Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover

Subject: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Teribus
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 06:37 AM

Does anybody know the lyrics to this Australian Song, plus any information about who wrote it?

Thanks,

Bill.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 07:02 AM

G'day Teribus,

I have either posted Hugh McDonald's song ... or been involved in a thread about it ... about 2 or 3 years back. I can remember giving some precise coordinates for the Diamantina region! Unfortunately, I seem to have cancelled my trace on the thread and can't find it by searching for 'Diamantina' ... so it may have been under some other incorrect spelling.

If I can't find it tomorrow ... I will repost.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Wolfgang
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 07:20 AM

old thread

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Teribus
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 07:23 AM

Thanks Bob,

I'll keep trying with the correct spelling of the place you've given above. Look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Bill.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Teribus
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 07:34 AM

Thanks Wolfgang,

That's the one.

All I've got to do now is learn it.

Enjoy the coming holiday,

Cheers,

Bill.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 08:14 AM

It's a haunting song. I've always heard that first verse as:

The faces in the photograph are faded.
I can't believe he looked so much like me,
For it's been ten long years today since he left for old Cork Station -
Saying "I won't be back till the droving's done."

The variations are in italics. I'm not saying that was how it was sung, just that that's how I've always heard it in my head, and how I'd sing it. That's the folk process.

They are minimal changes, but they alter the story. I'd read it as looking in the first verse at a photograph of the father who'd left many years ago. (Or maybe a grandfather or farther back even.) And then moving into the voice of the driver far away.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 08:15 AM

"drover" that is, not "driver".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 09:53 PM

G'day Teribus,

I'm glad Wolfgang dug bacck the requisite 4 (?!?) years to the original post.

I suspect there was a later (intermediate) thread on the same song, because I clearly remember giving the coordinates for the Diamantina River ... and, possibly, the "Old Cork Station". (Although I do field simailar requests on other fora.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 12:16 AM

Back in '98, someone asked where the Diamantina is. Often heard of the Diamantina River country from Australians who came over to Canada, some of whom worked cattle here. On the map, it runs a long course, with many often dry branches, in western Queensland, through the Great Artesian Basin, from about the central west area south to where the corner of South Australia pokes into southwestern Queensland. Bob Bolton can expose my ignorance here.
Of course I have read the novels of Arthur Upfield, with the great Inspector "Bony" Bonaparte, the half-caste detective who solved many of his cases in the "outback." One case, I remember, was in the Diamantina area. Cork Station does not make it into the Nat. Geographic Atlas.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 12:21 AM

The song, "Johnny Stewart, Drover," is in the DT. Also concerns the Diamantina area. "Diamantina Drover" is not in there; or at least I can't find it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Hrothgar
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 12:44 AM

The Diamantina "runs" from the southern side of the Selwyn Range at about 21 degrees South 141 degrees East, down to Lake Eyre at about 28 degrees South 137 degrees East.

The Georgina "runs" from Northwest of Camooweal on the Queensland-Northern Territory border at about 19 degrees South 138 degrees East and disappears in the Channel Country around Bedourie at about 24 degrees South 139 degrees East.

Eventually, if it's a good year, this water also finds its way down to Lake Eyre.

I say "runs" because it's only in good years that they have a lot of water, and very good years that much water gets to Lake Eyre.

For what it's worth, the Diamantina was named after Diamantina Roma, Lady Bowen, the wife of Sir george Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland after it separated from New Sout Wales in 1859. She was a very beautiful woman, by all accounts.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Hrothgar
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 12:50 AM

p.s. Old Cork station is almost exactly 23 degrees South 142 degrees East. The nearest town is Winton, about 100 miles ENE, which is the nearest town to Dagworth station (which is about 75 miles to the Northwest), the birthplace of "Waltzing Matilda."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Diamentina (sp?) Drover
From: Teribus
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 02:12 AM

Hi there,

Thanks for all the info - you really have been a great help. Hope to get out that way latter this year and see a few of the places that crop up in the poems and songs of Henry Lawson and Andrew Patterson.

All the best,

Bill.