BAYLEY STREET
(J.Sorensen/R.Montgomery)

Oh men have come and men have gone
?Since Bayley's star gleamed bright
?And new lights shine where old lights shone
?In Bayley street tonight

And did you see those grand old men
?Bright-eyed, though bowed and grey?
Returning to the fields again?
Like ghosts of yesterday

The human tide swept swiftly west?
Then slowly ebbed again?
And some fulfilled their golden quest?
While some found loss and pain

And some returned to whence they came ?
With wealth and tales to tell?
And some found graves that bear no name?
And some still with us dwell

My father often told a tale
?While young eyes glistened bright
?Of golden days at Bonnie Vale?
And Bayley street by night

For he was of the eastern side
?He felt the urge to roam?
Long wait ‘They’ by the Lachlan side
?He made the west his home

Now forty years have passed away
(Twelve thousand suns have set)
And from that roaring yesterday
The echoes linger yet

Yes, men have come and men have gone
Since Bayley's star gleamed bright
And new lights shine where old lamps shone
In Bayley street tonight

Another Sorensen poem set to music by Roger Montgomery. It relates to Bayley Street in Coolgardie and the gold rush. Recorded on Dingo's Breakfast 'Jack Sorensen: Weaver of Dreams'. Strangely, Dingo's Breakfast CD has it titled 'The ghosts of Bayley Street' which is another Sorensen poem. Read it here:

Ghosts of Bayley Street

Arthur Wellesley Bayley discovered the gold field around which Coolgardie grew.

Bayley

--Stewie.