Sergeant Small song by Tex Morton, recorded 27 July 1938, about a well known police man that lived in New South Wales in the 1930s. Almost immediately after the release the actual Sergeant Small launched legal proceedings and successfully had the song banned. The record was withdrawn. In the depression years, many men on the dole were obliged to travel the country searching for work as they had to collect their dole from different locations. With virtually no money, there were really only two ways to effect this travel: by walking or jumping a freight train. The railways tended to resent the second option and there was a constant effort by both the state police and the railway police to deter these free travelling swagmen or bagmen as they were sometimes called. Their usual technique was to intermittently board and comprehensively search trains. Sometimes the swagmen were arrested and other times they would be forced off the train in remote areas. He would kit himself out as a bagman trying to find some space on a goods train for himself and he’d surreptitiously approach each carriage and ask if there was any room inside and many a concealed bagman would answer back and thus give himself up. In 1938 Tex Morton wrote a song about this guy. With his music he paved the way for those who followed, from Slim Dusty to James Blundell.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3EuevP0ado

Play it yourself: http://folkstream.com/078.html

Simon Black main character in a series of children’s books. Every Australian Boys' Hero of the 1950s. The author of the series, Ivan Southall realised that ‘real adventure belongs to us’ and that is to people such as himself, not the superheroes typified by Biggles or even the dashing airman of his early and highly popular Simon Black series of boy's adventures (1950-1961).

Songlines a wide network of invisible paths that criss-cross the entire Australian continent. Aboriginals speak about ‘Footprints of the Ancestors’ or ‘The Way of the Laws’. When Aboriginal clans still wandered around the continent they celebrated the characteristics of their routes by singing and exchanging them, helping other clans to find their way through this immense landscape.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVOG-RKTFIo

Sun Tzu Chinese military strategist, Taoist philosopher, and general in the 6th century BCE who is widely recognized for his work The Art of War a treatise on military strategy, also known as The Thirteen Chapters. This is one of the most popular classics on the subject. It probably dates back to 400 BC and is the first known attempt to formulate a rational basis for planning and executing military operations. Sun Tzu was convinced that a skilful strategist could defeat the army of the enemy without binding to the conflict and to bring their state overthrown without bloodshed.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz4FNBj1APA

Tex Morton Rodeo Show wild west show of Tex Morton (1916 - 1983), the stage name of centipede Robert William Lane, who was born in New Zealand. Morton was a rich and famous singer- songwriter, stage artist, circus owner, writer of comic books and film actor in Hollywood. In the novel DESERT OF GUILT we meet him when his Wild West Rodeo Show has landed in Kingoonya during the horse races in the Easter holidays. This show really existed and travelled throughout Australia. It could have been in Kingoonya on Good Friday 1946.

Source: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morton-tex-15027

Ticker tape parade honour parade with ticker tapes in New York. On October 28, 1886, as the parade in honour of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty marched up Broadway, employees spontaneously threw ticker tape out of their office windows to join in the celebration, giving the tradition its name. Celebrations continued intermittently over the next few decades, with more formally scheduled events beginning in 1919 with a parade for Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales. The 1-inch strip of paper was used to print stock quotes from the ticker machine, popular in lower Manhattan’s financial district, which became the parade route. As the stock exchange moved to electronic boards in the 60s, ticker tape was no longer in use, and shredded paper and confetti took its place. In 2003, New York City marked the parade route with over 200 thin black granite markers, noting each parade with the date and a brief description, a New York version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 Source: http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-ticker-tape-parades