Gwenda Beed Davey

Winter Reading – June-July 2003

June–July 2003, no. 252

A Guide To Australian Folklore: From Ned Kelly To Aeroplane Jelly
By Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal
Simon & Schuster, $29.95 pb, 310pp, 0 7318 1075 9

Two of Australia’s authorities on folklore have drawn on many years of research to produce this new reference book. An alphabetical listing of events, beliefs, characters, places, activities and allusions, it is more than a dictionary, often delving into shifts in cultural values and the national character. For example, the entry under garage sale explores the changing attitudes over the past decades to the public sale of personal items. Significant traditions from the many cultures – including indigenous – found in Australia are acknowledged: Passover, muck-up day, Broome’s Shinju Matsuri Festival, the Tasmanian tiger and Anzac biscuits all find a place. The cross-referencing of entries provides a fascinating glimpse into the intricate web that is Australian folklore. The bibliography extends for fourteen pages and is itself a valuable reference for any reader wanting to pursue source materials.

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The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore by Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal

by Robert Holden •

May 1993, no. 150

Robert Holden reviews 'The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore' by Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal

I have had a haunted week reviewing the The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore; haunted by a host of inadequately credited or totally omitted characters and folklore subjects clamouring for their status and value to be recognised. Thus, in that vast penumbra of lost souls, the plaintive cries of characters such as Ginger Meggs, the Magic Pudding, and the Banksia Men, Rolf Harris and Barry Humphries, together with subjects such as Strine, Rhyming Talk, Hanging Rock, Ghosts, and Oral History, have begged for their recognition! And swelling their ranks are those who only got a toehold in the door, so cursory is their mention: Dad and Dave, Joseph Jacobs, Marion Sinclair, Clancy of the Overflow, the Man from Snowy River, et al.

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