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Welcome to the Folksinger Archive Page

When we settled in the Mountains back in 1983 there was hardly any music scene happening up here at all – in fact, everything was quiet. On Sundays, you could've fired a gun up Katoomba Street, and there was hardly a car parked in the Leura Mall. It may come as a surprise to the younger generation to know that there wasn't a set of traffic lights between Parramatta and Mt Victoria.

The level-crossing bells clanged in the mist near the Gearins Hotel as a Mountains train, with those individual seating compartments of polished wood and brass, glided into Katoomba Station where sleepy passengers alighted – leaving the rush of the city behind.

Chimney-smoke curled serenely into the quiet, scented air, punctuated by the raucous screech of rampaging cockatoos, and the bang of pine cones on the corrugated tin shed where grandad kept his old hand-tools.

Fortunately, much of that hasn't changed – the mist still rolls in when the breeze turns easterly, the magpies still charm the morning, and the sense of community bonds our hearts more strongly as the years roll by.

It's natural to look back and yearn for days gone past, but in many ways, life in the Mountains has never been better!

More soon ...