This 1937 recording has vocals from Norm and Arthur Scott, Les Adams on steel guitar, Johnny Wade and Neville Kahn on guitar, and Ernie Kahn on bass.

In 1950 The Royal Hayman Hotel on Hayman Island produced a double-sided 12” 78 with John O’Connor and George Watson’s Hawaiians performing 'Pack Up a Dream and Head for Hayman Island' on one side and Max Blake and the 3DB Orchestra on the other singing 'I Lost my Heart on Hayman Island'.

This is a formative recording of Australian Hawaiian music. The Kailis were Hawaiian-born musicians who toured and recorded in Australia in the 1920s and early 30s, making 23 records for Parlophone between 1927 and 1932. David Kaili was one of the first generation of steel guitar players and had been recording since 1914. The music of the duo, sometimes billed as The Hawaiian Entertainers, inspired the first Australian musicians playing Hawaiian music. Their Australian recordings are rare and have mostly never been re-released.

From 1939, another Hawaiian Club recording this time with: Eric Kahn, bass; Norm Scott, ukulele; Neville Kahn, steel guitar; Johnny Wade, Spanish guitar and vocals. There is a more sophisticated recording technique, especially on the steel guitar.

The greatest song of the whole Australian Hawaiian genre has to be 'I Lost my Heart on Hayman Island'. It was written by prolific songwriter John Ashe and has been recorded at least five times. While the original 1950 recording for the Royal Hayman Hotel has its charms, Johnny Wade’s 1955 Columbia recording has that little something extra.

Working on the variety circuit at the time of Ernest Ka’ai’s second Australian show in 1926 was a young entertainer named Charles Wade, who learnt the basics of Hawaiian music and ukulele playing from the Kailis. Within a decade he had changed his name to Johnny and was Australia’s best known performer of Hawaiian material. He appears on around half the Hawaiian records recorded and released in Australia.

One of the fascinating things about this music is that the Hawaiian Club performers didn’t feel any obligation to perform exclusively Hawaiian-themed material. Certainly they recorded songs like 'Rose of Waikiki', 'Sweet Hawaiian Chimes' and 'Aloha Oe', but also songs about mountains or deserts such 'When It’s Nighttime in Nevada', 'There’s a Home in Wyoming' and 'Colorado Sunset'.

So what makes this 'Hawaiian music’ Hawaiian? Certainly for these Australian musicians, there is no direct cultural attachment, other than touring appearances by performers such as the Kailis, so it comes down to not much more than the choice of material, use of the steel guitar and a ukulele in the rhythm section.

What is noticeably absent in the Australian Hawaiian music recordings of the 1930s and 40s is any sense of Australianness in the songs themselves. Local Hawaiian performers mostly performed material from the vast hapa-haole (Hawaiian music paired with English lyrics) repertoire coming out of the US. Hints of other Pacific islands did creep in, with songs like 'Fijian Farewell' and 'I’d Like to See Samoa of Samoa', but few Australian references appear.

That began to change by the late 1940s, when a more sophisticated postwar tourism industry was developing in Queensland. Flying boats began to bring holiday makers and both the airlines and the resorts were eager to promote Northern Queensland as a tourist destination. Wade and his band recorded 'Magnetic Island' in 1950.

This is a formative recording of Australian Hawaiian music. The Kailis were Hawaiian-born musicians who toured and recorded in Australia in the 1920s and early 30s, making 23 records for Parlophone between 1927 and 1932. David Kaili was one of the first generation of steel guitar players and had been recording since 1914. The music of the duo, sometimes billed as The Hawaiian Entertainers, inspired the first Australian musicians playing Hawaiian music. Their Australian recordings are rare and have mostly never been re-released.

Bob Farrington is another band leader of the 1950s who has disappeared from view. The NFSA collection includes three 78s his trio recorded for Prestophone, a Melbourne independent label in the 50s.

There were few female singers who recorded Hawaiian music in this period. Bernice Lynch was the daughter of one of the Hawaiian Club founders in the early 1930s. She recorded a mix of Hawaiian and country songs for Sydney-based Fidelity Records in the early 50s including this one by well-known Australian songwriter Reg Stoneham.

Over the next few years hints that the performers of Hawaiian music were actually in Australia crept in occasionally. In 1947 Keith Branch and his South Sea Islanders recorded 'Where the Blue Gums Turn Red in the Sunset', but it sounds as much country as Hawaiian and is notable for an unusual, staccato style of steel guitar playing.

'Hawaii Sunset' image by Cord Cardinal and used under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

This is one of the Sydney recordings by touring Hawaiian artists David and Queenie Kaili, also known as The Hawaiian Entertainers. It is a formative recording of Australian Hawaiian music and one of 23 records that the Kailis made for Parlophone in Australia, between 1927 and 1932. These Australian recordings are rare and have mostly never been re-released.

David Kaili was one of the first generation of steel guitar players and had been recording since 1914. The music of the duo inspired Australian musicians playing Hawaiian music.