a brief overview

Charlie McMahon and Peter first met at the Aquarius Festival in 1973

and when a mutual friend brought them together again in the early 80s

they called their collaboration Gondwanaland Project

Named after the ancient supercontinent of the southern hemisphere

Charlies deep earth tones complemented and extended by

Peters electronic yet organic atmospheres

A primal combination of ancient and modern/ natural and synthetic

Their first album Terra Incognita 1984 was a critical success and

marked the re-emergence of the didgeridu on the modern concert stage

Aided by the addition of Ed Duquemin on drums and percussion

the band relocated to Alice Springs to create their second album

Let The Dog Out 1985  heralding the birth of 'world music'

Gondwanaland toured extensively, played everywhere in Australia

from outback settlements to the Opera House, supporting such acts as

Midnight Oil, Billy Bragg, Sade, Brian Ferry, etc etc

as well as headlining their own shows at festivals and special events

Their self titled third album Gondwanaland 1985 won an Aria award

On one night during a residency in Sydneys Harbourside Brasserie

at one table was Wim Wenders and at another Isao Tomita

Tomita then invited the band to be in his mega event Sound Cloud

which was staged on Sydney Harbour in front of 120,000 people

Wim Wenders invited Charlie to make a cameo appearance in his movie

Till the End of the World, in which the whole band ended up participating

The fourth album Wildlife 1989 was a live recording of favourite tracks

in a Sydney nightclub appropriately called Kakadu

Their album Wide Skies came about after some serious top end touring

into the heart of Ramingining, Arnhemland

Off the bitumen and into the jungle

thousands of Ks of dirt tracks with not a signpost in sight 

Bobby Bunungurr was a guest on Wide Skies 1992 as were Cleis Pierce

Maroochy Barambah  Andrew de Teliga  Blair Greenberg

PeeWee Ferris and Carl Zhang   It was produced by Martin Armiger

and hailed as “a milestone in modern australian music”