The colony of New South Wales rang with popular song and instrumental music written and performed by recent arrivals keen to combine their traditions from home with their new experiences. New lyrics were published in newspapers – often about the wonders of the new country, or satirising political goings-on – with a suggestion that they should be sung to certain well-known  Irish or English tunes. Singers trode the boards of theatres and music halls, singing comedy songs from England, or making up new ones. Pubs,  homes and racecourses were the stages for more informal musical gatherings, where local musicians sung songs about legendary bushrangers or performed Irish airs on the fiddle or pipes, accompanied by tambourine.  Some of this music ignored an Aboriginal presence, some acknowledged it, and sometimes Aboriginal people were involved in the making of it. As it was the popular music of the early nineteenth century, our research team were keen to make it work as popular music in the twenty-first century, reflecting both current values and current performance practices, in order to make our recreations energised dialogues between past and present.