Feature Profiles
14 January, 2026
SUMMER HEADING Lindsay was the leader of the band
On the 50th anniversary of the Wedderburn Oldtimers' debut, we look at the man with the idea
LINDSAY Holt was a born entertainer, storyteller and some might say a man of ideas who made good things happen.
He worked hard to master the button accordion after losing the tips of fingers on his left hand to a chaff cutter.
“He had gloves on to handle the hay, the glove got caught and took off part of his fingers,” recalls sister Glenda Hunter who would later be among the musicians in the band Lindsay formed.
The Wedderburn Oldtimers’ Orchestra had Lindsay at its heart.
“He worked for a long time to be able to play the button accordion,” Glenda said.
“He was the leader, he was funny and just a gentleman to everyone in the band.
“If there was any arguing, he just didn’t hear them and carried on doing what was needed ... he’d be there unloading and loading the band van.
“When he stood up during a performance, it would be with a great yarn to tell and yes, he could sing.”
Glenda said Lindsay’s mind was always ticking with ideas about what to do next.
The Oldtimers was one of those ideas that saw the group’s first performance in Wedderburn 50 years ago next month, a ball that set the band on a course to national stardom
Folk music historian and later member of The Oldtimers, the late Peter Ellis wrote: “The Wedderburn Oldtimers, formed in 1975, came as a complete surprise, as the band was based on turn of the century style, played completely acoustic music on fiddle, button accordion, and tin whistle, and backed by piano and drums, guitar and banjo.
“It took country Victoria by storm. Again the Lancers, Circular Waltz, Polka Mazurka, Varsoviana, Polka and Veleta were supreme. Many of the old tunes such as those played by Johnny Boughton and Jack Cummings were revived.”
Ellis wrote that the various originals of this band had all played in their own district or family bands as teenagers in the 1920s, and so they were able to accurately hand on the tunes and style of playing as it had been in the bush.
“Founder of the band, Lindsay Holt was a farmer from Kurraca just out of Wedderburn and in his youth had sat in with Johnny Boughton and Jack Cummings at nearby Berrimal.
“Lindsay played button accordion (two-row melodeon) and like most of these musicians could dance and sing as well.
“The people of Wedderburn established their own motel (Gold Seekers) by taking out shares in it, and Lindsay and Coral Holt were the first proprietors.
“Lindsay often organised entertainment and music for the guests and would bring out his old squeezebox.”
It was from those sessions that the musicians were assembled, some at first for a town float to be in Melbourne’s Moomba parade.
“Lindsay Holt had been meticulous in ensuring the band and its repertoire was turn of the century style,” wrote Ellis.
Lindsay’s son, Gavan, recalls that after the first record was released, and members received only a few dollars each, it was his father who decided The Oldtimers’ would in future produce their own records. That was another good Lindsay idea that saw The Oldtimers go gold and platinum.