Albany Shantymen celebrate 10-year anniversary raising funds in Bremer Bay for St John ambulance services

A decade of roaring harmonies, sea-soaked stories and community spirit is being celebrated as the Albany Shantymen mark 10 years of keeping Albany’s maritime soul alive. Formed in 2016, the group has grown from a bunch of mates singing into a much loved local group, using their music to bring people together and raise thousands of dollars for community causes across the region. Shantymen member Crispin Travers said it’s incredible looking back on the journey the group has taken. “It’s been petty amazing looking back, we’ve done remarkably well,” he said. “We’re not the same line-up as the original but there’s still quite a few original guys part of it. “We have a pool of 18 but usually we sing with somewhere between seven and 13 people. “We range in age — our youngest member is 19 and our oldest member is 81.” To celebrate their 10-year anniversary the group went on a “boys’ trip” to Bremer Bay. “It’s always good fun to go away as a group,” Mr Travers said. He said the group performed at the Bremer Bay Resort and raised funds for the St John WA team in the area. “We donated our performance fee of $1000 to St Johns and they also took a collection on the night and at the Sunday session that weekend,” he said. “They collected from the people of Bremer around $1200 so I think it was about $2200 is the amount they collected. Reflecting on the past decade, Mr Travers said the group have had the opportunity to play at some incredible places. “One of our most memorable achievements was when we were invited up to a country round game of the Dockers at Optus and we played to 29,000 people,” he said. “As a result of our Optus gig the Dockers invited us back the same year for their end of season wind up and then following that we sang outside at the WA grand final and Mark McGowan joined in and sang with us. “We also featured on Bill Bailey’s Wild West Australia.” Mr Travers said the key to creating opportunities was to always say yes and he was excited to see what the Shantymen will get up to in the next decade. “We take it as it comes — our policy is to say ‘yes’ to anything and see how it goes,” he said. “By saying yes to things, we’ve gone down some fairly interesting paths.”