An oral history of the outback

Wednesday, May 11, 1994 - 10:00

The Songs of Dougie Young

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the National Library of Australia

Reviewed by Jill Hickson

This collection of songs relates the real life situation for many Aboriginal people in the '50s and '60s in outback NSW. In "Happy Go Lucky" and "Halfcaste", Dougie Young relates his early life in the outback, where he was born of a white father and a Gurnu mother in Queensland.

He later moved to Wilcannia in NSW to work as a stockman. In the '50s, Wilcannia dwindled to a town of 800 people as the Darling River boats disappeared. Half the town was Aboriginal; it was a lively community with lots of music, dancing and of course drinking.

The law forbade Aboriginal people to drink alcohol, but they did anyway. Many of the songs on the album portray this. The police in the area spent most of their time looking for Aboriginal offenders, putting them in jail, yet never once convicting the white suppliers. Songs such as "Pass Him the Flagon" and "They Say It's a Crime" are about the miseries of jail, pompous magistrates who gave long sentences and the whites who got rich supplying Aboriginal people with grog.

Many of the songs are about Dougie Young's life and his friends and are fun to listen to, while songs like "The Land Where the Crow Flies Backwards" and "I Don't Want Your Money" explore other aspect of Aboriginal life. Halfcaste, composed around 1966 highlights the racism that existed in Australian society in the 60s.

Dougie sang most about his mates; women are not prominent in the album.

In his last song, "The Treaty", composed in 1979, Dougie sings about the changes in relation to Aboriginal people and his hopes for a better future: "Australia is a real big country, room for all in here. So let's wipe out discrimination, jealousy and fear."

While the music reflects the influence of country and western, the album represents a piece of Australian history, as well as a tribute to Dougie Young, who died in 1991.