Feature Profiles
12 January, 2026
SUMMER READING 50 years after the Oldtimers
A special series in the Loddon Herald in 2025 as the 50th anniversary of the first performance of the Wedderburn Oldtimers neared
AUSTRALIA was mid-way through the rapidly-changing and challenging 1970s when a bunch of musos from Wedderburn gave tradition a shot in the arm.
With an assortment of instruments and musical skills honed in delicensed hotels and farm backyards, the Wedderburn Oldtimers’ Orchestra was formed for what was meant to be a single performance.
It will be 50 years ago next month that Lindsay Holt led the ensemble of legends, larrikins, characters and the greatest entertainers the bush had ever seen through the tunes in the Wedderburn Mechanics’ Institute Hall.
They played for hours, attired in tartan waistcoats and bowler hats, as dancers strutted the floor for old-time dances - the Lancers, Gypsey Tap, Maxina, St Bernard Waltz.
Lindsay on the button accordion, Daisy Sutton from Wehla and Lionel Collison on violin, Elma Ross at the keyboards and husband “Grummy” on drums.
They were among the originals. Over the next 20 or so years other members of the ensemble joined what would be a whirlwind for Wedderburn and their style of music.
Appearances on the big national television shows of the day, tours and cruise ships, gold and platinum records.
Traditional country music that took off after a track or two had been played on radio. So popular, recalls Lindsay’s son Gavan, that the Wedderburn telephone exchange went into meltdown as people tried to book this old-time orchestra of seasoned musos mostly aged in their 70s.
With the passing last month of Morrie Gierisch who joined on button accordion following the death of Lindsay in 1994, Glenda Hunter remains the last surviving member of The Oldtimers.
Glenda, Lindsay’s sister, had often stood in for Elma and later became a permanent member on piano.
“Elma was a beautiful piano player, you could not find better,” Glenda recalled this week. “I learnt a lot from watching Elma’s hands.”
Elma and Glenda were among the few women in The Oldtimers. But being country women they were fine with that.
“They were the most wonderful, funniest group of fellas to be with,” she said.
“We had very good musicians, funny men with a sense of humour and every one of them an entertainer, great story tellers.”
Glenda said that after Lindsay’s passing, Campbell Holmes took a leading role in continuing the group’s musical journey.
Campbell had returned to his home town of Wedderburn after spending several decades in Western Australia.
In the 1950s, the trombone toting Campbell spent a few years in England and was been a member of the Ferodo Works Band when it won the British Brass Band Open Championship.
Glenda and Campbell often played duets. “One year, were in St Augustine’s Church in Inglewood, Campbell with his trombone and I was playing the Fincham organ<” she said.
I’ll never forget that day with neither of us using sheet music and Campbell’s sweet sounds playing Bless This House.”
She said that wherever The Oldtimers played, people always wanted the music to keep going.
“They just didn’t want us to stop,” she said of performances in shopping centres or halls from Fentons Creek to the bigger cities.
“They were wonderful days,” said Glenda who, in her 90s, still plays organ for the Uniting Church services in Wedderburn.
Gavan recalls the orchestra’s first record released months after that July 11 night 50 years ago reportedly had sales for the producer of more than $1 million.
“The band members were given $50 each so the old man decided they would in future produce their own records,” Gavan said.
“The Oldtimers is a phenomenal story. They came along at the right time in history when so many people had fond memories of country dances right across Australia.”