History of Banding in Queensland History of Banding in Queensland
Author: Brendan O'Malley
When the brass band played on
Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Saturday, September 12, 2009
THERE was a time when a great family day out in Queensland meant packing a picnic and heading to the nearest park rotunda to hear a brass band play.
Brass bands have been in existence in Queensland since the early 1890s. Originally they were military bands , and then civilian bands began to spring up.
In 1901 a band from Brisbane attended the federation festivities in Melbourne. All cities and towns had a band - no matter how big or small their population - and in many cases country towns boasted at least three.
That is why almost every one of Queensland 's older public parks features a rotunda. To modern eyes they often seem too small to have accommodated much of a band , but in the early days the musicians all stood so quite a few could cram into them.
Phil Carnes, who has written a book on the phenomena, said that in the pioneering era people had come to the state from all over the world and the only thing they had to remind them of their homeland was a brass band playing nostalgic tunes.
`` Bands competed against each other in various music festivals. Each year a state title was run and was known as a `contest' - and is still known by that name today,'' Mr Carnes said.
``People and competing bands travelled for days to attend.
``It was reported that at one stage early in the century a group of people rode their pushbikes some 20 miles (32km) to attend.''
Interstate bands often had to stop at towns along the way to play so they could raise money for the journey.
Until World War II contests were broadcast on ABC radio. Soloists also competed and during the prestigious event, the Champion of Champions, people would be glued to their ``wireless'' sets to hear who had won.
Marching bands were also an integral part of any street parade. At the end of the parade the separate bands would join together for a mass march.
This photo, believed to have been taken in 1946 in Ipswich, shows the massed Toowoomba City, Maryborough Xl and Ipswich Vice Regal and Juniors.
The woman near the front grasping a baton is Maurine Lyon of Ipswich, a well-known figure in Ipswich choirs, who was acting as one of the drum majors or officials who told the band when to start marching, when to stop, and when to turn left or right.
Her father Albert Clark was the first Champion of Champions player in Queensland , in 1919, and was a well-known bandsman throughout Australia.
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