G'day all! A couple of years ago a friend of mine gave this song to me on a cassette and helped me with the transciption. Hard as we try, we both seem to have forgotten the performer (and have no idea of the author), and the cassette has mysteriously vanished.

Here's what we worked out with the lyrics:

The Soil of Australia
author?

You came to this country in tethers and chains
outlaws and rebels with numbers for names
and on the triangle were beaten and maimed
blood stained the soil of Australia

Dukees and dutchesses flash lads and whores
you worked their plantations and polished their floors
lived in their shadow and died in their wars
blood stained the soil of Australia

ch:
Does it quicken your heartbeat to see tar and concrete
cover the tracks of the old bullock dray
have you grown so heartless to christen it progress
when the swaggies have all waltzed Matilda away

Driven like dogs from your own native home
hardship and poverty caused you to roam
over the bracken and over the foam
blood stained the soil of Australia

Then in the fever of fortune and fame
you caused the poor blacks to suffer the same
imprisoned on missions are hunted for game
blood stained the soil of Australia

Does it ...

It's two hundred years since you came to this land
betrayed by the girl with the black velvet band
and still to this day you don't understand
blood stained the soil of Australia

Coolie and white old Australian and new
brothers and sisters of every hue
the future is ours take the wealth from the few
and raise the red flag in Australia

Let it quicken your heartbeat the road's at your own feet
travel it lightly and travel it well
and don't speak of success but christen it progress
'til the swaggies can all waltz Matilda as well

Any additional information, anybody?

AKS, Joensuu, Finland