G'day Al, Alison et al,

For the benefit of Winters Wages, I should mention that Gerry's version of the song (same as sung by Gordon Bok) leaves out the first stanza. Alan's posting has the full 1896 version of the Henry Lawson poem.

I was surprised that Gordon's liner notes (In his CD Harbors of Home) don't pick up on the ships and sailing theme - so close to his heart. Ships (and marriage)were were definitely on Henry Lawson's mind at the time of this poem. He had married Bertha Bredt earlier that year in Sydney and they sailed off to make a new life in Perth, in Western Australia ... over 5,000 kilometres (~ 3,100 miles)by sea, most of it in the teeth of the Roaring Forties.

When they got there, they found a boom town, fueled by recent gold discoveries in Kalgoorlie, and prices skyrocketing. After some months living in a makeshift hessian hut, they gave up and sailed back to Melbourne, then on back to Sydney (probably by train). The poem looks at one more of Lawson's poet friends leaving Australia to find fortune in England and ends on the though that, if he came make one good cheque in Australia, he can afford to do the same. Of course things didn't work out quite that well.

Regards,

Bob Bolton