The extraordinary award-winning band sing of transportation, colonisation and hardship. 

They will perform on October 6 at St Thomas’ Anglican church, which was built by convict labour in 1828, giving the audience an immersive experience of the past.  

This event is a unique and creative collaboration between Wauchope Arts, St Thomas Anglican Church, PMHC and Port Museum.

It is one event in the Bicentennial program that acknowledges the impact of transportation on the Anglo-Celtic and Indigenous cultures.

Rattled by the bones of convicts and steeped in campfire smoke, Melbourne-based Bush Gothic perform tales of Australia’s dark history re-told in an Australian folk style like no other.

Wauchope Arts president, Krissa Wilkinson said that once the date for their gig was locked in, the prospect of creating an immersive musical experience in Port Macquarie's own convict-built church was too much to resist.

“Thanks to the support of St Thomas' Anglican Church, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and Port Macquarie Museum, the scene is set for an evening to remember on Saturday October 6,” she said. 

“Described by Radio National as genius, their interpretations of songs of transportation and convict life are a perfect fit for our only surviving convict building.” 

Bush Gothic's artistic statement and musical narratives recognise the harm done to Indigenous peoples, and the displacement and loss of culture experienced by those poor and disadvantaged transported to Australia. 

Band members Jenny M. Thomas, Dan Whitton and Chris Lewis have toured internationally to critical acclaim, and won Adelaide Fringe Festival 'Best Music' awards in 2017 & 2018.

Together they lovingly re-imagine traditional notions of Australian folk music to create songs of rare beauty, that are defiantly modern, yet achingly old.

Bush Gothic say the transportation of thousands of Anglo Celtic peoples to a strange land severed cultural ties that had nourished and guided them since the Bronze Age. 

The Irish were officially discouraged from speaking their native tongue. They were separated from their unique dances, ceremonies and moral codes. To be Irish in the colonies was to belong to the lowest class.

“Discriminated against for being considered a stupid and uncultured race, they would then in turn go on to commit some of the most atrocious crimes against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The oppressed become the oppressors,” said Jenny M. Thomas.

Bush Gothic said their folk culture went underground, and the band want to drag it out into the light, to remind those of Anglo Celtic heritage of the culture we lost, the indigenous culture we tried to destroy and the culture we are now privileged to inhabit.

The event on October 6 is Bush Gothic’s final concert before heading to the Rajasthan International Folk Festival and a UK tour.

Seating in St Thomas' distinctive family pew boxes will be allocated on arrival, so don't be late. 

Pre-show drinks will be for sale from 6pm; music from 7pm.

Tickets available online www.trybooking.com/XQYU or at the door from 6pm - ticket price includes share cheese plates at interval.

For more details, see www.wauchopearts.org.au or the Wauchope Arts Facebook page.

For a taste of Bush Gothic's new single go to www.bushgothic.com​