Greg Bryan talks with Macca on Australia All Over

The week before embarking on the Bourke to Hungerford walk, Greg Bryan spoke with Ian "Macca" McNamara on ABC Radio's 'Australia All Over' programme.  What pleasantly surprised both Greg and Sean out on the road was the number of 'Macca' listeners who stopped to say G'day.

 Click the 'play' button below to hear Greg speaking with Macca

Transcript of Greg speaking with Macca

Greg: Yeah, G'day Macca! This is Greg calling from Winnipeg in Canada.

Macca: G’day Greg.

Greg: I heard you read out ‘The Heart of the Swag’ a little earlier, by Lawson

Macca: Yep

Greg: Just thought I’d call and let you know that I’m coming home for a holiday starting next week and the first thing I do is: an old mate of mine from primary school is going to join me and we’re going to retrace Lawson’s footsteps from Bourke to Hungerford.

Macca: Oh, really? You’re going to walk it?

Greg: Yeah, that’s right. So I think it’s about 220 km or so, so we’re going to start that next Saturday.

Macca: Gee! Well it will be great. It won’t be too hot. It might be a bit cold depending whatever. I think – I’m not sure what time of year Lawson did it in. I think it was summer.

Greg: yeah, it was. Lawson set off just on New Year’s Eve so he was there right at the start of January for about two weeks or so and from what I can understand it was boiling hot.

Macca: I remember reading bits and pieces. Greg, why are you doing that?

Greg: Well, ever since I was introduced to Henry’s writing in school he’s always been my favourite writer and so this is just something that I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember because the trip certainly influenced Lawson’s writing a great deal and so I’m very interested and eager to get out there and to experience some of the things that he experienced.

Macca: Yeah, well it sort of coloured his - he sort of liked the bush and he didn’t like it and I think he met a lot of characters out in the bush – his Mitchell stories and all those sort of things, and as I said before we use that word – it ‘informed’ him about life and people, I suppose but I’m not sure…because he had that great series of articles with Banjo Paterson and Banjo was always eulogising the bush and Henry sort of said "Well, hang on mate, it’s ok, but it’s a bit rough and rugged too as well."

Greg: Yeah, that’s right. Lawson, his argument was that he saw the bush from a different perspective to that that Banjo saw it from. He saw Banjo as travelling somewhat like a gentleman on the back of a horse, whereas Lawson did his travels of course on his feet.

Macca: On Shanks’ pony!

Greg: Yeah, that’s right. Exactly. So I think that they were seeing the same thing but from very different perspectives and therefore of course that coloured their perceptions of the bush.

Macca: Well this is a different call from Winnipeg in Canada. What are you doing there, Greg?

Greg: Well I’ve lived here for many years. I’m a professor at the University here. So I’ve been away for – well, I haven’t actually been home for four years now so I’m very eager to get home. But I’ve actually lived over here for most of the last fifteen years or so.

Macca: Uh-huh. And so you just come home on holidays, I suppose. What’s that like – living and working there?

Greg: It’s really good. It’s a nice place to be and of course I have lots of connections here. My wife is a Canadian and I have couple of kids who were born here in Canada. So it’s a special place for me but Australia will certainly always be home.