spree |
| On the Wallaby (Henry Lawson) | Australia’s best swagman song |
| The Lachlan Tigers (Trad) | Shearing song about pride in work |
| The Springtime Brings on the Shearing (Trad) | Sweet bush ballad to the travelling life. |
| Waltzing Matilda (Banjo Patterson) | Our national song |
| Holy Dan (Trad) | Story of a pious bullocky who fell from grace |
| How McDougall Topped The Score (Thomas Spencer) | Wonderful country cricket tale, with dog as main character. |
| Mickety Mulga Jim (Trad) | A short one about a foolish man – if he’s telling the truth |
| The Man from Ironbark (Banjo Patterson) | Who’s smarter – country of city kids? |
| The Smiths (Dryblower Murphy) | The characters in the WA gold rush |
| The Swagless Swaggie (E. Harrington) | Tale of how a swaggie conned the whole pub. |
| Ballad of 1891 (D. Bridges & H. Palmer) | Powerful song about the 1891 shearer’s strike in Queensland |
| Khala Khala (Trad) | Afghan cameleer song from Austrlian outback |
| 19th CENTURY LIFE – BUSHRANGERS | |
| Streets of Forbes (Trad) | Song of bushranger Ben Hall, and police murder |
| The Wooloomooloo Lair (Trad) | Larrikin anthem from the Rocks area of Sydney. |
| Poor Ned Kelly (Smiling Billy Blinkhorn) | A 1930’s look back at Ned. |
| Stringybark Creek (Trad) | The song of Ned Kelly killing three policemen. |
| CITY & COUNTRY | |
| The Play (CJ Dennis) | A larrikin’s re-working of Romeo and Juliet. |
| The Man from Ironbark (Banjo Patterson) | Who’s smarter – country of city kids? |
| WORLD WAR ONE | |
| Bill Harney’s War (WE Bill Harney) | Classic war story, recorded by ABC in 1958. |
| Band Played Waltzing Matilda (E. Bogle) | Classic song of Gallipoli |
| A Letter to the Front (CJ Dennis) | Poem from the man at the front. |
| Human Landscapes (Nazim Hikmet) | Turkish poem of soldier at the front |
| 20th CENTURY | |
| Anti Fouling Roll (Bill Berry) | Blues from the waterfront |
| Sayonara Nakamura (Ted Egan) | Song of Japanese pearl diver at broome, WA. |
| Jim Pike (N.Gardiner) | Song about Phar Lap’s jockey, Jim Pike. |
| The Ballad of Birdsville Drover (G. Jenkin) | Tall tale about Donald Campbell and world land speed record. |
| CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN LIFE | |
| Ahmet’s Letter (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Song from true life letters of a boy in Baxter Detention Centre |
| Fifteen Million People (Don Henderson) | Satire on how everyone knows everyone in a small place |
| Brave Beneath the Bar (Wositzky/Hargreaves) | Song about how a town cut down it’s biggest tree for income |
| Chain Saw Song (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Not too politically correct satire on logging |
| Midoriya (Wositzky/Hargreaves) | An Australian lost in Japan |
| Sack the Jack (Wositzky/McManus) | Pogues’ish dig at Queen as head of Australian government |
| Singing for You (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Lament for friend who died from alcohol, and why. |
| Hey Rain (Bill Scott) | Classic anthem of the wet season in far Nth Queensland |
| The Singing Land (Dougie McLean) | Spiritual ode to the Australian landscape |
| Apocalypse Café (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Story of how to make a fortune and learn about life at Coober Pedy |
| Can I have Your Body? (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Yarn about an outrageous Darwin funeral |
| God’s own Country (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | How Jan talked his way into Kerry Packer’s house – really! |
| Kangaroo Tails (ABC radio/Wositzky) | Bizzare outback happening, with blacks, police and kanga tails |
| Man’s Best Friend (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Another bizzare outback mystery tale |
| Pomegranite Time (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Castlemaine version of Persephone myth. |
| Taipans (Kenneth Cook) | Scarcely believable outback yarn concerning snakes on planes |
| What’s in a Name? (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Story of Jan Wositzky’s name |
| Postcard from Hell in October (A. McMillan) | Powerful poem about hazards of a Darwin build up season |
| Life Cycle (Bruce Dawe) | Poem about Victoria’s love of football |
| The Practical Smoker (Don Henderson) | Poem on how to pull an industrial relations coup on the building site |
| Ballad the Birdsville Drover (G.Jenkin) | Outrageous story of Donal Campbell’s World Speed record. |
| POLITICS | |
| Stump Speech (Trad/Wositzky) | Satire on politicians speeches. |
| Service Song (Harry Robertson) | Satire on politicians’ promises to ‘serve’ us |
| CONSERVATION ISSUES | |
| Chain Saw Song (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Not too politically correct satire on logging |
| Pomegranite Time (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Castlemaine version of Persephone myth. |
| Brave Beneath the Bar (Wositzky/Hargreaves) | Song about how a town cut down it’s biggest tree for income |
| NATIONAL IDENTITY | |
| The Singing Land (Dougie McLean) | Spiritual ode to the Australian landscape |
| Sack the Jack (Wositzky/McManus) | Pogues’ish dig at Queen as head of Australian government |
| Ahmet’s Letter (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Song from true life letters of a boy in Baxter Detention Centre |
| THE OUTBACK | |
| The Singing Land (Dougie McLean) | Spiritual ode to the Australian landscape |
| Taipans (Kenneth Cook) | Scarcely believable outback yarn concerning snakes on planes |
| God’s own Country (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | How Jan talked his way into Kerry Packer’s house – really! |
| Kangaroo Tails (ABC radio/Wositzky) | Bizzare outback happening, with blacks, police and kanga tails |
| Man’s Best Friend (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Another bizzare outback mystery tale |
| The Singing Land (Dougie McLean) | Spiritual ode to the Australian landscape |
| Apocalypse Café (Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky) | Story of how to make a fortune and learn about life at Coober Pedy |
| Ballad the Birdsville Drover (G.Jenkin) | Outrageous story of Donal Campbell’s World Speed record. |