While studying in
Sydney, Abicair began singing at parties to support her studies, accompanying herself on the
zither. Self-taught, she found the zither whilst rummaging in a cupboard as a small child. She entered and won a Sydney radio talent contest, which led to offers of engagements on radio and in theatre and cabaret. Abicair arrived in
London with £2. She was photographed by a newspaper photographer who was looking for "pretty faces" while disembarking at
London Airport. Her photo was spotted by a radio producer in the newspaper, and within weeks this led to her appearing on
BBC Television. The same year, she had her own programme, in which she sang and played the zither. In December, she also appeared in the title role in the pantomime
Cinderella with
George Martin, the Casual Comedian, at the
Empress Theatre in
Brixton. The zither was, along with her Australian image, to become her trademark. She released her first record, "
Careless Love", that year. In 1953, the Empire Theatre in
Nottingham billed her as "TV's zither girl". In this period, she co-starred with comedian
Norman Wisdom in the film
One Good Turn (1955). On 26 March 1956, Abicair appeared on BBC TV's
Off the Record. Through the middle to late 1950s she hosted (with help from her puppet friend, the Australian indigenous children Tea Cup and Clothespeg), a TV series called ''Children's Hour''. In the process, she became an unofficial ambassador and promoter of Australia to a generation of British children. This Australian image was reinforced by her release of records with titles such as "(I Love You) Fair Dinkum" and "Botany Bay". In 1959, she briefly returned to Australia to record a series of television documentary films she had conceived, based on Australian folk songs, entitled
Shirley Abicair in Australia, for the Australian
ABC TV network. Abicair accepted a request to perform at the
Variety Club of Great Britain eighth annual Star Gala at the Festival Gardens in
Battersea Park, London, on 13 May 1961. In 1962, she toured the
Soviet Union, and in the same year she gave a recital at the
Festival Hall in London. Later that year, in October, she visited the United States for performances. 1962 also saw her children's book
Tales of Tumbarumba published. In June 1963, in the US, she appeared with the
Smothers Brothers on
Hootenanny and the panel game show
To Tell the Truth, with
Cicely Tyson, on 25 March 1963. In December, for ABC Australia, she appeared on
Comedy Bandbox. In 1965, Abicair's EP
On the Nursery Beat was released. It was a number of nursery rhymes put to a
Mersey beat. That year, she did a tour with British comedian
Frankie Howerd to entertain the personnel of and
848 Naval Air Squadron at
Sibu airfield, Malaysia, and other British forces stationed on the
Malay Peninsula and in
Sarawak, Borneo, during the unrest there. The tour was filmed and later released as the
East of Howerd TV special. During 1966–67 she released a number of more mature songs on record, including her version of the
Gerry Goffin–
Carole King song "So Goes Love" and
Paul Simon's "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall". She had previously, in the early 1960s, released three albums of folk songs. ==Personal life and death==