Sonia Bennett is a singer, songwriter, artist and bush regenerator. She points out that it is easier and less costly to look after healthy, protected bushland that to fix it after it has been damaged or destroyed.
She has a glorious voice, rich and powerful, with a wonderful falsetto that gives her an enormous range. Sonia is also a fine songwriter composing tunes to other people's words as well as her own.
The Wollemi Pine is a song that celebrates the vast Wollemi Wilderness, expressing the joy of experiencing it wonders and also the knowledge that it protects a tremendous diversity of plant life, including the Wollemi Pine that was discovered twenty years ago.
Sonia's songs include :
'Learn all their songs sweet lyrebird' words: Denis Kevans/ Sonia Bennett; music: Sonia Bennett
'The Wollemi Pine' words: Denis Kevans; music: Sonia Bennett
'When its gone, its gone forever' music and words: Sonia Bennett
'The Spirit of Oolooloo' words: Billy Wye; music: Sonia Bennett
'Nepean-Hawksbury' words and music: Sonia Bennett
'Minnamurra' "Where the Minnamurra Meets the Sea" words: A.D. Robers; music: S. Bennett
(didicated to Thelma Hopkins of Minnamurra who wrote the book Minnamurra Memories where Sonia found the poem.)
A number of the above songs were included in 'The Blue Mountains Folkbook' (1996)
Recordings include:
'City of Green' (Lorikeet Records)
'And the children cheered the thunder'
'The Beauty of the World'
'Sydney Rose'
'The Sydney Song'
'The Valley of the Waters'
'Lungs of Green'
'The Wollemi Pine'
'The Songbird & The Lorikeet' (Radio Manly-Warringah)
Contact Details: Sonia Bennett (02) 9621 2394; email soniabennett@rewound.com.au