The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168402 Message #4103510
Posted By: Sandra in Sydney
25-Apr-21 - 09:44 PM
Thread Name: Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook
Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
Dinky Di is so famous, how could we have missed it?
I've been going through John Thompson's Oz Folk Song of the Day & found a lot of good stuff!
FREMANTLE GAOL by Sandgroper - aka L.G. Montgomery
Moondyne Joe and other Sandgroper Ballads (1969) by L.G. Montgomery
Audio
Now beware all you wayward young fellows,
Take heed of my sorrowful tale;
Transported to Western Australia
For a convict in Fremantle Gaol
Chorus:
Oh my darling she cries every morning
Oh, my darling she cries every day
They told us to build our own prison,
A broad arrow dungeon of stone
With a high prison wall on the hilltop
And a cold narrow cell all alone
It's seven long years I've been taken,
I've been flogged with the chains that I've worn
What hope has a man without freedom
He'll wish that he never was born
There's a convict who struck down his gaoler,
From the quarries of labour he fled;
With the trackers and dogs in his footsteps
And a felon's reward on his head.
Now beware all you wayward young fellows
Take heed of my sorrowful tale
For tomorrow they take me and hang me
From the gallows of Fremantle Gaol.
To the tune of "Tarpaulin Jacket", from "The Wildflower Songsheet of Australian Ballads", printed in WA by Imperial Printing Co Pty Ltd (undated).