what a treasure - I've been looking at the Minstrel playlist as many minstrel shows (African-American & blackface) came to Australia after the Civil War so some of those songs would have been familiar here. Most of the perfromers stayed here.

there are 3 articles about African American performers on the late 19th Century stage in Australia at this link -
Irving Sayles - The black American who became an Australasian vaudeville star.