A version of this paper was published as ‗The Man and the Woman and the Edison Phonograph: Race, History
and Technology through Song‘, Australasian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology, Vol 1, 2011.
N J B Plomley (ed.), Friendly Mission: the Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson
1829−1834, Quintus Publishing, Hobart, 2008; and Anna Johnston and Mitchell Rolls (eds.), Reading
Robinson: Companion Essays to Friendly Mission, Quintus Publishing, Hobart, 2008.
The quote from the investigation by the Launceston port officer, Matthew Friend is from the endnotes of
Richard Flanagan‘s novel Wanting, Knopf, Sydney, 2008, p256.
There are many references describing life at the Wybaleena settlement. Among the most evocative are the
early parts of Flanagan (op.cit.); and Steve Thomas's documentary Black Man's Houses, (1992, ABC TV).
For examples of the debate, see J Barnard, ‗Notes on the last living aboriginal of Tasmania‘, Papers and
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1889, 1890, pp. 60–64 and H Ling Roth, ‗Is Mrs. F. C.
Smith a ‗Last living aboriginal of Tasmania?‘, Journal of Anthropological Institute, Vol. 27, 1898,
pp. 451–454. The evidence is also summarised in The Mercury (Hobart), 10 September 1889
<http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/822593?>.
Many of the details of Fanny Cochrane Smith‘s life are outlined in J. Clark, 'Smith, Fanny Cochrane
(1834 - 1905)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, Melbourne University Press, 1988,
p. 642. (Also available on line: <http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110661b.htm>).
For more on the life of Joseph Keen and the development of Keens Curry, see Lynn Davies, 'Keen,
Joseph (1819 - 1892)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, Melbourne
University Press, 2005, p. 212. (Also available on line:
<http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10261b.htm>).
Jack Edwards, Out of the Blue: A History of Reckitt & Colman in Australia, Artarmon, NSW, 1982, pp.
36–38. Edwards‘ otherwise excellent history incorrectly states that the sign is no longer visible.
Details of the life of Horace Watson have been provided by Jill Watson based on genealogical research
(personal communication), particularly based on the digitised newspaper articles which can be found at
the National Library of Australia‘s archival Trove website:
<http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/titles?state=Tasmania>.
Grainger made field recordings of English folk songs on wax cylinders from 1906, the first to make
such recordings in Britain. See D de Val, 'Lucy Broadwood and Folksong', in Music and British Culture,
1785–1914, C Bashford and L Langley (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000, p. 341–66.
This work was auspiced by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc, which has produced a CD: Pakana
Luwana Liyini 2005 (CD). An article on the palawa kani Language Program can be found on the website
of the Federation of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Languages & Culture (Corporation):
<http://www.fatsilc.org.au/languages/language-of-the-month-archive/lotm-archive-%282001-to-
2008%29/2006-apr-tasmanian-aboriginal-centre?task=blogcategory>. A more general article can be
found at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawa_kani>. A video of Dewayne Everettsmith singing a song
written by women from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community celebrating connection to Country and
sung in palawa kani can be seen at: <http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=2759>.
Alice M Moyle, ―Tasmanian Music, an Impasse?‘, Records of the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston,
Number 26, 1968; Murray J Longman, 'Songs of the Tasmanian Aborigines as Recorded by Mrs Fanny
Cochrane Smith', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, vol 94, 1960, p. 79; Jill
Stubington, Singing the land: the power of performance in Aboriginal life, Currency House, Strawberry
Hills, NSW, 2007, pp. 222–227.
Martin Thomas, ‗The Rush to Record: Transmitting the Sound of Aboriginal Culture‘, Journal of
Australian Studies (issue titled, Who Am I?: Perspectives on Australian Cultural Identity) Dawn Bennett
(ed.), no. 90, June 2007, pp. 105-21. (A version of this paper is also available on line:
<http://www.forum.ididj.com.au/the-rush-to-record-transmitting-the-sound-of-aboriginal-t805.html>).
H B Ritz, ‗An introduction to the study of the aboriginal speech of Tasmania‘, Papers and Proceedings of
the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1908, pp. 73-83.
For example, Truganini‘s remains were seized from her grave. While the body-snatchers were never
identified her skeleton ended up with the Royal Society of Tasmania, the very organisation that later
commissioned the recordings.
Tasmanian Songman Ronnie, Ronnie Summers with Helen Gee, Magabala Books, Broome, 2009, p. 135.
The recording is available on a CD accompanying Ronnie‘s book (op.cit.) and on the Bruce Watson CD
Balance (2010) <http://www.brucewatsonmusic.com/cds-books.html>. A live performance can be
viewed at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVg5eKpP5qo>.