''Reedy River'' is a 1953 Australian folk musical about the

1891 Australian shearers' strike The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. The dispute was primarily between Trade union, unionised and non-unionised wool workers. It resulted in the formation of large camps of striking wor ...

. The libretto was written by

Dick Diamond Richard Frank Diamond (27 July 1906 – 9 February 1989), better known as Dick Diamond, was an Australian writer best known for ''Reedy River''. Diamond was born in England and migrated to Australia in 1914. He wrote plays, scripts and revues and ...

with songs chosen by John Gray. Two new songs were written for the musical by Diamond with music by Miles Maxwell.

Background

The musical was previewed in 1952 in Melbourne.

Production history

The play premiered at the Melbourne New Theatre on 11 March 1953. The Sydney production featured

The Bushwhackers The Bushwhackers were a professional wrestling tag team who competed first as the New Zealand Kiwis and then as The Sheepherders during their 36-year career as a tag team. They wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation, Jim Crockett Promotions ...

instead of an orchestra. It played throughout Australia over three years and was toured in England. It was seen by over 450,000 people in Australia during its first run and has been revived several times. Contemporary reviews were mixed.

Selected songs

*"Widgeegoweera Joe" *"Reedy Lagoon" *"Banks of the Condamine" *"Old Black Billy" *"Reedy River" *"Eumerella Shore" *"

Click Go the Shears "Click Go the Shears" is a traditional Australian country song. The song details a day's work for a sheep shearer in the days before machine shearing. Song The enduring popularity of the song reflects the traditional role that the wool indus ...

" *"Four Little Johnny cakes" composed by

Louis Lavater ] Louis Isidore Lavater (2 March 1867 – 22 May 1953) was an Australian composer and author born in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, of Swiss-Swedish extraction. He published more than a hundred musical works, beginning in 1880 with the waltz '' ...

These songs were issued on an Australian 10" LP Diaphon DPR-8 in the mid 1950s. A further song "Ballad of 91" was also included on the record.

References

{{reflist

External links

Listing of Australian productions
at

AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

Complete copy of original song book
at

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

1953 musicals 1950s Australian musicals Musicals set in Australia Musicals set in the 1890s Musicals inspired by real-life events