Wednesday, April 6, 2016

PIT OF DEATH , CYCLONE WANDA AND FRISKY QUEENSLAND BUSKERS

An unusual item  unearthed  by  this  blog  is  the above 45rpm  record  which features Ram Chandra  the  Taipan  Man , autographed by him  in 1979, and  the massive 1974  Australia  Day  flooding  of  Brisbane caused by  Cyclone Wanda  .


Born Edward Royce Ramsamy at Lawrence, near Grafton , NSW, in May 1921, he joined  up in the l940s with Nazim Shah  in the  Carnival of Eastern Wonders  on the show circuit, later changing his name to Ram Chandra , specialising in handling and displaying venomous and non venomous snakes in his Pit of Death .
 
Through his interest in  and knowledge gained about deadly Taipans , he helped the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory develop  an antivenene  for the usually fatal Taipan bite , awarded  the  British Empire Medal. Married in Mackay, Queensland , his family consisted  of eight children and three more that were adopted .
 
In the record , the vocal in both is by Lyall Sutcliffe  backed by  The Wagon Wheels .  Sutcliffe and  his brother Geoff  were longtime  buskers  who travelled far and wide, in 2014  performing in a western  Queensland tour  , aged  78 and 80 respectively , their  musical  minded  parents  living  to  101 and  99 .

In September 2014 a popular record shop called  Capricorn Records , at Warrnambool, Victoria , run by Michael Fitzgerald , closed after 35 years of trading . Our  record found  in  Townsville .