Summary

This ballad was printed in Melbourne in 1932, to commemorate the death of the champion race horse Phar Lap. The original owner, folklorist Bill Wannan, purchased it from a vendor outside the State Library in Melbourne for 3d a short time later.

Description of Content

Rectangular sheet of brown thin card with extensive dark brown text of the ballad `Good Bye, Phar Lap, Good Bye' printed on one side. At the bottom `Died 5/4/1932' has been written in blue ink. The ballad has been glued along the top to a paper mount, suggesting that it was framed at some stage.

Physical Description

Rectangular sheet of brown thin card with extensive dark brown text of the ballad `Good Bye, Phar Lap, Good Bye' printed on one side. At the bottom `Died 5/4/1932' has been written in blue ink. The ballad has been glued along the top to a paper mount, suggesting that it was framed at some stage.

Significance

This Street Ballad is a very rare surviving example of highly ephemera material which was sold by street balladeers in Melbourne the late 19th and early 20th Century. The ballads were usually set to popular tunes of the day, such as this one set to `The Wearing of the Green'. They often highly satirical or highly emotional in nature and usually dealt with contemporary events, such as disasters, labour disputes and strikes and political and sporting figures. Although there is no author's name printed on the ballad, a search of the National Archives database reveals a work of the same name registered for copyright on May 4th 1932 by Robert Henry Kreym Borg of Melbourne.

The ballad is also an important addition to the Museum's collection of material related to the death of Phar Lap, particularly how it was commemorated in Australia. Coincidentally, it was purchased outside the Public Library in Melbourne in 1932, a building which would become the home of Phar Lap less than a year later.

The ballad is also important due to its link to Australian folklorist Bill Wannan, who was born in Victoria in 1914 and died in 2001. He published over 50 books on Australian folklore and humour, and wrote a column in the Australasian Post for over 25 years. His papers are housed with the Manuscript section of the National Library of Australia.

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