Uncle Gabe Hazelbane sings Beautiful Katherine for the National Library Collection.
Channel: Rob Willis
Date: 2017-06-12

Respected Elder, Uncle Gabe Hazelbane, sings 'Beautiful Katherine' a song he learnt during WW2 while working on the railway in the Northern Territory.  Uncle Gabe learnt the song from repected musician, Jaffa Ah Mat who he worked with at the time.
Uncle Gabe Hazelbane was born 1925 in Darwin his forbears being Filipino and Aboriginal.
Music has played a major part in Gabe’s life being involved with the Cubillo Stringband in its early days, he names some of the members of the band. Music within his family is mentioned along with descriptions of the several stringbands that played in Darwin during the early 1940s.
Many thaks to Uncle Gabe for giving us permission to record and put this video on line.
Thanks must go to Jeff Corfield for his early recordings and research on Darwin music.