Like Bob, when I first heard it I was taken with it, which is why I wanted Flying Pieman to 'do' it. But I was overruled, so Smith's Gully got the guernsey. I suppose the best description I could give to it now is that, like many great songs, it's become hackneyed.

Foolestroupe is right about this aspect of Australianness. Without wishing to engage in thread creep, another news broadcast I heard about three weeks ago included the sendoff of some Australian troops to Iraq. The music the military band was playing was unmistakeably the tune to a song we sang when I was a cut lunch commando in the '60s. It may have had a name but was never allowed in public. cos the words were

"We're a pack of bast**ds, bast**ds are we.
We're from Australia,
the arsehole of the world, and all the universe,
Oh, we're a pack of bast**ds, bast**ds are we.
We'd rather f*** than fight
for liberty.

Times have changed if they celebrate publicly with that song.

To get back to the thread. I never taped that LP (and I had similar lack of success with wanting Flying Pieman to do "The lighthose keeper's bicycle" either) but I might be able to track the LP down at Christmas, if the 2003 fires let it escape.

Cheers, Rowan