Errr ... G'day again,

I'm sorry if that looks a bit confusing, with references to Ron Edwards' notes - while Capt. Birdseye was writing about John Manifold's entry in the Penguin Australia Song Book.

In fact Ron Edwards and John Manifold worked together on early (self-published) collections of Australian verse from the early 1950s. They both, separately, collected the tune and a single verse - and the story of her father's quite different Australian version - from Mrs Webb ... Ron Edwards in Cairns, far North Queensland and John Manifold subsequently, in Brisbane. The details in both their books are quite similar ... and I overlooked the fact we were talking of two different sources.

I ought to have explained a bit more about my reasons for some parts of my version - but My wife called to say my dinner was getting cold! I decided to use The Isle of France as the ship's name - since the ex-convict (I more or less hint he might have been reprieved - or been released after new evidence ...) wasn't getting out of Australia. Mrs Webb had recalled that in her father's version: "... the song concluded with the the convict finally arriving on the Victorian goldfields and being killed in a miners' uprising, which she thinks may have been the Eureka Stockade".

I decided to present a more positive note ... have him survive ... and stake a new claim for having helped bring about the reforms that followed the Eureka Stockade rebellion. It worked well, at the time!

Here are a few notes:

Port Phillip: The seaport of Melbourne, Victoria - the nearest capital city to Ballaarat (19th c. spelling) and the Eureka Hill.

digger's claim: Formal declaration of a spot to explore for gold

Bakery Hill: The location of the digger's pallisaded encampment

licence fee: The authorities sought to impose a very high fee for anyone aiming to seek gold. They (incorrectly) claimed this had been the practice in the recent American Goldfields.

Lalor, Vern, and Black and Hayes: Leaders of the Miners' protest group. Lalor (or Lawler) lost an arm in the battle ... but survived ... and eventually held a cabinet position in the Victorian government!

flag of stars: The miners' plag was a sky blue ground with a white horizontal & vertical cross - with a star at each corner and the centre ... representing the five stars of the constellation "The Southern Cross" (Crux Australia). This has become a very strong icon of radical views in Australia ... as well as the conservative political and racial stand of many of the right!

Regards,

Bob