Fun facts about Australia: Did you know that in Australia importing guitars incurs a 5% duty; other instruments are duty free. Could it be one of Bob Menzies' attempts to protect Australia's youth from the harmful influence of Rock'n'Roll?

(I once heard it claimed that the importation of electric guitars was prohibited during the 1950s, presumably because of moral panics about American-style teenage rebellion infecting our youth. I haven't seen any documentation on this though. Can anybody confirm or refute this?) (ta, Graham)

Posted by: Alan McCallum | | Wed Feb 12 20:10:41 2003

Oz did have a small guitar industry 30 years or so ago. Matin for one. The factory used to be Kew or somewhere like that. Matin made classical & electric guitars then. I had a classical from them for a while. It had a nice low action, but was a bit "quiet". Alan

Posted by: Bowie | http://realkosh.weblogs.com/ | Wed Feb 12 22:26:19 2003

Obviously that 5% tax is an APRA requested copyright tax. Any guitar purchased is obviously going to be used to play crappy covers of APRA controlled songs and they want their cut.

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Wed Feb 12 22:55:30 2003

Unless I'm mistaken, it appears drum kits also incur a 5% duty. Obviously trying to protect young minds from that deadly devil beat.

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