G'day (particularly Liam's Brother, Snuffy & dick greenhaus),

The Australian version I slip in with a nice collected waltz (the words collected from Alan Offa of Toowoomba, Queensland - who sang it to another tune well known in Australia) is just a short part - basically the first verse and chorus - of the one quoted above by Liam's Brother. There are longer versions here and all seem to come from Irish (or stage Irish) music Hall versions. I would see the one above as Irish, rather than the Poms sending up the Paddys.

The waltz tune to which I sing these words is related to My Home is on the Cold Cold Ground ... the tune used by Moore for his verse Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms (one of his more sincere verses, since it referred to his wife's ailment). Stan Hugill's song is even closer to the well known version and is about an English sailor who stops in Australia to dig for gold ... after 20 years he announces he is going back to the girl who waits for him ... and the English make fun of the Irish?!?

Snuffy: Given the location and the goldfields concerned, the origins of Hugill's song would be between early 1850s (when a sailor ancestor of mine, Jan van Kampen, jumped ship and scarpered up to the Turon Goldfields) and circa 1875. Of course, the song could be written much later but that is the period when such things could have happened in those locations.

Regards,

Bob Bolton