it must be Christmas! Bruce Watson just sent me his promised list of songs - 25 of them, & only one has been posted - Reedy River Still flows, winner of the Bush Music Club 2014 Diamond Jubilee Song Competition, posted 28th Dec 2020.

THE THREE LIVES OF SHIRLEY ANDREWS, (Tune: Mudgee Waltz), © Bruce Watson Bruce Watson Music

video

Shirley Andrews was Australia's foremost authority on traditional social dance. She was also a driving force behind the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights, and a bio-chemist who made a significant contribution to the treatment of bi-polar disorder. The tune for this song is the Mudgee Waltz, a traditional Australian dance tune that Shirley danced to many many times.

Chorus:
She danced with all her heart and she showed us how
She fought for people’s rights, speaking strong and loud
And she showed us what a woman in science can do
We thank you so much, Shirley Andrews

As a young girl she saw Pavlova on the stage
Lit a fire in her heart from an early age
She wrote the bible of Australian folk dance
She’d be up on that dance floor when she had half a chance

Chorus

When she saw injustice she stood up to fight it
Racism was rife — she vowed to right it
She led the campaign in ’67 when all Australians were asked
To recognise our First Peoples as equals at last

Chorus

In the face of male bias she showed her defiance
She shone as a woman in the men’s world of science
Her research into lithium was so thorough and so clever
That it changed mental health care forever