Victorian government announces tours, podcasts and more to highlight its music history

The Victorian Government’s latest round of grants takes a further step to celebrate the state’s music history and widen its music tourism.

It has allocated $130,000 to six new projects under its Rockin’ The Laneways program, which is part of its overall $22 million Music Works initiative.

These range from an audio tour of the entertainment precinct Abbotsford Convent by its traditional landowners, to billboards to celebrate women in music, a music bus tour, and a podcast of the history of its music venues, to a Bon Scott installation in the city’s AC/DC Lane.

At the announcement at Abbotsford Convent of the new initiatives, Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley said, “Victoria has been a place for music and song for tens of thousands of years.

“We are a state with a proud music history and a contemporary music culture that rivals anywhere else in the world.”

“The latest Rockin’ the Laneways projects will give people the chance to explore how our music industry developed – from the incredible contribution of our Traditional Owners to the artists, events and venues of today.”

The Ngulu- Nganjin (Our Voice) project received $50,000 for a partnership between the Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Heritage Council and the Abbotsford Convent Foundation to create a Sound Trail audio tour featuring a series of new Wurundjeri music works.

It will be led by Council representative and elder Aunty Diane Kerr, ARIA-award winning singer/songwriter Lou Bennett and Wurundjeri artist Mandy Nicholson.

The soundtrack will be available from next year on the Abbotsford Convent app to the more than one million people who visit the site each year.

It will be launched with a concert featuring the artists and acts that contribute to the project.

Hard rock music venue Cherry Bar received $25,000 for the creation of a permanent art installation in Melbourne city’s AC/DC Lane that honours the memory of AC/DC singer Bon Scott.

Photographer Michelle Grace Hunder got a grant of $25,000 for six billboards in high traffic areas across Melbourne to promote Victorian women that have been key figures in its music history.

Melbourne Music Bus ($22,500) will be a monthly tour targeting music tourists and locals that will visit landmarks, sites that inspired songs, video shoot locations, recording and rehearsal studios in the CBD and St Kilda, Carlton, South Melbourne, Richmond, Fitzroy and Collingwood.

Broadcaster Patrick Furze ($2,089) will produce a five part radio documentary/podcast to highlight Melbourne’s most important music venues past and present.

It will explore the people and music that made the venues stand out. It will be aired on Melbourne community radio station 3PBS and will be a monthly online feature for Furst Media’s long running Beat magazine.

A grant of $3,000 went to The Lions Club of Marysville and District Inc. towards a concert paying tribute to the regional city and surrounds’ musical heritage from the 1960s and 1970s.

It is a prelude to the Marysville Jazz and Blues Weekend in October.

Minister Foley estimated that the six projects would engage 75 musicians and artists and a further 22 music industry workers in the year ahead.

The Victorian Government last week announced $380,000 in International Engagement grants to help 17 small to medium arts organisations build their export potential and form partnerships overseas.

These included enabling theBlack Arm Band to go to America to interact with First Nations people through performances and workshops, and The Newport music space to create its first international exchange program and partnership with Glasgow art space Cryptic.

Other recipients included orchestras, theatre groups, photography associations and women’s circus tropes to visit places ranging from the Congo to Indonesia to Tokyo to Dublin.

“Victoria is the creative state and music is an important contributor to our $23 billion creative and cultural economy,” Minister Foley said.

“Our investment is strengthening the music industry and our music culture at all levels.”