Wow, quite a substantial article that Williams! Thanks for posting that, Lighter. If you've still got the text around and you have a chance, it would be especially interesting to know what lyrics he gave for 'South Australia." And what exactly is "California Gold"?

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Here's a revisit to an earlier mentioned set -- earlier the references were second-hand from a website. Here they are in their original context.

1903        Craig, William. _My Adventures on the Australian Gold Fields._ London: Cassel & Company.

Craig arrives on a vessel (presumably from England) in 1851 in Port Phillip Heads, Hobson's Bay (Melbourne), and finds most of the population has deserted their posts and gone off gold digging. Crew also begins to desert his ship, and while one set is escaping with a boat, we read this:

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Then with three hearty cheers they took to their oars, and went up the bay, all joining in a song that had become familiar to us when pumping during the voyage—

Oh, fare you well, my own Mary Ann, 
      
Fare you well for awhile.
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Then,
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The morning following the desertion of the crew, to the great delight of all on board, a landsman's breeze sprang up. The pilot took charge of the ship, the captain the wheel, and a number of passengers who had learned the '' ropes '' on the voyage out assisted in making sail. Willing hands manned the windlass, the anchor was weighed, and to Dick Robb's song of

When first we went a-waggonin' 
   
A-waggonin' did go, 
   
Drive on my lads, hi ho!

And accompanied by two other ships, we were soon slipping up to our port.
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I am sorry but it is not obvious to me what action they are doing to the song. Are they using the brake windlass to warp in, or hauling?