Argonauts Club

[1] The format was revived on 7 January 1941 as a segment of ABC's Children's Session and broadcast nationally except in Western Australia where the two hour time difference made a local production more attractive.

[2] It became one of the ABC's most popular programs, running six days a week for 28 years until October 1969, when it was broadcast only on Sundays[3] and was finally discontinued in 1972.

[1] The Children's Session was co-hosted from 1940 by London-born Scot Atholl Fleming, as "Mac" or "Tavish McTavish".

The Children's Session opened with the theme song by the Jim Davidson Dance Band, written by Elizabeth Osbourne with music by Wally Portingale: Come, Old Mother Hubbard and Jack and Jill And Tom the Piper's son Leave your cupboard forget your spill We're going to have some fun The wireless says to hurry and run To leave your games and toys; The wireless says the time has come For all the girls and boys.

"[6][7]and the team would introduce themselves with some light-hearted banter in keeping with their 'on-air' personas, followed by entertainment arranged roughly in order of audience age.

[8] The first segment for most of the show's history was a dramatised series by Ruth Park, originally The Wideawake Bunyip, with "Joe" Albert Collins in the title role.

[5] When John Appleton was made Supervisor of Children's Programs and keen to be involved, a part "Tabby Cat" was created for him.

[1] On Tuesdays, "Orpheus" (baritone Harold Williams) would sing a segment from opera, a ballad like The Golden Vanity or Up from Somerset[10] or fun song such as "One Fish Ball"[11] or "The Green-eyed Dragon with Thirteen Tails"[12] Harold had perfect diction and wide range of expression, so children clearly heard what he was singing about.

This included dramatised versions of Southall's early semi-autobiographical war novel Simon Black in Coastal Command, telling the exploits and hardships of the RAAF crews of Short 'Sunderland' flying boats, patrolling the Bay of Biscay and the Western Approaches, hunting German u-boats, and Southall's sequel science fiction novel Simon Black in Antarctica, in which Simon Black and his team flew a futuristic jet-rocket hybrid to a hidden valley in Antarctica, warmed by geothermal springs, where a remnant community of Neanderthal people was discovered.

[14] G K Saunders' The Moonflower and The Nomads[5] and Coral Lansbury's first published play The Red Mountain[15] were written for the Children's Session.

The segment was opened and closed with a specially commissioned theme written by Elizabeth Osbourne and Cecil Fraser and sung by Harold Williams and the male members of the ABC Wireless Singers[20] A further touch was a call to sick members: "The Ship of Limping Men", as notified by parents.

Annual 'live' productions of the Children's Session (and Argonauts Club) were a feature of Royal Shows in each State from 1947.