An unusual item unearthed by this blog is the above 45rpm record which features Ram Chandra the Taipan Man , autographed by him in 1979, and the massive 1974 Australia Day flooding of Brisbane caused by Cyclone Wanda .
Born Edward Royce Ramsamy at Lawrence, near Grafton , NSW, in May 1921, he joined up in the l940s with Nazim Shah in the Carnival of Eastern Wonders on the show circuit, later changing his name to Ram Chandra , specialising in handling and displaying venomous and non venomous snakes in his Pit of Death .
Through his interest in and knowledge gained about deadly Taipans , he helped the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory develop an antivenene for the usually fatal Taipan bite , awarded the British Empire Medal. Married in Mackay, Queensland , his family consisted of eight children and three more that were adopted .
In the record , the vocal in both is by Lyall Sutcliffe backed by The Wagon Wheels . Sutcliffe and his brother Geoff were longtime buskers who travelled far and wide, in 2014 performing in a western Queensland tour , aged 78 and 80 respectively , their musical minded parents living to 101 and 99 .
In September 2014 a popular record shop called Capricorn Records , at Warrnambool, Victoria , run by Michael Fitzgerald , closed after 35 years of trading . Our record found in Townsville .
