With the demise of 'Skooldaze' Pat was press-ganged by friend, Roger Corbett into a revived version of the Bushwackers and shortly after became a duo partner to John Schumann after having supported Redgum on a national tour.
In 1978 at the Rotterdam Folk Festival, Ashley met the Australian folk-rock band, The Bushwackers, whose leader, Dobe Newton asked Ashley to write some musical settings of poems by the deceased bush poet, Henry Lawson.