This ripper poem deserves greater exposure. Bob Rummery obtained the words from Tom Brittain, author of 'When You're Flush' posted above on 28 August last year. Tom found them in one of the rural newspapers, the 'Farmer's Weekly' or similar publication. Despite an extensive search, Bob was unable to discover the author of the poem. However, he put a tune to it and forwarded it to Chloe and Jason Roweth who recorded it on their 'A Voice That Was Still' album. Midkin Station is near Moree in northern NSW.

ALL GONE
(Unknown/Bob Rummery)

The ghosts of shearers long-since dead
Are back at Midkin now
They come with softest silent tread
To ring once more that mighty shed
And show the learners how

The wind sighs soft o’er silent lands
Where sheep no longer graze
And phantoms come and take their stand
And grasp the shears in ghostly hands
Before a dreamer’s gaze

The empty shed so silent now
Was rowdy long ago
With men who came from plain and hill
To laugh and swear and work until
The sun was hanging low

Silken webs festoon the place
Where shearers’ down tubes hung
But in those nets of silken lace
I see full many an old friend’s face
And think of the years they’ve rung

The cocky’s hut’s deserted now
The quarter doors hang wide
Beneath tall gums where skies are blue
Look down on earth of raven hue
And hosts of memories hide

Of men like Trev, Chris, Bert and Blue
The shearers who’ve moved on
And cooks and shed hands tried and true
And roustabouts and rollers too
A soft wind sighs, ‘All gone’

Their names are written on the wall
In figures black and red
And up among the rafters tall
Where phantom breezes rise and fall
A soft wind sighs, ‘All dead’

All gone - no more at close of day
The babbler calls them in
Or curses two-up schools that stay
Where lamprey soft on tables lay
And the clearing can’t begin

The mighty sheds are of the past
Where once they ruled the day
And men who worked them at the last
Are of a breed that’s going fast
From lands where we’d hold sway

But ghosts of shearers who once shore
At Midkin still come back
I saw them there where cobwebs hung
And heard once more the songs they sung
On the way to cooky’s shack

Their tallies will forever stand
No one will carry on
And only ghosts will take the stand
And grasp the shears with ghostly hands
While soft winds sigh, ‘All gone’

You can hear Chloe and Jason singing it at circa the 1 hour 23 min mark of this YT clip:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.