Harry and Wilga Williams and the Country Outcasts – Streets of Old Fitzroy

Harry Williams (Wiradjuri, 1927-1991) and Wilga Munro Williams (Kamilaroi, born 1943) performed together with the Country Outcasts band during the 1970s and 1980s, touring widely throughout Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Canada.

They released two singles (in 1974 and 1975) and two full-length albums: Harry Williams and the Country Outcasts (1979, RCA) and Harry & Wilga Williams and the Country Outcasts (1981).

Both Harry and Wilga sang on the 1979 debut album. It includes tracks such as ‘Streets of Old Fitzroy’, which draws on the history and challenges of living in Fitzroy, which became the largest Aboriginal community in Victoria and was the social and political hub of Aboriginal Melbourne.

Country Outcast band members included Bill Brunswick, Debbie Williams, Ian ‘Ocker’ McKie, Carole Fraser, Ian Johnson, Harry Thorpe, Laurie Ingram, Claude ‘Candy’ Williams, Mac Silva and Auriel Andrew.

Harry and Wilga Williams started a national Aboriginal Country Music Festival in Canberra in 1976, and a radio show, Country Music Shindig, for 3CR. In 1981 they were recognised in the Country Music Hands of Fame in Tamworth.