• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Jack Moses dead: Well-known country show identity [13 July 1945]

2 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This article, about the death of Jack Moses, was published in The Narandera Argus, 13 July 1945.]

Jack Moses dead

Well-known country show identity

Residents of Narandera were sorry to learn of the death of Jack Moses, the well-known show identity, which took place at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on Tuesday last.

He had been ill only a few weeks, entering hospital a week before his death.

“Nine Miles From Gundagai” gives only a fitful glimpse of Jack Moses, an 85-year-old lover of wine and song.

It was only one of many jingles in which Moses, lover of the country and country folk, touched off many simple emotional chords. For Moses, as he travelled the State selling his wines, found words forming on his lips to express — sometimes crudely certainly — his response to the trials of the bush and the spirit with which they were faced.

The meat and the wheat and the fruit that we eat;
And the butter we spread on our bread;
Come from the toil of the man on the soil,
And that’s how the nations are fed.

There’s nothing in it beyond pleasant jingle, yet it and hundreds of other pieces will be treasured by thousands of people who in town and village remember Jack Moses and his “Nine Miles From Gundagai.”

For about 60 years Jack Moses travelled in the interests of the wine industry. He was always welcome at country shows and other gatherings, where he usually “topped the bill” at smoke concerts as a reciter of his own jingle, and as the teller of bush yarns. He assisted the Red Cross and other patriotic and charitable organisations.

Moses talked almost incessantly of the need for greater primary production. Whether one met him in the city or country at midday, or on a train at 8 o’clock in the morning, he pleaded for the man on the land and for greater and better primary products.

He originated “Bush Week” and other similar shows in Sydney a number of years ago, when the products of country districts were exhibited in shop windows. These displays increased knowledge of the country, and they induced many city boys to go on the land.

Jack Moses regarded that as sufficient reward, because it meant more people to produce cattle and sheep, and wool and wheat, and all other products of the soil.

For many years he visited the Narandera show and was well known here. He had a soft spot in his heart for Narandera, and during “Bush Week” in Sydney he worked untiringly to exhibit the best of the products from the Narandera district, which was designated the “Door of the Great South West.” On that occasion he was assisted by the late William Guest, E. T. Lapthorne, J. B. Rickard, and Mr. R. H. Hankinson. Of the quintette Mr. Hankinson is now the only one living. The products were displayed in the windows of Sydney shops, and created a great deal of attention. Jack Moses visited Narandera until about two years ago, and was always pleased to renew old acquaintances and exchange reminiscences.

He is survived by one son.

The funeral took place on Wednesday last, when the remains were interred in the South Head cemetery.



Source:
The Narandera Argus (Narandera, NSW), 13 July 1945, p. 1

Filed Under: articles Tagged With: 500x500, Jack Moses (1861-1945) (subject), SourceTrove, The Dog on the Tucker Box (Gundagai), year1945

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Obituary: Dr. James Edwards [31 December 1879]
  • Mothers’ Day [10 May 1909]
  • Mother’s Day [20 May 1909]
  • Mother’s Day [by Rev. Father J. M. Cusack, 25 May 1944]
  • Mothers’ Day [13 May 1921]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Two Man Band – Up There Cazaly [music videos]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • IAC on Duncan (I’d love to have a beer with Duncan) [music videos, sung by Slim Dusty and various artists]
  • IAC on Visit of Hope to Sydney-Cove, Near Botany-Bay [poem by Erasmus Darwin, 1789]
  • Evan on The Last of His Tribe [poem by Henry Kendall]
  • Graeme Jensen on The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Willow on The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in