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The Long Service Leave Show
Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky
with special guest Penny Glass reading letters from poet Mary Gilmore

Fri 29 & Sat 30 May, 7.30pm | Door Open 7pm

After 55 years ‘on the road’, eight books, nine albums, a dozen ABC RN feature programs, a couple of television docos and more shows than he can count, storyteller/musician Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky is taking long service leave (courtesy of the Australian government), and his last show for 2026 will be a hometown gig at The Coolroom, Northern Arts Hotel, Castlemaine, on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 May.

In Jan’s inimitable style of mixing stories, music and songs, high on entertainment value, deep and informative in terms of Australian’s cultural story, the show will swing from old Bushwackers songs that are still important to him as we stumble into the chaotic 21st century, including his idea of the mythic origins of Waltzing Matilda; songs from the 1950-1960s songwriters whom Jan calls ‘Australia’s Woody Guthries’ (Dorothy Hewitt, Don Henderson et al); a poem, recently arrived, from within Gaza’s rubble; a musical and poetic thread from the 1851 Forest Creek Monster Meeting to Eureka, the 1891 Shearer’s Strike and on to the 500 shearers and socialists, including poet Mary Gilmore, who in 1893 sailed from Sydney to set up an Australian utopia in Paraguay (race, sex and booze had a bit to do with the outcome…well, after all, it is an Australian story); plus a handful of Jan’s intimate, original song-stories.

Jan will be joined in the Paraguay piece by his partner, actor/musician, Penny Glass, playing quena and being Mary Gilmore.

Then it’s six months long service leave. Take up golf. Become a connoisseur of Castlemaine’s 3000 coffee shops. Hang out with the latest latte swilling blow-ins. Visit his grand-daughters in Perth. Take to the back verandah with his banjo.

Contact the host of Jan Wositzky's Long Service Leave Show

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