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The article focuses on the work of folklorist Charles L. Todd and scholar Robert Sonkin. Topics discussed include Sonkin and Todd used recording equipment supplied by Lomax to collect songs from migrant farmers, and Todd and Sonkin began recording the songs of the migrant camp residents, and Sonkin and Todd were also able to record original songs written by those in the migrant camps that documented why people left for the West.

The national weather map we view daily in the electronic and print media had a distinct period of birth and development during a 3-5 year period spanning in the early 1880s. The Government Astronomers of the established colonies experimented with the creation of local weather maps based on the real-time data they gathered through their new colonial telegraph systems. With the establishment of a national telegraph system that included the Overland Telegraph, the Astronomers and their meteorological assistants were able to build weather maps that stretched across the Continent and beyond. This article traces the development of the modern weather map as told by the weather folios kept for 31 years by Sir Charles Todd, the Government Astronomer of South Australia. Todd's folios are possibly unique in Australia for their breadth in both time and content. The early weather maps were one symbol of the rapidity of change brought by new technologies to the Victorian Colonies. Time and geographic boundaries were re-defined as weather maps showed the true continental reach of weather systems and their ability to change on a daily basis. A volunteer group has imaged all 11,000 days of the Todd weather folios. They are now preparing to take the data buried in these folios into the digital age to help establish historical benchmarks for climate change analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the work of communication historians, this article makes a case for revisiting and 'reinventing' Sir Charles Todd's dynamic life and notable career over half a century. The author argues for a wider view of 'Telegraph Todd' than simply that of outback icon, one which is not merely celebratory in the Victorian tradition of his existing tributes, but which situates Todd firmly within networks of patronage and power, starting with pre-Victorian Britain and extending from South Australia across the Australian colonies. Contradictory historical representations of Todd, as popular outback icon and imperial time lord, go to the heart of his complex legacy. In seeking to provide a more balanced perspective, this article focuses on the lesser known perception of Todd as imperial 'time lord', to understand his long career and the wider forces in which it was bound up. Contemporary insights provided by the burgeoning literature on the 'British World' are utilised in order to better understand Todd's far-reaching connections and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]