Johnny Ashcroft - Little boy lost

[lilynick1]

Great song, great story and a happy ending! :)

[rorigiles]

Logging in from Wellington, New Zealand. This song, written by Ashcroft from DJ Tony Withers’s idea, tells the story of Steven Walls who became lost from his parent’s property at Tubbamurra near Guyra, NSW. Five thousand people, seven aircraft, together with Aboriginal tracker William Stanley, searched the rugged bush country, which was rife with dingos and deadly snakes. He was found alive and well four days later. The search for the Little Boy Lost continues to be Australia's biggest.Top post!

[andy92712]

The specific area to where young Stephen Walls went missing was in the Guyra area, Guyra is on the New England Highway north from Armidale, and the highway is build through the ranges of the Great Dividing Ranges mainly between North of Tamworth to The Qld Border, the Ranges has it's dangers with the "yellow belly black snakes" and the winters can be very cold, our family used to go to Guyra on shopping days from where we lived near Wongwibinda going towards Dorrigo, or Coffs Harbour

[mollymitch1]

@andy92712 gee it's great to have Historians on here as well as people who love their music. This is a great advertisement for Australia and the New England Ranges. Keep it up.Love it, such a sad song with a great ending. keep posting this great music

[gramophoneshane]

Good to see (hear) this on youtube. I got this disc in a secondhand shop about 20 yrs ago & have liked it ever since.

Why do yanks always think the world revolves around them lol.

[NicDevlin74]

I want to see the movie.... I saw part of it when I was young

[beachgd8]

don't get me wrong,but at times when i;m alone i just remember losing my son and watch this to remind me that others are saved. Good things have happened to,a granddaughter and a pup dog who was abused

[Leeandray]

Hello uncle Johny :)

[crystaljud]

i remember this song and loved it i was a child at dalwood childrens home where one of his sisters worked

i think it was also about the time graham thorn was kidnapped and they were asked not to play it is my memory correct

[JRG1993s]

Umm... was this story ever turned into a movie?

It's just that the music video here looks an awful lot like a movie...

[janschro]

@JRG1993s Video from 1978 film of the same name ,see video comments

cheers John

[daddydo60]

@JRG1993s Yeah I'v Got The Dvd Of That

[AccaDC1]

@daddydo60 Where'd you get the DVD, I live in Guyra and I can't find it anywhere

[ArenaEditz]

Johnny Ashcroft is family to my family. We know him very well.

[TheWaggaBloke]

G'day just wondering if any one can help me out the was a song it's an old aussie folk song called the whale song albby mangels had it on one of his film.. you know it if ya heard it i

I guess it gose something like this... di di di di di di di O bend ya back and row me lads and take me to me whale... anyways I was wondering if some could post it on the tube.. that's all. Thank a heap.. Rod

[janschro]

@TheWaggaBloke The Whale by Fielding & Dyer ,1972

I sent you a link

Cheers John

[fxrharley91]

my parents helped in the search, it was north of Armidale N.S.W near guyra,

[maxlin000]

The song accurately relates the saga of Australia’s greatest land and air search. For four days and three nights, in February 1960, William Stanley, an Aboriginal tracker, five thousand people and seven aircraft searched the rugged New England Ranges of New South Wales, Australia, for a four-year-old farm boy, Steven Walls, the Little Boy Lost. [1] They found him alive and well.

[JRG1993s]

@maxlin000 Gotta' love a story with a happy ending.

[roseanne74]

This all happened 50 years ago this year ... and, by eerie coincidence, the 50th anniversary dates happened to fall on the same 4 days and 3 nights of when Stephen Walls was missing.

[Rahavin1]

lol.... almost sounds just like John Ashcroft

[weenmatt]

Do you think this sounds American or English...hello...LOL

[1011mn]

@weenmatt When you ask if this sounds American or English (not sure what that has to do with the setting of Australia), I don't know if you are referring to the speech of the singer, or the words. This version has Australian speech tones, but the incident could have been in many places. I first heard this sung by an American group. Good-bye.

[roseanne74]

This all happened 50 years ago in February of this year (2010).

[djbullet985]

I'd never heard of this song, artist, or movie, This is a great video and song. I give it a 10.

[kangaroo992]

In 1977, I worked on the guyra/ Armadale border of th egreat divide for one of th e Grills, bros, it was tough hard country i was from Bundarra can any one tell me where it was Steve Walls was found, I was only 16 at the time

[roseanne74]

@kangaroo992 I believe it was somewhere near a place called Kangaroo Camp according to an ABC interview with Johnny Ashcroft - he happened to have been a rabbit trapper in that area in the winter of 1945.

[coocoo2803]

Oh wow! my grandad use to sing this song all the time and told me this story, he said this is how Australia used to be, when a whole nation froze in horror coz a little boy was lost.

[Kazzy495]

beautiful song but the film clip made me cry and touched my heart deeply.....

[samcashmooney]

This song brings tears to my eyes, especially knowing it is true. What great spirit existed in this nation in those days when every person for miles gave their all to find this child; unfortunately that spirit is dying.

[MandyJMaddison]

What great film footage! The man lighting up a roll-yer-own reminds me so much of my father.

[1011mn]

Some one help me out. The song begins "In the wild New England ranges. . ." Is there and area of Australia known as New England? When I first heard this many years ago I thought it was about the New England area of USA.

[janschro]

A region of northern New South Wales ,Australia.

The New England Tablelands, home of Australia's highest waterfall, greatest number of National Parks & Gorges, spectacular views, world renowned fishing

[AccaDC1]

@janschro In a small town called Guyra, Stephen still lives here too

[zefer14]

@1011mn yes the New England Rangers in New South Wales

[JRG1993s]

@1011mn Around the Toowoomba, Armidale area.

Armidale has a university called University of New England (UNE)

[tangles01]

@JRG1993s Toowomba? Thats no where near Armidale. I'm a distant relative (I think he was my mums 2nd cousin or something) and it's was the Armidale/Uralla Area. You might have been thinking Tamworth.

[JRG1993s]

@tangles01 I don't know what I was thinking when I typed that... I might have been thinking Tamworth.

[AccaDC1]

@1011mn In a small town called Guyra, Stephen still lives here too

[toryor]

Wow, I watched the movie when I was very very young. Memories.....

[tangles01]

I am apparently related to this kid, on my mothers side both my parents are from Armidale. I actually have the original single on vinyl (and gundreds other) I'm 29 and still love this song from my childhoos. Although from all accounts (My grand parents) he became a poilt little brat after this event, last I hear he was working for a bank in Newvastle and doing quite well for himself. That was at least 10 years ago though we've lost track of that side of the family since.

[gav4416]

mate, i am actually related to stephen (2nd cousin), and NO he is not a spoilt big brat, he lives 6 kilometers from where he was lost and then found.he has never worked anywhere but tubbamurra!! so maybe bfore posting this shit online, maybe one should get the correct information. sounds like you may be the brat tangles01, go find someone else to annoy ya knob. all the best, gavin WALLS. p.s. my grandfather and in-laws were actually involved in the search as well. have a nice life...

[MumbaDude]

This song brought tears to my eyes. My husband is from OZ and told me more about the story. Kind of weird him playing the song now just a couple of weeks ago, after a little child with autism got lost in Nova Scotia Canada. He followed his dog into the woods. He was not dressed for cold weather. He was found several days later. He was found alive but died the next day in hospital. The death of a child is always so sad.

[MrAMYJACK]

@MumbaDude

I lost my son years ago,I see the way people hurt eachother,it does fill me with despire. it seems to be money based.

I don't understand why people can be so bad

[cci110]

I love my country

[TheSkrewd1]

this song gives me goose bumps

[theRuby54]

janschro, thank you for this. Tommy Drennan had a big hit in Ireland with this in the '60s. I cried when I heard it again.. I am 54 now and my son has just returned from Oz... after his third working trip there. I am a rock'n'roll fan, but this is lovely.. didn't know it was Australian

[Tricia090909]

I am about to turn 60 but how well I remember this when I was 10 years old .... a little Aussie growing up in the bush.

Yes there was a time when Australia had a soul!!!

[colindominy]

A beautiful land-mark Aussie song .. and a faultless performance by the great Johnny Ashcroft. Yes .. I don't care how hard-bitten one may like to think they are .. tears come very-easily at the end, listening to this pognant tale .. "where's my daddy, where's my daddy,  cried The Little Boy Lost". Moreoever -- The backing track .. whether intentional or not .. has a very-appealing "Johnny Cash Band" deep-bass guitar-feel to it (remember .. when Luther played the boogie ... ).

[HalloBuddi]

Great film too...today's Oz films are shite

[Gibbs505]

I remember this oh so well, and the Greame Thorn kiddnapping just a few months later.

[jmsj4]

this was so lovely, i cried. think the version by Johnny Ashcroft and Gay Kayler at the end of the movie might be more moving still. any comments?

[Robtseward]

I found a copy of this movie atthe dollar store

[dojomanmelton]

Thia is wat i grew up with and i miss it in this tecno world

[aussieflstc]

stuff like this makes our country

not the nappy head , aussie hating lebbo crap going on nowadays in this country

[Mariontl]

My Dad used to sing mainly the chorus of this song to us when we were kids in Australia. (He didn't know the whole song).I think he had it on a record.

Tear jerker ... brought tears to my eyes.

Thanks for sharing.

[gardenass789]

I remember howlin my eyes out to this as a kid,thanks for posting this janschro.

[Thripples]

That was beautiful! I've only heard about this story for the first time tonight... now I've got tears rolling down my cheeks. =]Why does Australia forget all its truly amazing events that each stop the nation in its tracks? I'd love to watch the movie too!

[QDK01]

Hi, i'd like very much to find this movie, but i don't... :( does somebody know where can I find it ? thank you all ;)

[mrtibbs6912]

Quite sure that Stephen Walls also played a part in this outstanding movie.

[dingo2333]

Fantastic song and video. My father(Des Harrison) was involved in the search as a soldier. A.Tiedeman

[bajoma123]

Thanks for posting this. It brings tears to my eyes just like it did in 1960. I can remember exactly where I was when we heard on the radio they had found Steven. It seemed like a miracle and we in NZ were overjoyed too.

[Dr0pDuckC0ver]

I saw this version a few years back looking for the movie of the same title with a sad scene where the kid buries his dog in the desert sand thinking her dead but later on an aboriginal finds the dog and its not dead and it had puppies. Does anyone know the movie I'm talking of? It was one of the first movies I saw in a theater back in the 70s.

[cci110]

it brings a cry from me,my son didn't come back

[357586]

i used to love watching that movie as a little kid, loved it loved it! Great story!!

[7272257]

Mate.....Extraordinary piece of material, well written, well re-lived and a very happy ending. That's what we Aussies are all about, we all get and pitch in when our fellow countrymen are down. I wouldn't swap it for anywhere in the world.

[aussieflstc]

brillaint piece of Australian history

[willing1111]

awesome simply awesome well done

[janschro]

Your welcome willing1111

[bigsinnic]

Beautiful thanks Janschro and very well put together !

[janschro]

my pleasure

[woodysamRG]

I've been looking for years for this. I cry everytime I hear it.

[quent15]

It's a very great song ! This is fabulous :) !

[allumst]

Fabulous...have been looking for this for a very long time!

Thankyou

[janschro]

Your welcome Allumst ,thanks for the comments.

[alancsalt]

Last heard that in '68. Gave me goosebumps and a seniors moment to hear it again.