Evolution

In 2012 Stephen Matthews compiled an interpretation of known Pipe Bands Australia history for use in the 2012 Australian Pipe Band Championships program. This page includes an adaptation of Stephen’s work in which he explores the evolution of pipe banding in Australia and the moments of note leading up to the formation of the Australian Pipe Band Association in 1960.

The Australian Pipe Band Championships as a national event organised by Pipe Bands Australia [formerly] Australian Pipe Band Association has existed since 1961. Prior to this and, in the absence of any national authority the title of an ‘Australian Pipe Band Championship’ was adopted by individual organisers who felt at liberty to use the name.

Prior to 1907 records of Pipe Band competitions in Australia are sparse despite several bands operating at the time. It’s commonly known that Colonial Army pipe bands existed from the 1880s with civilian pipe bands following soon thereafter throughout the 1890s. Despite this the idea of bands competing did not take hold.

This was not only the case for Australia with very few examples appearing throughout the world including Scotland. Highland societies, games and gatherings had been held for decades in Australia, yet only with a key focus on dancing, heavy games and solo playing contests; this was commonplace form the 1850s and reflects the significance of the immigrant Scottish population in Australia.

This was especially true in Victoria, where at one time, a third of the state population was Scottish. Yet, all that aside records of pipe band competitions as we know them today don’t appear until the early 20th Century.

New Years Day Maryborough (Victoria): The first Australian Championships of the Australian Federation of Pipe Band Associations was held as part of the towns Centenary Highland Gathering 1961.

The first known record of a pipe band contest in Australia was held in 1907 in Ballarat as part of the ‘Grand National Eisteddfod of Australasia’ organised by the Royal South Street Society.

This series of competitions is Australia’s oldest and encompasses many areas of music, dance, calisthenics, elocution and debating. Brass bands had been competing in graded competition at South Street for a few years prior to 1907 and subsequently travelled in large number from all over the country to compete.

This was considered the national championship for brass bands and was eventually adapted to include the newly developed and flourishing pipe bands.

Due to the South Street competitions being considered the pinnacle of national cultural competition at the time, the acceptance of it as an Australian Championship was quickly recognised and acknowledged.

Reinforcing this, the Brisbane press in 1913 covered the travel of the Brisbane Caledonian and Burns Club Pipe Band to “… compete for the pipe band championship of Australia” in Ballarat.

In 1922, The Argus newspaper in Melbourne carried notification of a Victorian Scottish Union event and the participation of the “Melbourne Highland Pipe Band, Champion Pipe Band of Australia” by virtue of the fact that said band had won South Street in Ballarat the previous October.

Melbourne Highland Pipe Band Newspaper exert.

Australian Ladies Pipe Band Tour Photo

The record of results from the initial 1907 Championships regrettably did not survive the test of time, however it is accepted through word of mouth that [at least] five bands competed.

All contests were held at Ballarat’s City Oval, and prior to World War I, crowds witnessing the event were reportedly in excess of 15,000 on average. The War itself is recorded as having not slowed the Australian competition and in 1917 the Ballarat Caledonian Pipe Band (forerunner of the Federation University Australia Pipe Band) won the national event.

During this time other prominent, regular attending bands of the day, included

The Commun na Feinne Society (Geelong)
Richmond Caledonian
Collingwood Caledonian
Port and South Melbourne (forerunner of today’s City of Melbourne Highland Pipe Band, Victoria’s oldest surviving band)
Northcote and Preston
St Kilda and District
Hamilton

Comparatively big prize money was at stake, which made early competitions attractive. In 1970 £60 was offered with a humbler £25 in 1910. These events were ungraded and included a standing selection and quickstep. Drill and Dress were included in the aggregate and was often essential in deciding final placings on the day.

Entries were generally small (up to eight bands), though there were fewer bands in existence than in later ‘boom’ years. Whilst regular entries were received from South Australian, Queensland and New South Wales bands travel, at times was cost prohibitive.

After running continuously from 1907-1927 South Street event ceased pipe band competition in Ballarat. It was later revived in 1934, by which time there was another ‘Australian Pipe Band Championship’ elsewhere.

It is not clear why South Street discontinued this contest, although costs, a lack of entries, and/ or the existence of the newly formed Victorian Highland Pipe Band Association, in 1924, is likely to have contributed. All that aside there is little doubt that from 1907 until the mid-1920s, there is no record of any other pipe band contests that rivalled Ballarat’s in significance and status.

The Australian Championship appellation and its subsequent variations was operated in fairly cavalier fashion. Regardless of the title, the standing of the competition relied upon

the number of bands competing,
the quality of those bands in a time of ungraded competition
and that bands were representing different states over time.

*It is important to note that reporting at the time, though newspapers, was not wholly reliable. A case in point occurred in on 26 December 1921, when it was reported in the Bundaberg Mail that Bundaberg Caledonia Pipe Band won the ‘Pipe Band Championship of Australasia’ held in Glen Innes, NSW. Bundaberg placed first, with ‘Sydney’ second, and the local Glen Innes band third. This contest took place around two months after Royal South Street’s existing Australian Championship, and perhaps the subtle difference in the titles of the two contests is instructive. Subsequently, and in a case that appears more like newspaper over-reporting by the Bundaberg Mail, the Bundaberg Caledonia is again noted as being the ‘Champions of Australia’ by virtue of having won two competitions; Tenterfield NSW on Boxing day, and Warwick (Qld) on New Year’s Day.

Evolution

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