If you were a country Victorian kid who came of age in the 1990s or 2000s, chances are you rocked out at a gig organised by The Push, an institution that launched the careers of some of Australia's biggest alternative music acts.

The regional all-ages shows were just one facet of the state-wide youth music initiative, which is celebrating 30 years.

Gigs were a boon for fans and bands alike.

The fans got to see the big bands of the day without having to travel to Melbourne, while The Push made it possible for musicians to get out of city pubs and play to regional all-ages crowds.

Shows were also organised by local young people, providing them with an introduction into the music industry that would lead to fully-fledged careers for many.

For those about to rock ...

The Push was conceived in 1988 from a somewhat vague attempt by then-Victorian youth affairs minister Steve Crabb to engage with young people.

Linda Carroll, who had been running music venues in Melbourne, was among a group brought in to figure how to do that and then became the organisation's first CEO.

Rockin' The Rails saw bands playing in railway carriages that pulled into stations, like Bendigo Station in February 1987. ( Supplied: Push Archives )

"I can remember Steve Crabb saying to me, surrounded by a few advisers — and this was hilarious — 'we need to start up like, a scouts [for] young people'," Ms Carroll laughed.

"I said 'I don't know who'd want to [go to that]'."

Eventually they came up with the idea of clubs and events based around rock music, starting in the outer suburbs of Melbourne and slowly expanding into regional Victoria.

Starting with Rockin' the Rails

Local youth would help organise gigs and designed the posters, like this one from 1997. ( Supplied: Push Archives )

The earliest Push-like events were Summer In Motion and Rockin' The Rails in 1986 and '87, which saw acts such as Paul Kelly, Painters and Dockers, and Geisha performing on trains.

"There was a carriage, like a container carriage, which had a concertina door," Ms Carroll recalled.

"The bands would get onto the carriage and then they'd pull into the station literally playing, which was just extraordinary.

"People would go batshit — it was like The Beatles coming into town.

"We had Molly Meldrum on one of the trains one time and he would introduce some of the bands.

"It was very exciting to see punks dancing on the Hawthorn Station, and then going into country Victoria to listen to Paul Kelly and then the Painters and Dockers."

Kids took ownership

Three Push clubs were set up in Ballarat, Broadmeadows, and Frankston, with Push representatives working with local young people in those areas to help organise gigs.

"We started with three clubs and when I left [eight years later] we ended up with 33," Ms Carroll said.

"We would give them seed funding of a couple of thousand dollars [and] we'd open a bank account for them.

"Once the first gig was run they understood that if they made a profit, that went back into their bank account and they could then run more gigs.

"We were there as guidance but at the same time, those kids designed the posters, designed the flyers, found the supports.

"They took ownership, which is exactly what we wanted them to do."

The Push brought inner-city bands to regional youth and saved them having to travel to Melbourne. ( Facebook: The Push Inc )

Ms Carroll said it was fairly exciting to take bands with an inner-city following and bring them into regional Victorian towns.

"You might have had Pseudo Echo playing in Leongatha and at the same time in Ballarat, you have Blue Ruin or Cattletruck play," she said.

As The Push grew, so too did its reach and influence.

Its Push Predictions list and Push Start band competitions helped draw attention to the likes of Things of Stone and Wood, Spiderbait, Marie Wilson, The Fauves, Frente, and The Dirty Three.

"The industry were going 'hold on a minute, this band sounds pretty good!" Ms Carroll said.

"We were [helping] people being signed or being picked up or booked."

School of rock

With each passing year and each change of government — The Push is 80 per cent state government-funded these days — the organisation's mandate would broaden.

It got involved in mentoring and teaching music industry skills in TAFEs, which helped young people find a career in music, particularly those in regional areas.

Huxton Creepers performed as part of a Push-organised school tour in March 1989. ( Supplied: Push Archives )

Kate McCabe grew up in Portland in south-west Victoria and got her first taste of the music industry helping to organise punk gigs in her hometown in the early 2000s as a member of the local FReeZA (sic) committee, as The Push clubs came to be known.

"Those shows taught me all of the basic skills, from promoting gigs to booking a band, to running a budget, to running the logistics of security, the stage management," Ms McCabe said.

"Not only did I learn those skills but I saw the value that those shows were giving people living in our district.

"It meant that when I moved down to Melbourne I was 100 per cent certain that I wanted a career in music."

Kate Duncan, CEO of The Push ( Supplied )

It led her to a successful career working in the music industry, mostly in PR and communications for record labels and festivals that she said "wouldn't have been possible without The Push".

It was a similar story for Kate Duncan, current CEO of The Push, who grew up playing in local bands at FReeZA shows in inner-city Melbourne and volunteering at Push events.

She played her first gig at the Punter's Club supporting The Ice Cream Hands.

"[That's] pretty hilarious because now Charles Jenkins from The Ice-Cream Hands works here at The Push, which is kind of weird because I was such a fan girl back in the day and now I'm his boss", Ms Duncan laughed.

"I think a lot of people engage in Push programs and youth music programs more broadly [and] generally speaking, they're the people who probably don't quite fit in at high school.

"That moment when you can go to an all-ages show and be on a youth organising committee and meet like-minded people, you're like 'oh, hang on, I'm not a freak, there are other people who are into the same music as me and have the same values and interests'.

"That's really powerful."

Jebediah breakthrough

To mark the 30th anniversary of the organisation, The Push is bringing back one of its signature endeavours — the Push Over Festival.

Running in Melbourne from 1992 to 2013, the single-day all-ages event was part of the golden age of music festivals in the city.

Silverchair performed at Push Over in 1994. ( Supplied: Push Archives )

Among the bands to play the event on multiple occasions was alt-rock group Jebediah.

Frontman Kevin Mitchell, who will be playing a solo show at the revived Push Over on November 24, said the festival was invaluable in helping Jebediah breakthrough to become one of the most successful alternative Aussie bands of the late '90s.

"[Push Over] was the first big all-ages festival we'd ever played away from our hometown of Perth," Mitchell said.

"Getting that kind of exposure to an under-age crowd, I credit that a lot to how quickly the band was able to rise to popularity.

"They were great festivals to play to a heap of kids at a time when it really felt like that all-ages scene was really thriving."

Mitchell will perform at Federation Square as part of Push Over 2018 alongside Allday, Ali Barter, Ruby Fields, Kian, Spiderbait and Something for Kate.