Well I've heard about a bloke who's makin' a machine To take the wool off the sheep and take it off clean It doesn't need a man so no shears will be seen And they call it the robot shearer.
CHORUS - If it don't shear a tally and it's fuses blow It's silicon chips in the river I'll throw And it's back to the drawing board the scientist will go It's the end of the robot shearer.
There's a new one on the board it's the RS21 It doesn't take a tea break at the end of every run The rousies all call it the galvanized gun Yes of course it's the robot shearer.
CHORUS
Well it doesn't mind the dags and it doesn't mind the smell It doesn't even sweat and it's cheap to feed as well It'll never join the union so I hope it goes to hell Yes a curse on the robot shearer.
CHORUS
Well it had a little trouble, or so I'm told It found the ewes were difficult to hold It seems they don't like him his hands are always cold Bad luck to the robot shearer.
CHORUS
The boss he didn't mind when it docked all his lambs Dipped all his wethers and crutched all his dams But he really did his block when it castrated his rams It's the sack for the robot shearer.
Published in Stringybark & Greenhide, 4(2), p.28
from Tony Suttor - It was awarded joint first prize in the 1986 Top Half Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, together with Paul Lawler's My Dear Darwin (according to Peter Bate's book Top Half Folk Festivals 1971-2012).
MY DEAR DARWIN was posted by Rich-Joy on page 1 of this thread 20 Aug 20 - 07:36 AMĀ