THE MEEKATHARRA GOLD MINER

Robert Pyper / trad

I’ve wandered all over this country, prospecting and digging for gold
I’ve tunneled, hydraulic’d and cradled
And I have been frequently sold,
    And I have been frequently sold
    Yes, I have lost all of my gold
I’ve tunneled, hydraulic’d and cradled, And I have been frequently sold.

For those that get riches by mining, there’s thousands go out the back door
But this time I hit the gold lining
It set me for life, that’s for sure,
    It set me for life, that’s for sure (for sure, right!)
    It set me for life, that’s for sure
This time I hit the gold lining, It set me for life, that’s for sure.

I got onto the prospect in Meeka, “The Pharlap” goldmine was its name
The old guy that sold it’s a seeker
With sixty-odd years at the game,
    With sixty-odd years at the game
    Yes, sixty-odd years full of shame
The old guy that sold it’s a seeker, With sixty-odd years at the game.

He showed me the lode on the Sunday, six weights in the dish in the sun
But after some beers on the Monday
Three ounces or more could be won,
    Three ounces or more could be won (that’s the grog for you!)
    Three ounces or more could be won
But after some beers on the Monday, Three ounces or more could be won.

He wanted ten grand for an option, three weights in the ton from gold won
Another ten grand on adoption
I signed with a loud cry of DONE!
    I signed with a loud cry of DONE! (done, all right!)
    I signed with a loud cry of DONE!
Another ten grand on adoption, Well I signed with a loud cry of DONE!

I took the shaft down to twelve-fifty, and crosscut and drove miles around
Till I tumbled that he was a swiftee
The old guy had salted the ground,
    The old guy had salted the ground
    He’d spread bloody gold dust around!
I tumbled that he was a swiftee, The old guy had salted the ground.

No longer the slave of ambition, a sucker for sharks and the shames
I savour my happy condition
Surrounded by my barren claims,
    Surrounded by my barren claims
    Surrounded by my barren claims
I savour my happy condition, Surrounded by my barren claims.
(spoken) And they’re as free of gold as a frog is from feathers!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8DG-be6rgM

Tune : “Acres of Clams” - also used for the well-known song “The Catalpa”.

Another song from one of Australia’s “Singing Geologists”, Robert Pyper. He is a recorded singer of classical songs, but includes a CD of Australian Ballads and is also an author of 4 novels : www.robertpyper.com.au

“To the tune Acres of Clams the song describes the pitfalls that await the new chum when he moves from panning alluvial gold to mining the hardrock. Set in Meekatharra in WA during the gold boom of the 1930's we are back in the days of pennyweights rather than grams. There are 20 dwt as against 31 grams to the ounce of gold. Providing you were still in the weathered zone, the panning-off dish was used to estimate grade by crushing a sample of gold rock and then panning off the light rock to leave a tail of gold, the grade of which could be estimated almost as well as a formal assay. It is a feature of gold mining that the longer you are away from a prospect the better you remember it. Adjourning to the bar to talk about it can hasten the remembering greatly, which is what happens here. There were many ways to salt a mine -- witness Busang in the 1990's, which was the biggest gold deposit ever discovered yet it contained no gold. There wasn't much in the Pharlap gold mine either, but I made up the tongue in cheek words in memory of a great prospector I knew. The Pharlap was later mined out in a huge open cut.”

https://www.mindat.org/loc-240068.html History of The Pharlap (orig Gwalia) Gold Mine.



R-J