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My notes (preserved in a very battered old notebook) recorded that the musicians played through the following program: The Quadrille (First Set, Lancers, Schottische, Alberts (with the tune, La Cachuca for the Spanish Waltz), Waltz Cotillion, Varsoviana, Royal Irish, Barn Dance, Caledonians, Polka Mazurka. Charlie Fardon said here that the program would commence again here from the First Set and finally finish up with a medley consisting of the Highland Schottische, Three-Hop Polka, Princess Polka, Berlin Polka and Cinderella (this perhaps would be the final waltz tunes that signal that it is time to go home.) He gave a lot of useful information during the evening, saying that the Princess Polka was also known as the Scotch Polka or the Heel and Toe Polka, that the Royal Irish was the First Set danced to Irish tunes, and that the Veleta Waltz had first been danced in Corryong about 1912.
Charlie Fardon was a wonderful source of information as he could remember as far back as the 1890s, when he had gone to dances as a child. He said that there were usually items at balls such as a solo dancer doing a jig or a hornpipe, and that these were usually men. It was not considered ladylike then for women to lift their skirts up to dance these steps, although he did comment that the conventions were not so rigid in some places. I have always regretted that in those early days when Charlie was still active I didn't have enough background knowledge to ask all the right questions. He had been a dancer right through the period when the new dance style of the 1920s to 1930s came in, and would have been able to tell us much of its slower penetration into the bush and its gradual influence on the old style, especially during his many years as MC. I did have the great pleasure of dancing with him during later visits. I danced a Varsoviana with him at his 84th birthday party and would have no hesitation in saying that at that age he still danced this much better than most younger folkies do today.
After these contacts, described here, a date was soon arranged for the promised dance and music session. It wasn't possible to use the Labour Day weekend that year (1963) because both the Melbourne groups were involved in an Australian concert to be held then in the Myer Music Bowl. However, the Queen visited Victoria in February and a public holiday was granted on Monday, February 25th to celebrate her visit. This provided that extra day needed then when the long sections of rough road up to that part of Victoria required considerably more travelling time than visiting folkies need these days. So the dance was planned for the Saturday night (February 23rd, 1963) with the visitors to perform at a picnic concert on the Sunday.
Official site of the Victorian Folk Music Club Incorporated (Reg No A2511Y)