Joy Durst dots here

090 THE LOVELY LASSES OF INNISFAIL, poem by David Martin, music by Jennifer Mann

1. While yet you are young and sound of health,
For Northern Queensland set your sail,
For the loveliest girls in this Commonwealth
Are all to be found at Innisfail.
Yes, like Queensland sugar, so sweet and brown,
Are the lovely lasses of Innisfail;
I am heart-sick in this southern town:
Oh, when goes the Queensland Mail?

2. There are pretty girls in the West, I know,
And darling ones in this southern state,
But the Queensland girls, with their laugh so low,
In their sunset eyes I have met my fate.
Yes, like Queensland flowers, so lithe and gay,
Are the lovely lasses of Innisfail;
Farewell, my boys, for I'm on my way
Now to catch the Queensland Mail.

3. They walk like queens and like stars they dance,
And their lips are soft and their smiles are deep.
I have loved the girls of Spain and France,
But for all their charms I have lost no sleep.
(Yes,) For lovelier lasses are to be met
By the Johnstone River in Innisfail;
If you find me not, you may take a bet
That I've left on the Queensland Mail.

Meet Jennifer Mann - Singabout 1(3), 1956, p.6 16 years Jenny Mann ... has written tunes for poems by David Martin, Merv Lilley, Mary Gilmore and her father, Jim Mann. Jim Mann is related to working-class leader Thomas Mann.