Feature Profiles
13 January, 2026
SUMMER READING Daisy heads to the big smoke
The experiences of the country dance that took Australia by storm in 1975
DAISY Sutton was incredibly talented - a painter, handy at needlecraft and sewing and the fiddler in her 70s with a starring role in The Wedderburn Oldtimers’ Orchestra.
The orchestra first hit the stage 50 years ago next month with Daisy putting her all into playing jigs and reels.
She had played around Wehla since the 1920s and a particular party-piece was the Irish Lilt, a a three-part jig, wrote another band member Peter Ellis when he documented much of The Oldtimers’ story late last century.
“Daisy had never been much further than Wedderburn where she received her violin lessons as a girl, and had only been to Bendigo twice, never to Melbourne.”
According to Peter the formation of the Wedderburn Oldtimers Orchestra was a “happening”, as Daisy said.
The annual Wedderburn Gold Dig served as a “back to” for former townsfolk and it was highlighted by a bush picnic and entertainment at Hard Hill.
This commenced with a street procession through the town and out to the old diggings in the bush around the hill.
Wedderburn would organise a float for the Moomba parade in Melbourne.
Soon, Daisy Sutton who had never really been out of Wedderburn suddenly found herself parading down Swanston Street.
But bigger things were to come when The Oldtimers started to take bookings at shopping centres, on national television, cruises and across Australia.
Daisy was now at airports, on an escalator for the first time, and as Peter wrote, taking her first flight in a plane when The Oldtimers headed to Tasmania.
And there’s a story behind the fiddle Daisy played.
Band founder Lindsay and Coral Holt were the first proprietors of the town’s motel.
Lindsay often organised entertainment and music for the guests and would bring out his old squeezebox.
Peter recalls that on the Gold Dig weekend in March 1975, the Noonan family returned to Wedderburn and presented the late Ted Noonan’s violin to the museum which Lindsay had established at the motel.
Ted Noonan, an Irishman, was the teacher of violin in an old de-licensed hotel in Wedderburn in the 1920s, and it was from him that Daisy had been taught, Peter wrote.
The violin hadn’t been played in 34 years but the strings were still in good condition. Lindsay rang up Daisy and asked her to come over and play it, and contacted other local musicians to join in.
The Oldtimers were on the way to being formed for the first official performance on July 11, 1975.
Daisy’s niece, Heather Passalick said this week: “We loved her dearly. She was incredibly talented and had a fantastic sense of humour.”
Next week’s Loddon Herald continues a special series on the chart-topping Oldtimers 50 years on from the first performance.