Greg Hastings! OMG Sandra, I rem'ber when his family first arrived - in Perth - with their Welsh accents and great songs - his shy young sister Val, in particular, had a lovely voice : COCKY BELL is a good song, which I think she wrote .....


But I have to add this one for Stewie!

THE GIN AND RASPBERRY

Written by Martin Curtis, c.1980

While hunting for fox we first came this way
From Lake Pembroke township took many long days
We cut through the bush and we found a new rush
With a mine called the Gin and Raspberry

Ch.
Oh, but it's hard, cruel and cold
Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold
An ounce to the bucket and we'll all sell our soul
For a taste of the gin and raspberry

The rumors went out and the thousands poured in
A handful grew rich but many grew thin
They all hoped to find their own patch of tin
As rich as the Gin and Raspberry

At first it was summer and we all thought it grand
No shirts on our back as we sluiced and we panned
But then came the snow and the southern wind's blow
And there's ice down the Gin and Raspberry

Now Billy McGraw he worked hard and worked long
Ready to smile and to give us a song
But then he struck gold and was found dead and cold
Down in the Gin and Raspberry

So I'll work at the mine and I'll stay out of strife
I'll save all me gold to send home to me wife
And when the gold’s won I’ll leave at the run
And to hell with the Gin and Raspberry


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwN5A1zeROk
Martin Curtis singing his own song.

My GGGrandfather left Lancashire in 1857 for a new life in Victoria, but by the early 1860s he was in Sth Isle EnZed in these very same goldfields.   He found enough to buy a couple of pubs!
Cheers, R-J