G'day Arthur O'Malley,

That sounds very like Harry Robertson's song Ballina Whalers which has the chorus:
Heigh ho ye trawler men come on, forget the schnapper and the prawns,
It's out of Ballina we'll sail, a'fishing for the hump-backed whale.

I have just been digging through my 1972 copy of Harry's Songs of Whale-chasing Men, having heard an appalling desecration of this song at the Australian Folk Festival at Kiama, over the Queen's Birthday weekend in June. Apart from getting the Australian names wrong, the tune was a banal English effort, with none of the charm and colour of Harry's originals, drawn on his Scottish upbringing.

I got up sheet music for four of his songs for my music workshop last week and could not help noticing the variety of modes: one major, one minor, one Doriam and one Myxolydian! (BTW: Just to keep my conscience a little clearer on the subject of whaling, now fortunately banned - except for Japan's scientific experiment to see how many whales they can slaughter before someone sees through their subterfuge -I also included Eric Bogle's magnificent Song of the Whale an interesting Scottish/Australian counterpoint with another very Scottish Myxolydian tune.)

I could post the words and a MIDIText of the real tune, if you wish. (Sourced, of course, from the Victorian Folk Music Club's 1970 Tradition Magazine, not the Alberts Publication 1972 songbook that threatens to come round and repossess the house if I so much as write the words on a blackboard!)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Regards,

Bob Bolton