This week Graham Farram looks into the indigenous interpretation of the word Wolumla and the history of the town. Interesting to note that a town with a Railway exchange hotel has a history in Rail sleepers and proposal for an Eden to Bega rail link. He also talks about John Otton’s delivery service. We’ve talked about John’s family previously through his wife Alice (nee Davidson) who’s family owned and operated the whaling station in Eden.

Also on today’s episode I catch up with an old friend of mine. Matt Preo and I have been friends since we were kids. As a young man I hung out with Matt a lot while dad was wiring his mum’s house. We drove up and down his road in his old mini, we played music together and between 1990 and 94 Matt use to take me in to sit with him while he did a country music program on Edge FM, the local community station. It can be strongly argued that it was Matt who got me into this game, he changed my life.

As a teenager Matt could be found busking on the main street of Bega on a regular basis. After a number of years out of town Matt is back busking in almost exactly the same spot. With a new album under his belt he was ready to start promoting it when Covid brought it all undone. I caught up with Matt recently.

 

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Matt Preo’s new album is called Hometown. You can buy copies of the album from Nook espresso bar, The Bega Market Place and the Newsagent in the main street. Head out on a Wednesday morning and you might just find Matt standing outside the newsagent playing songs from the album.