Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Oct 20 - 01:57 AM

typos noted on my list of 320 songs!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Oct 20 - 12:13 AM

I just noticed another ridiculous typo. In the last line of 'Mile Seven' the word should be 'lonely' not 'money'.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 09:19 PM

Apologies, in the penultimate line of the first stanza, the word should be 'tinnie' - a can of beer.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 09:15 PM

THE MAYOR OF PARABURDOO
(J.Wain/R.Montgomery)

I would have to blame the missus
For the reason I got caught
'Cos we wintered up in England
Through a raffle she had bought
We had seen most of the places
And were ready to shoot through
But I was tonguing for a tinnier
Like we have in Paraburdoo

So I'm standing in a London pub
When this joke stands by me
And I can tell by his expression
That he'd like some company
When ya drinking in strange places
Ya sometimes shoot a line or two
So I hits him with a beauty
'I'm the mayor of Paraburdoo'

He sounded posh and proper
When he said, 'By jove, that's nice'
So I thinks, the mug's a pommy
Won't know wheat from bloody rice
I'll dish him up some bull-o
He wouldn't have a bloody clue
'I'm a cocky and my station's
On the plains of Paraburdoo'

I thought that that would rock him
But he asked me, 'Stock or sheep?'
'Naw, I'm keeping bloody goannas
And we milk them once a week
Ya must have heard of goanna oil
And about the good they do
Keeping white ants out of jumbo jets
That land in Paraburdoo'

No, he said, he hadn't heard it
As he handed me a drink
So I tells him, 'Not to worry
It was scarcer than you think
Soon we'll start the season shearing
I've forty thousand jack-a-roo
Grazing out upon the alpine slopes
Just above from Paraburdoo'

'Forty thousand, why that's amazing
But I find it hard to guess
Will you use the wide combs and cutters
With a cradle and a press?'
'Naw, shearing jack-o's them are different
For their legs are only two
Which makes the crutching harder
In the sheds at Parabadoo'

Then I thought I'd better lay off
Try and think of some grand thing
To praise this flamin' ice-block
They call the Mother Land
I says, 'Ya beer is bloody lousy
For you get a bonza brew
Drinking H.I. Export Lager
When it's made in Paraburdoo'

'Oh', he said, 'I'm not a pommy
And I hope I've not misled
But I come from bally Melbourne
Where the woolly bunyip's bred
Like you, I'm just a farmer
Growing something I find nice
Easter eggs on my selection
Down south from Mount Tom Price

Words: S.J. (Jack) Wain, Paraburdoo, WA. Tune: Roger Montgomery.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 08:44 PM

There is some interesting stuff in Roger Montgomery's fascinating 'Pilbara Connection' compilation. He included a song by my good mate, Alex Green, who spent several years in Darwin before moving to Queensland after Cyclone Tracy. 'Mile Seven' was written when he was working for a mining company in the Pilbara. The tune may be found at p138 of 'Pilbara Connection'.

MILE SEVEN
(Alex Green)

The sun comes o'er the red rock hills
To the east of Dampier town
It breathes its fire upon the earth
It turns the dust red-brown
It breathes its fire upon the men who work upon the track
It burns their minds and it burns their souls
It turns their bodies black

Into this hell of flies and sweat
For money men are driven
To work upon the railroad track
At a place they call Mile Seven
To earn their pay, to buy their drinks
To earn a young gin's smile
Down in the camp they share their bunks
Just like a prison cell

In the pubs, they drink and talk
Of girls they once knew well
They drink and talk of girls they knew
Until their hearts are sore
Then back into the empty room
And close the money door

Repeat stanza 1

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 05:44 AM

I must have missed him when he came through on the Great Northern Line.......

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 04:49 AM

ps. we now have 318 songs.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 04:48 AM

Hughie by Duke Tritton

Halfway through the shearing and the weather was very dry,
But the clouds were gathering, and lowdown in the sky;
Just as we were having a smoke, a shower came over the plain,
And we heard from the shearing shed the rouseabouts roaring refrain:

Chorus:
Send it down a little bit harder, dear old Hughie do!
Send it down a little bit harder and we'll love you;
Send it down for a week or two,
All the rousies will stick like glue,
Just a little bit harder - dear old Hughie do!

It is known as the rouseabouts prayer, it's been sung in every shed,
For when the sheep are too wet to shear the rousies get board and bed,
And their pay goes on if it's wet or dry, and they haven't a worry or care,
So they lay in their bunk and sleep or read, and sing the rouseabouts' prayer:
CHORUS

Ten points of rain and the shearers vote on whether it's wet or dry,
And if they all decide to shear, you will hear the rouseabouts sigh,
'Spare me days', you will hear them say, 'There's frogs in the blanky wool”,
And they stare over the counting pens and sing, for their hearts are full:
CHORUS

When the rain is tumbling down the shearers grumble and curse,
And the boss goes round with a hungry look, for it hits him in the purse;
So he prowls about the shed all day like a bull in a stockyard ring,
And grinds his teeth in futile rage when he hears the rouseabout sing:
CHORUS

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 04:32 AM

Great Northern Line collected from Duke Tritton by John Meredith

My love he is a teamster, a handsome man is he,
Red shirt, white moleskin trousers, and hat of cabbage-tree;
He drives a team of bullocks, and whether it's wet or fine
You will hear his whip a-cracking on the Great Northern Line.

Chorus:
Watch him, pipe him, twig him how he goes,
With his little team of bullocks, he cuts no dirty shows;
He's one of the flash young carriers that on the road do shine,
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

And when he swings the greenhide whip he raises skin and hair;
His bullocks all have shrivelled horns, for, Lordy, can he swear!
ut I will always love him, this splendid man of mine,
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

When he bogged at Mundowie and the bullocks took the yoke,
y strained with bellies on the ground until the bar-chain broke.
e fixed it up with wire and brought wool from Bundamine
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

When he comes into Tamworth you will hear the ladies sigh,
And parents guard their daughters, for he has a roving eye;
But he signals with his bullock-whip as he comes through the pine,
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 09:38 PM

LOVE'S REQUEST
(Traditional)

Thy form it is airy and slight, love
Its graces are free from restraint
Thy hair sheds a halo of light, love
Round features like those of a saint
Oh, to bathe in the light of thine eyes
What destiny sweeter could be
But visions of doubt will arise, love
Could you make me a damper for tea?

Thy mouth is a fountain of song, love
Whence melody flows like a stream
To list to thee all the day long, love
Would be pleasure too sweet for a dream
But my courage to ask for thee fails, love
To accept my hand, oh would you stoop
And again, if I brought you the tails, love
Would you make me some kangaroo soup?

And so then I bid thee farewell, love
And my claims to another I yield
But you will not grieve, I can tell, love
There are others than me in the field
You can sing, you can play, you can dance, love
But your feelings I don't mean to hurt
Your charms you would greatly enhance, love
Could you make me a Crimean shirt?

As printed at p226 of Ron Edwards 'The Big Book of Australian Folk Song'. Ron's note:

'Love's Request' is a gently ironical song, based on the form of the popular love song of the
day, but with a sting in its tail. It is from 'The Native Companion Songster 1889' and is to the tune of 'We have lived and loved together' by Nicolo. Crimean shirts, mentioned in the last line, were introduced into Australia during the period of the gold rushes and, together with cabbage tree hats, became the mark of the bushman of the period.

Martyn Wyndham-read recorded it and penned a new penultimate stanza:

Oh to be with you out in the day, love
With pride I’d take hold of your hand
And at night with the stars shining brightly
We would dance to a shearers’ bush band
But I wonder at times if your heart, love
Would take me to be your good mate
And again, if I asked you right now, love
Would you wash all the dishes and plates?

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 08:53 PM

Wongawilli's reworking of a Lawson - a good'un:

SONG OF THE BULLOCK DRIVER
(Henry Lawson)

Far back in the days when the blacks used to ramble
In long single file 'neath the evergreen tree
The wool teams in season came down from Coonamble
And journeyed for weeks on their way to the sea
With mates who have gone to the great Never-Never
And mates whom I've not seen for many a day
I camped on the banks of the Cudgegong River
And yarned at the fire by the old bullock-dray

We rose with the dawn, were it ever so chilly
When yokes and tarpaulins were covered with frost
And toasted the bacon and boiled the black billy
Where high on the campfire the branches were tossed
On flats where the air was suggestive of 'possums
And homesteads and fences were hinting of change
We saw the faint glimmer of appletree blossoms
And far in the distance the blue of the range

And here in the rain, there was small use in flogging
The poor, tortured bullocks that tugged at the load
When down to the axles the wagons were bogging
And traffic was making a marsh of the road
Then slowly we crawled by the trees that kept tally
Of miles that were passed on the long journey down.
We saw the wild beauty of Capertee Valley
As slowly we rounded the base of the Crown

Twas hard on the beasts on the terrible pinches
Where two teams of bullocks were yoked to a load
And tugging and slipping, and moving by inches
Halfway to the summit they clung to the road
And then, when the last of the pinches was bested
(You'll surely not say that a glass was a sin?)
The bullocks lay down 'neath the gum trees and rested
The bullockies steered for the bar of the inn

And, oh! but the best-paying load that I carried
Was one to the run where my sweetheart was nurse
We courted awhile, and agreed to get married
And couple our futures for better or worse
And as my old feet grew too weary to drag on
The miles of rough metal they met by the way
My eldest grew up and I gave him the wagon
He's plodding along by the bullocks today

Youtube clip

Poem

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 01:52 AM

314 songs!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 10:18 PM

BEDS ARE BURNING
(P.Garrett et alia)

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent, now
To pay our share
Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent, now
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
We're gonna give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 10:03 PM

THEY THOUGHT I WAS ASLEEP
(Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys)

We were driving back from the country one night
Mum and dad up the front and the rest of us snug and tight
My kid brother grizzled for a little minute
'Til my big sister told him he'd better quit it or die
It had been a long day in the countryside
Playing with the cousins on my mother's side
The sound of the radio closed our eyes, drifting across the seat

And then I fell asleep

Well, I don’t know what woke me up
Maybe a country song or a big truck passing by
But I could hear mama and papa talking
Papa said something, then mama began to cry
No more words then, just soft sobs and my head began to throb
I just lay there playing dog, breathing slow and deep

They thought I was asleep
They thought I was asleep

It seemed like forever ’til the sobbing stopped
Then they talked a little, but just too soft to hear
Daddy kept looking at the side of her face
One hand on the wheel and one hand stroking her hair
The headlights shining from the other way
Showed tears on the cheeks of daddy’s face
I prayed for Jesus to send his grace
And all our souls to keep

Back then I believed
They thought I was asleep
The night was dark and deep
How I wishedI was asleep

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 09:31 PM

AROUND THE BOREE LOG
(John O’Brien)

Oh stick me in the old caboose this night of wind and rain
And let the doves of fancy loose to bill and coo again
I want to feel the pulse of love that warmed the blood like wine
I want to see the smile above this kind old land of mine

So come you by your parted ways that wind the wide world through
And make a ring around the blaze the way we used to do
The fountain on the sooted crane will sing the old, old song
Of common joys in homely vein forgotten, ah, too long

The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?
Yet spend another night with me around the boree log

Now someone driving through the rain will happen in I bet
So fill the fountain up again and leave the table set
For this was ours with pride to say - and all the world defy
No stranger ever turned away, no neighbour passed us by

Bedad, he'll have to stay the night, the rain is going to pour
So make the rattling windows tight and close the kitchen door
And bring the old lopsided chair, the tattered cushion too
We'll make the stranger happy there, the way we used to do

The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?Y
Yet spend another night with me around the boree log

He'll fill his pipe and good and well and all aglow within
We'll hear the news he has to tell, the yarns he has to spin
Yarns, yes, and super yarns, forsooth, to set the eyes agog
And freeze the blood of trusting youth around the boree log

Then stir it up and make it burn, the poker’s next to you
Come let us poke it all in turn, the way we used to do
There's many a memory bright and fair will tingle at a name
But leave unstirred the embers there we cannot fan to flame

For years have turned the rusted key and time is on the jog
?Still, spend the fleeting night with me around the boree log

Youtube clip

John O'Brien was pseudonym for Patrick Hartigan who was a Catholic priest. My mother, a devout Catholic, used to read his poetry to me. By the time I was in my teens, she correctly pointed out that I had 'no more religion in me than the cat'. However, I maintain a great fondness for the poems in the collection 'Around the Boree Log'.

Australian Dictionary of Biography

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 08:20 PM

The Westgate Bridge Disaster

A song by Ken Mansell   ©Ken Mansell

Oh time is a power that is precious and golden
That's needed so much by a working class bloke.
It's ours in the cradle then sold, seized and stolen.
If you're caught off your guard it is snuffed at a stroke.
Oh time is our own when we wake in the morning,
When stomachs are empty we clock on each day.
And high on the scaffold you are given no warning;
If a pylon comes crashing it will take you away.


There are men with more time than they know what to do with;
Who decided one day that a bridge we would build.
We rushed the job through to save costs on its finance;
The structure it split and cost thirty five killed.
It's safe in the boardroom when wind a bridge seizes.
When you hear the bolts snapping you can't strike for more pay.
They can hire more and fire more, start again when it pleases,
But the man who builds bridges, he is crushed in the clay.


The concreted decks bore down hard on the girders;
The foremen were blind when we looked down with fear.
While experts debate, who will punish these murderers?
'It's tragic; some say, 'for our two engineers',
For each one that forgets us there'll be two who remember
That profit, the culprit, in its greed was revealed.
Though many will stand by me, now I'm only an ember,
The lips of the judges have a price, and are sealed.


You can speed through the Westgate, AItona and Newport,
Past widows and children whose memories can't fade,
And use it for business or use it for pleasure,
Spare a thought for the men from whose flesh it was made.
Don't wait for the inquest or coroner's verdict;
Don't send for the priest to place me below;
But tell all my mates, if there's any still breathin'
To fight for the day when our time is our own.


Listen to this song here : https://unionsong.com/u317.html
The tune being based on the (trad Scots?) song "The Blantyre Explosion"

“Notes : Many thanks to Ken Mansell for permission to add this songs to the Union Songs collection.   This song details the tragic events of the 15th October 1970 when a steel span on the west bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne collapsed and 35 workers were killed. Visit the West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee web site at http://www.westgatebridge.org/   “

All data has been taken from Mark Gregory’s excellent “Union Songs” website, with thanks.

I was reminded of it because of this article on today’s ABC news website regarding the 15th Oct,1970 bridge collapse :
West Gate Bridge disaster still haunts the men who were there, 50 years on : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-11/west-gate-bridge-collapse-haunts-survivors-50-years-on/12739324


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:54 AM

another favourite - From the Lambing to the Wool   (Judy Small)

My father was a cocky as his father was before him
And I married me a cocky nearly fifty years ago
And I've lived here on this station and I've seen the seasons changing
From the drought round to the flooding, from the lambing to the wool

    And there've been times when I've wondered
    If it all was worth the doing
    And there've been times when I've thought
    This was the finest place there is
    For though the life here's never easy
    And the hours are long and heavy
    I'm quite contented nowadays
    To have joined my life to his

Together through the thirties while others' lives were broken
We worked from dawn to twilight to hold on to what was ours
And at night we'd sit exhausted and I'd stroke his dusty forehead
With him too tired to talk to me and me too tired to care
CHORUS

Then the children came unbidden bringing laughter to the homestead
And I thanked the Lord my sons were young, too young for battle then
And I counted myself lucky to lose no-one close to family
Though the neighbours lost their only son, sold up and moved to town
CHORUS

And the children have grown and left me for careers in town and city
And I'm proud of them but sadly for none chose station life
And now I smile to hear them talking of the hard slog in the office
For when I think of working hard I see a cocky and his wife
CHORUS

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:52 AM

a song I love - even tho I'm a very atypical Australian. I can't swim, hate summer heat, glare & humidity & never go to The Beach (I do like looking at beaches & oceans etc, & taking photos of them, tho - I also hate seeing places spoiled by over-development)

CHARLESWORTH BAY by Judy Small


I have heard the songs about the coal mines
stripping mountainsides of beauty
Heard the songs of whales
to make a marble statue weep
And I have wept to see the ice run crimson
For the sake of human fashion
Heard the forests groaning
as the axes cut them deep
But it never touched me deeper
than the tears upon my face
And it never lasted than a day
Until that summer when I went
back home to visit friends and family
And I saw what they have done
to Charlesworth Bay.

Now it's not the kind of place that ad-men
want to glorify in posters
Not the kind of place to
set a greenies heart alight
And I can't say that it filled my dreams
or even held a special memory
But when I look back on my life
It's in my line of sight
And the cry left my lips that day
came not from conscience thinking
I had no chance to think of what to say
It was a grief so pure and deep
that I cannot tell where it came from
When I saw what they had done
to Charlesworth Bay.

Now I have spent my holidays
in hotels at the seaside
I have stood on sun-drenched balconies
and breathed the salt sea mist
But not again shall I lie by some pool or stroll
some private shoreline
Without wandering
whose Charlesworth Bay was this?

So now when I hear songs of coalmines
or of forests gone forever
Or of city buildings sacrificed
to feed the millionaires
I see again the giant shadow cast where
once the marsh and swamp were
Feel again the rising anger
and the bitter sting of tears
For I have never felt so frightened
for the future as that morning
When I saw what they had done to Charlesworth Bay
Oh just look at what they've
done to Charlesworth Bay

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:35 AM

no Judy Small - wot kind of session is this???

Mothers, Daughters, Wives

Chorus (after every other verse):
The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons,
And in between your husbands marched away with drums and guns.
And you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives,
For all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives.

You can only just remember the tears your mother shed;
As she sat and read their papers, through the lists and lists of dead.
And the gold frames held the photographs that mothers kissed each night,
And the doorframes held the shocked and silent strangers from the fight.

And twenty-one years later, with children of your own,
The trumpets sounded once again and the soldier boys were gone.
And you drove their trucks and made their guns and tended to their wounds,
And at night you kissed the photographs and prayed for safe returns.

And after it was over, you had to learn again
To just be wives and mothers when you’d done the work of men,
So you worked to help the needy and you never trod on toes
And the photos on the pianos they struck a happy family pose.

Then your daughters grew to women and your little boys to men,
And you prayed that you were dreaming when the call-up came again.
But you proudly smiled and held your tears as they bravely waved goodbye
And the photos on the mantelpiece, they always made you cry.

And now you’re getting older and with times the photos fade
And in widowhood you're sitting, and reflect on the parade,
Of the passing of your memories as your daughters change their lives,
Seeing more to their existence than just mothers, daughters, wives.

Final chorus:
The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons,
And in between your husbands marched away with drums and guns.
And you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives,
For all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives,
And you believed them.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 08:56 PM

THE WAKAMARINA
(C.Thatcher/N.Colquhoun)

On the banks of the Wakamarina a walk
Out from Nelson about thirty miles
A splendid gold yield’s been discovered, a field
Where dozens are making their piles
Well they work with a pan in the river-bed sand
And in many a crevice I’m told
With knives they can dig out the nuggets so big
A nice easy way to get gold

Chorus
I am waiting for fresh information and yes
If the gold is all there you will see
I’m off to the golden location I guess
It’s the Wakamarina for me

It’s affecting just pretty well all of the city
Provisions have gone up in price
And servants and tradesmen have started to fade
To the diggings, all scorning advice
Milkmen give customers warning and most
Are leaving their usual walks
And off to the Wakamarina the cart
And old Dobbin are walking the chalks

The crews all desert from the ships and I’ve heard
That the skipper on board vainly grieves
To help to discharge the ship’s cargo it’s hard
But he’s got to turn up in shirt-sleeves
Blacksmiths and bakers get cheeky when they
Get to think of the new golden ground
And butchers are talking of raising by fourpence
Pleuro to a shilling a pound

The rush will soon clear out Otago I hear how
For passengers ships advertise
Each steamer will bring up a cargo of dinkum
Victorian diggers – no flies
They are the men that can drop on the metal
And when from Dunedin they come
They’ll all get the gold from the river I’m told
There’ll be nothing left for a new chum


As printed in ‘Song of a Young Country’. Colquhoun shortened and made minor alterations to Thatcher’s original text. He also supplied a tune. Thatcher intended it to be sung to ‘Twig of the Shannon'.

Youtube clip

Colquhoun’s note:

They sang their songs while panning for nuggets along the river banks … From where many of these songs came, we’ll never know except that they are ‘folk’ - examples of the parody-process that takes hold of anonymous verse. But some are clearly introduced by the ‘pop star’ of the day – the goldfields entertainer. Most famous of these was Charles Thatcher who sang his own topical song to Irish ballad-tunes. 'Song of a Young Country' p31.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 08:06 PM

WHERE'S YOUR LICENCE
(Charles Thatcher - Tune 'The Cavalier')

The morning was fine,
The sun brightly did shine
The diggers were working away
When the inspector of traps
Said now my fine chaps
We'll go licence hunting today
Some went this way, some that
Some to Bendigo Flat
And a lot to the White Hills did tramp
Whilst others did bear
Up towards Golden Square
And the rest of them kept round the camp

Each turned his eye
To the holes close by
Expecting on some down to drop
But not one could they nail
For they'd give 'em leg bail
Diggers aren't often caught on the hop
The little word 'Joe'
That most of you know
Is a signal the traps are quite near
Made them all cut their sticks
And they hooked it like bricks
I believe you, my boys, no fear

Now a tall, ugly trap
He espied a young chap
Up the gully a-cutting like fun
So he quickly gave chase
But 'twas a hard race
For mind you, the digger could run
Down the hole he did pop
While the bobby up top
Says - 'just come up', shaking his staff
'Young man of the crown.
If yer wants me come down
For I'm not to be caught with such chaff'

Of course you'd have thought
The sly fox he'd have caught
By lugging him out of the hole
But this crusher no fear
Quite scorned the idea
Of burrowing the earth like a mole
But wiser by half
He put by his staff
And as onward he went sung he
'When a cove's down a drive
Whether dead or alive
He may stay there till doomsday for me'

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 07:33 PM

LOOK OUT BELOW
(Charles Thatcher – Tune ‘The Pirate King’)

A young man left his native shore
For trade was bad at home
To seek his fortune in this land
He crossed the briny foam
And when he came to Ballarat
It put him in a glow,
To hear the sound of the windlasses
And the cry, ‘Look out below’

Wherever he turned his wandering eyes
Great wealth he did behold
And peace and plenty hand in hand
By the magic power of gold
Quoth he, ‘As I am young and strong
To the diggings I will go
For I like the sound of the windlasses
And the cry, "Look out below"’

Amongst the rest he took his chance
And his luck at first was vile
But still he resolved to persevere
And at length he made his pile
So says he, ‘I'll take my passage
And home again I'll go
And say farewell to the windlasses
And the cry, “Look out below”’

Arrived in London once again
His gold he freely spent
And into every gaiety
And dissipation went
But pleasure, if prolonged too much
Oft causes pain you know
And he missed the sound of the windlasses
And the cry, ‘Look out below’

And thus he reasoned with himself
‘Oh why did I return?
For a digger's independent life
I now begin to yearn’
Here, purse-proud lords the poor oppress,
But there it is not so
Give me the sound of the windlasses
And the cry, ‘Look out below’

So he started for this land once again
With a charming little wife.
And he finds there's nothing comes up to
A jolly digger's life
Ask him if he'll go back one day
He'll quickly answer, ‘No’
for he loves the sound of the windlasses
And the cry, "Look out below’

Some great images in this video:

Youtube clip

Information on Thatcher:

Australian Dictionary of Biography

NZ Dictionary of Biography

Robert Hoskins 'Goldfield Balladeer' Collins 1977.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 10:13 PM

THE BALLINA WHALERS
(Harry Robertson)

In ‘56 I sailed on board a ship called Byron One
She carried trawler men on deck and a harpoon whaling gun
With a tractor for a whale winch, our ship an old Fairmile
Twin diesels turned the screws around and we whaled the Aussie style

Chorus
Heigh ho ye trawler men come on, forget the snapper and the prawn
And it’s out of Ballina we’ll sail a-fishing for the humpback whale

So keep a sharp lookout me lads, for the whale is on the run
And we’ll chase him into Byron Bay and kill him with our gun
The harpoon and the line fly true, bedding deep into the whale
But she split the timbers of our ship with a flurry of her tail

Chorus

Our
rigging struts were snapped in two, we reeled beneath the blow
But the gunner fired a killer shot and the humpback sank below

Chorus

Now make her tail fast to the bow, we’ve got no time for bed
For four and twenty hours each day we kept that factory fed
The flensing men upon the land, some had been jackaroos
But they skinned the blubber off them whales like they’d skinned the kangaroos

Chorus

One hundred whales, then fifty more, to the factory we did send
Till a message said, ‘Knock off me lads' - the season’s at an end
Back into Ballina we sailed, tied up and stowed the gear
Then all hands headed for the pub and we filled ourselves with beer

As recorded by Danny Spooner - 'The Great Leviathan' CD.

Danny's note:

Another of Harry Robertson's songs sings the praise of the adaptable Aussie worker. The men who manned the old ex-naval Fairmile to hunt humpback whales out of Byron Bay were trawler men used to fishing and prawning with nets. Now with a tractor mounted on the deck for a whale winch and a harpoon gut mounted forward, they went whale hunting Aussie Style.

Danny's recording is not on the Net, but Nic Jones recorded it as 'The Humpback Whale' on his 'Penguin Eggs' LP.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 09:21 PM

BOB MAHONEY AND HIS CREW
(Trad)

While outward bound far o’er the deep
Slung in me hammock I fell asleep
I had a dream which I thought was true
Concerning Mahoney and his boat’s crew

With a crew of seamen he sailed away
To hunt the black whale in Recherche Bay
Off yon green Island, not far from here
There we lost Mahoney and his boat’s gear

There’s Captain Kennedy of Hobart town
There’s Captain Reynolds of high renown
There’s Captain Robertson and many, many more
They’ve long been cruising Macquarie’s shore

They cruised east and they cruised west
Round the sou’west cape where they thought best
No tide nor tale could they see or hear
Concerning Mahoney or his boat’s gear

In Recherche Bay where the black whale blow
The tale of Mahoney they all do know
They say he’s gone like many, many more
He left his home to return no more

As we draw nearer to Hobart’s shore
I saw a fair maid in deep deplore
She was sobbing, sighing, saying ‘Pity me
I’ve lost my brother poor Bob Mahoney

She wrung her hands and she tore her hair
Like a maid distracted in deep despair
‘I’ve lost my brother no more to see
I’ve lost my brother poor Bob Mahoney

And now my burden it brings me pain
For long-lost Mahoney I’ve searched in vain
A thousand pounds I would give to you
To see Bob Mahoney and his boat’s crew

As recorded in Alan Musgrave ’Songs They Used To Sing’.

A Danny Spooner recording, ‘The Loss of Mahoney’, can be found in ’The Great Leviathan’ and ’Song Lines’:

Youtube clip

The song came from the singing of Jack Davies. You can hear him here:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 08:16 PM

THE WATERWITCH
(Trad)

A neat little packet from Hobart set sail
To cruise the wide oceans for the monster sperm whale
To cruise to the wide oceans where the stormy winds blow
Bound away in the Waterwitch to the west'ard we'll go

Chorus
Bound away, bound away, where the stormy winds blow
Bound away in the Waterwitch to the west'ard we'll go

Oh ‘twas early one morning just as the sun rose
The man from her mast head cries out, 'There she blows'
‘Where away' cries our skipper and springing aloft
‘Three points off yer lee bow and scarce three miles off'

Chorus

We sailed off the west wind and came up a pace
The whale boats was lowered and set for the chase
Get yer lines in the boats see yer box line is clear
And lower her down boys and after him steer

Chorus

We fought him alongside, the harpoon thrust in
In just over an hour, he rolled out his fin
The whale was cut in boys, tried out and stowed down
He's worth more to us, boys, than five hundred pound

Chorus

When the ship she gets full boys to Hobart we'll steer
Where there's plenty of pretty girls and plenty good beer
We'll spend our money freely with the girls on the shore
And when it's all gone go a-whaling for more

Chorus

As recorded in Danny Spooner 'The Great Leviathan'

Danny's note:

From the singing of a Mr Jack Davies of Hobart, this is similar to The Coast of Peru and New Zealand Whales. It recalls the days when Tasmanian whalers hunted the Southern Right Whale from the Derwent across the Tasman sea. I got the words originally from Lloyd Robson, who with Norm O'Connor, recorded Mr Davies in the early 1960s.

Also recorded in Alan Musgrave 'Songs They Used To Sing'

Youtube clip

You can hear Jack Davies sing it on Mark Gregory's site:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 06:09 AM

Ask her from me to CHANNEL John!! :)
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 05:42 AM

Dale does a bit of song writing

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 05:38 AM

Thank you for that post, Sandra - they are indeed GEMS!!!

(and so many of us were waiting for Joh to be deposed before migrating to QLD - and now there are SO many newcomers who really don't know why he was so bad, and probably don't particularly care :(

R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 03:38 AM

congratulations, Stewie Cunnamulla is no. 300!

& it can only be followed by 2 more of John's great songs that were going to end the show about the centenary of John Meredith's birth at the 2020 National - cancelled due to covid!

penultimate song - Queensland Medley aka Farewell to Joh.
ultimate song - The Melbourne Medley


The relevance of singing J.D’s Farewell and Adieu was that Merro enjoyed J.D’s protest songs and anti-Joh with strong criticism, but No swearing, songs. He especially liked the use of traditional ‘Farewell’ songs including ‘Farewell and adieu to you Brisbane Ladies’ It is a fine example of parody and Ralph and I felt it had a great chorus to sing as the penultimate song. (Ralph Pride joined BMC in the early 60s, around the same time John & Dale joined.)

Queensland Medley - Farewell to Joh. Tune: Brisbane Ladies - Augathella Station

Farewell and adieu to the Premier of Queensland
Farewell and adieu and goodbye to Sir Joh
You useless old bastard, too long you have lasted
Now your mates have decided that you have to go.

Chorus - You ranted and roared at the reds and the greenies,
You ranted and roared at the black and the white;

You postured and strutted, just like Mussolini ...
Now your mates have betrayed you and that serves you right.

You pineapple vandal, they've snuffed out your candle,
Get back to your peanuts, you senile old sod;
Take Flo and her pumpkins, you great pair of bumpkins,
You can start playing lawn bowls and stop playing God.

Chorus

You Lutheran pastor cum paw paw disaster
You Darling Downs despot, you Kingaroy clown
Get back to your tractor, you seventh rate actor
You pious, hypocritical, adjective noun.

Stick that up your jumper, you old Bible-thumper,
You second-rate Hitler, you goose-stepping goose;
The poisonous old cane toad's in gone-down-the-drain mode,
Like a dribble of Bundaberg sugar cane juice.

Chorus

Tune changes to It's a Long Way to Tipperary

It's a long way to Cunnamulla, it's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Cunnamulla on the River Warrago.
I know there's been a gerrymander and I know it isn't fair.
But I have to rely on Cunnamulla, they vote for me there.

After some devastating serves to Joh B-J, John had just about run out of ‘Dengate expletives’ but ‘adjective noun’, with the innuendo of too terrible to say it, always gets a laugh. (email from Dale, 15/04/20)

to be followed by The Melbourne Medley

What does the Melbourne do on a cruise from Jervis Bay?
She sails on the briny blue with the Voyager in the way.
So it’s hard a-port for who’d’ve thought on a peaceful summer’s night.
A destroyer would sail and a carrier fail to give way on the right.

Oh, the weather was fair for a Boson’s chair so the Captain went for a ride.
He piped all hands to elastic bands as it loomed on the starboard side.
“A ship” cries he “It’s the enemy! Whatever shall I do?”
So they cut her in half just for a laugh, and drowned one third of the crew.

Box the compass, port the helm and all that nautical stuff.
The whistle blew and the Captain flew to the bridge in an awful huff,
Crying East by West is the course that’s best, so come on all you men.
There was great distress in the officer’s mess that night in the RAN.

So, sing with Pride of the suicide and cheer for the Commonwealth.
Who needs a war? There’s a wind off-shore, we’ll go and sink our-self.
…………….

HMAS Melbourne goes sailing the world,
With her radar antenna and her ensign unfurled.
Here is a fact that I’m sure will astound,
The Melbourne goes over what the others go ‘round.

CHORUS
And it’s duck for cover, quickly before she arrives,
Here comes the Melbourne my jolly brave tars,
So swim, swim for your lives.

There’s a man on the Melbourne and he gets double pay,
His job is to keep shouting “Out of the way”.
Sing ho for a carrier out on the blue,
If you get in their way they will cut you in two.

All you destroyers take warning by me,
Beware for the Melbourne is out on the sea.
Subs go below, planes above and it’s true,
Most ships go around but the Melbourne goes through.

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 03:36 AM

Sure, the days of Joh & Flo are over and the infamous Brown Paper Bag gone with them ....... or has it???

However, years later, we are still saddled with their mate in the form of Australia’s 11th richest billionaire, who is some kind of Loki, causing expensive and heart-breaking chaos everywhere - and who “coincidentally” was Joh’s big supporter and backer, particularly in his push to become Prime Minister. (Perish the Thought, indeed!)

WHERE then, are the songs about this character and his questionable deeds?????

Surely Master Dengate should be sending them to Dale, from Beyond, in the form of automatic writing perhaps???!!!
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 02:28 AM

A member of my ukulele group (currently in recession due to the plague) once suggested doing "It's a long way to Tipperary"......I couldn't. I kept singing John's words for 'Cunnamulla'. We never did do 'Tipperary'.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 01:35 AM

This one was a great favourite back in the Joh and Flo days. As posted by Tony in Darwin a good few years ago.

CUNNAMULLA
(John Dengate)

[Tune: It's a Long Way to Tipperary]

First verse and chorus:
It's a long way to Cunnamulla, it's a long way to go,
It's a long way to Cunnamulla on the River Warrego.
I know there's been a gerrymander and I know it isn't fair,
But I have to rely on Cunnamulla; they vote for me there.

Mr. Bjelke Petersen is a genius, it's true.
Mr. Bjelke Petersen makes five votes equal two.
He divides up the whole electorate, subtracts Aunt Edna's twins,
And he multiplies the rural fraction and that's how he wins.

Chorus

[Tune: Pack up Your Troubles]

Here is your ticket to the Senate, Flo, That's guile, guile, guile.
Pack up your pumpkin scones and portmanteau; goose-step round the pile.
Tell the mob in Canberra, I waltzed you down the aisle,
So here is your nepotistic ticket, Flo, seig Heil! Heil! Heil!

[Tune: It's a Long Way to Tipperary]

Chorus

Old Caligula the Roman, so the history text books say,
Put his horse into the Senate where it always voted "neigh".
But a horse is still considered useful on the River Warrego,
So! The ancient Romans got an old grey mare and Queensland got Flo.

Chorus

Why not go to sunny Queensland, why not venture forth?
Why not join the Country Party in that lovely land up north?
Ignore the electorate in Brisbane; to hell with Moreton Bay;
As long as you win in Cunnamulla, you'll be O.K.

Chorus

From "My Shout: Songs and Poems by John Dengate" pub. Bush Music Club, Sydney, Easter, 1982.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 01:03 AM

THE AMITY MEN

Composer?   (presumed to be one/some of the Albany Shanytmen, in WA)

Ch.
A town they made those Amity Men, A town that set them free
A town they made those Amity Men, A town called Albany.


1.   From New Bruswick, Canada, borne in the icy breeze
A block and square-rigged sailing brig, she steered fine weatherly
With top forebones? of Hackmatack, she crossed the Atlantic seas
Ploughing through the ocean troughs, she’s bound for Albany.


2.   From Scotland to Tasmania, a new world there to see
The Roaring Forties, blazing sun, she steered fine weatherly
Then off to West Australia, set off the old barque(-ee)?
In Eighteen Hundred and Twenty Six, sailed into Albany.


3.   Major Lockyer’s convict crew, with McCabe, Dinneen, Magee
???……………………craftsmen, she steered fine weatherly
For five days they unloaded her, salt pork, cut tacks, split peas
Timber, rifles, tools, and tents, they founded Albany.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qql0bTPmWjY      The Amity Men (The Albany Shantymen)

Thanks to Stewie for helping discern some of those lyrics - and any Old Salts’ further suggestions are very welcome! Plus, does anyone know the composer/s??


The Amity is the (relatively small) vessel which in 1826, brought Major Edmund Lockyer (with crew and naval party, 19 soldiers of the 39th Foot, 23 convicts (11 each English & Irish, + 1 Yank), storekeeper, gardener, 2 overseers, 3 women, 2 kids, animals, building materials, and stores) from the Colony of New South Wales to establish a British presence on the West Coast, thus greatly reducing the chance of a feared claim by the French.

There is a replica ship on the foreshore in Albany (in the SW corner of WA), built in the mid 1970s to mark Albany’s 150th anniversary.
Incidentally, The Amity also featured strongly in the Moreton Bay area’s convict history, on the East Coast (and the land now known as Qld, was only formerly excised from NSW in 1859 – quite late in the scheme of things!)


Now this may not be the most brilliant song going, but I must confess that my interest in it is because my GGGrandfather, William Thacker, a Londoner, was amongst this initial trusted Convict crew of 23 to sail with the Amity from Sydney (landing in Dec 1826) and he gained his freedom at King George Sound / Frederickstown (later known as Albany), and in Dec 1830, headed up to the Swan River Colony (newly founded, June 1829) via the Nimrod, eventually taking up land in Upper Swan. There he met and married young Eliza Cook, a Peel Estater, who had arrived May 1830 on the ill-fated Rockingham.

So the family regard him as one of West Aussie’s earliest (if not THE earliest!) settlers (esp as he stayed in WA when many new arrivees balked at the place and promptly shot-through to the Eastern States).
However, I fear the Landed Gentry still do not approve of such a low-class wretch (Crikey! He was only an opportunistic thief!!), being accorded any high civil and historical status, LoL!! (sniff)



Cheers, R-J (doffing cap and tugging forelock :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 11:54 PM

EXcellent, JennieG - don't stop there!!

R-J :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 10:48 PM

As (sort of) promised.

Dying Treasurer
John Dengate

Tune: Dying Stockman

A Federal Treasurer lay dying,
His budget supporting his head.
The cabinet stood plausibly lying
As he raised on his elbow and said -
        Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery,
        Wrap me round in my legerdemain.
        Bury me deep in the rhetoric
        Right next to the monetary drain.

There's booze in the cut-glass decanter,
Place the tumblers all in a row
And toast more and more unemployment -
May the total continue to grow.
        Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery,
        Wrap me round in my legerdemain.
        Bury me deep in the rhetoric
        Right next to the monetary drain.

Cut down the consumer price index
Put wages and salaries on ice.
Lock up one or two union leaders
To help me attain paradise.
        Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery,
        Wrap me round in my legerdemain.
        Bury me deep in the rhetoric
        Right next to the monetary drain.

Oh, had I the flight of a bronze-wing
Instead of a blind silver-tail
I'd fly in the face of all reason
And I'd write my last Budget in Braille.
        Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery,
        Wrap me round in my legerdemain.
        Bury me deep in the rhetoric
        Right next to the monetary drain.

Alternate last verse:

Oh, had I the flight of an emu,
I'd desperately run round and round,
And try to soar into the sunset
And never get up off the ground.

The last verse is a doozy, considering that emus don't fly.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 10:27 PM

RERENGA’S WOOL
(B.Paterson (attributed)/m.Anon)

’Twas down at Wellington
A noble Maori came
A Rangatira of the best
Rerenga was his name
He stalked into the bank they call
The Great Financial Hell
And told the Chief Financial Fiend
The tribe had wool to sell

The bold bank manager looked grave
The price of wool was high
He said, ‘We’ll lend you what you need
We’re not disposed to buy
You ship the wool to England, Chief
You’ll find it’s good advice
And meanwhile you can draw from us
The local market price’

Rerenga thanked him courteously
And said he wished to state
In all th Rotoiti tribe
His mana would be great
Wedged into a cargo ship
Full up from stem to bow
A mighty clip of wool went Home
Form Rotoiti-au

It was the bold bank manager
Who made the heavy cheque
Rerenga cashed it thoughtfully
Then clasped him round the neck
‘To show my gratitude’, he said
As he pouched the pelf
‘I’ll haha for you, generous sir
In honour of yourself’

He haka’d most effectively
Then with an airy grace
Pressed noses with the manager
And vanished into space
And when the wool return came back
Aha what sighs and groans
For every bale of Maori wool
Was loaded up with stones

As recorded by Tommy and Margaret Wood on 'Song of a Young Country' LP.

Youtube clip

It is attibuted to Banjo Paterson. The full poem as printed in 'Saltbush Bill JP, And Other Verses':

Click

Note in 'Song of a Young Country':

Since the 1840s, first the Company's agents, then the government's agents, had been buying land from the Maori for resale to the settlers. Land ownership was complicated and anyone who presented himself as a great Chief with sole selling rights to a block of land was welcomed with open arms - his claims not too closely investigated and an advance quickly given to help prevent a change of mind ... Anybody could be chief, and sell his enemy's land from under him.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 09:38 PM

MURDERERS ROCK
(N.Colquhoun)

Murderer’s Rock stands on the track
And watches all that passes
Victorian miners, hard old-timers
And wash-a-bit move-along asses
For the Dunstan, just as the Tuapek did
That gave us all gold fever
Has little that’s left of payable dirt
And we are bound to leave her (x2)

Let your ears flap as they hears
A tale that’ll certain displease you
About four wild colonial men
Begetting their gold at leisure
Dick Burgess, Kelly and Phillip Levy
That now stand trial in the dock
They butchered poor Mathieu and his friends
For their gold at Murderers Rock (2)

The four had planned their evil work
When Mathieu spoke up louder
And told the company in the bar
Hard savings - no man prouder
They travelled ahead to wait and rob
And not one was fair fighter
If a single robber has stood with fists
My story could have been brighter (x2)

Hang down your head, Dick Burgess
’Twill make no difference further
You know you’ll hang from the gallows tree
And pay for your terrible murder
For Kelly too I haven’t much time
Though for Levy I am warmer
The jury has to make up its mind
On the evidence of an informer (x2)

Murderer’s Rock stands on the track
And watches all that passes
Victorian miners, hard old-timers
And wash-a-bit move-along asses
My story’s ended, I am done
And all take warning from it
Don’t take another man’s life for gold
Or the gallows you’ll hang upon it (x2)


This beaut rendition by Tamburlaine makes up for the doggerel verse:

Youtube clip

Full details of the incident may be found here:

Click

—Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 09:04 PM

NEWELL HIGHWAY
(J.Warner/G.Parry)

Awake before the dawn, within the spires of range
Where magpies ornate melodies
Engrave the chilly morning breeze
Beneath the towering stone
Beneath the towering stone

On nights of silver moon, too rich to waste on sleep
In silence make your way to seek
The choirs of frogs in swamp and creek
That sing beneath the stars
That sing beneath the stars

Out on the Western Plain beside the roaring road
Where trucks snarl by without a care
Are billabongs with ibis there
And wedge-tail eagles soar
And wedge-tail eagles soar

All you that love the earth and make her ways your choice
Cry out against the noise of trade
Demand that silence should be made
So that all may hear her voice
Her ancient, matchless voice

Recorded on Danny Spooner 'Emerging Tradition'.

Danny noted:

John Warner penned this piece in 1985, after a visit to the Warrumbungle Mountains in inland New South Wales. A committed conservationist, John borrowed the tune of the well-loved Anglican hymn 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' (G.H.H. Parry) to remind us how ‘progress’ has encroached upon and damaged some of our most precious assets and continues to do so.

--Stewie.

Recording by Kerr, Fagan, Harbron.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 08:42 PM

THE FORBES FLOOD

Another great disaster has come upon this land
Out where the Lachlan River flows on its way so grand
Was in the month of August and the town was bright and gay
And the folks out on the lachlan they were happy all the day

And then the skies grew cloudy and the rain came fallen down
All day the mighty torrents came falling to the ground
The streams throughout the country kept swelling day by day
Until the angry Lachlan, it was roaring on its way

And then there came a warning , the levees cannot stand
A brave important struggle to save their native land
But still the raging water kept pounding at the shores
Until it broke the levee banks and into Forbes it poured

How many homes were flooded and brave men knelt to pray
As all that they had cherished was madly swept away
The world will gladly help them to pay the awful cost
But no-one can ever give them back the treasures they have lost

We can't explain the reason these great disasters come
But we all must remember to say "Thy will be done"
And though the good may suffer for other people's sins
There is a crown awaiting where eternal life begins.

As recorded on Alan Musgrave 'Songs They Used to Sing: A Panorama of Australian Folksong'.

Traditional singer, Ebb Wren, made a few minor changes to Carson Robison's 'The Mississippi Flood'. Full details, including Robison's original text, may been found on this 20-year-old Mudcat thread:

Click

Since then, a video of Ebb Wren has been posted to YT. Go to circa 1 minute mark.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 08:39 PM

I'm on my way out, but Ive just gathered my Dengate books & will check Leyne's website - The John Dengate Collection A library of John Dengate words, music, videos, photos and memories - when I get back - assuming you haven't checked the Lyrics & Poems page & posted stuff yourselves!

ps. we now have 292 songs, I've sent you a copy of the list, Jennie

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 07:37 PM

Indeed! JennieG - and we haven't had near enough here from John, have we??!   Go for it!

R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 07:11 PM

Today would be a good day for John Dengate's 'Dying Treasurer' song......if I have time later.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 04:43 AM

A song not often heard, but a goodun nonetheless.

On the Road with Liddy

William Miller, 1934

I'm on the road with Liddy with five hundred head of fats.
We string' em on the stony ground and wheel 'em on the flats,
And when the evenin' stars come out, with laughter and with song,
We round the cattle up, and camp by some quiet billabong.

Our cook's a ball of muscles when he's rustling up a feed,
And Bob Delany's home and dried when steadying the lead,
And if the cattle run at night, there's one chap out in front
Striking matches on the bullock's horns, a chap named Georgie Hunt.

And when we get to Wyndham, there's Tom Cole with his whip
To steer the lead across the hill and put 'em on the ship.
And when the mob is all on board, we'll have some blasted fun,
We'll get Jack Roberts with his car to take us for a run.

We'll try and dig Bob Cooper up, then to that bag of tricks,
The pub that's kept by Teddy Clark they call the Double-Six.
We'll sing again them drovin' songs we sang along the track,
Have a show on the screen for an hour or two, then off again out-back.


Sung here by A.L. Lloyd : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_PN6XMFQXw

He notes on the afore-mentioned LP “The Great Australian Legend :
“They used to say that the heart of Australian nation was the nomad tribe - the teamsters, shearers, drovers—always on the move across the continent. Men with plenty of resourcefulness and few responsibilities. At the head of the nomad tribe were the drovers, the overlanders, who shifted herds and flocks across the plains to distant stations or sale-yards. With the spread of railways, the need for the long drives diminished, but they haven't quite disappeared yet. The old forms of bush life have lasted best in the remote country of the Northern Territories and the northern part of West Australia. Mateship is a basic necessity in such empty country; a free and easy hospitability makes up for a life that is otherwise monotonous, repetitious, terribly short of event. Slowness, a certain melancholy, and eager snatch at chance for diversion characterises the existence of the cattlemen of the far outback, even today. The relatively recent North-west drover's song, On the Road with Liddy, shows it all.

This unusual lyric was made, presumably in the 1920s, by a Northern Territory cattle-hand named William Miller. Tommy Liddy was a well-known drover and horseman of the time. The narrative concerns a cattle-drive to the north-west Australian port of Wyndham. I've not seen this one in print.”

All that info was pulled from the excellent Mainly Norfolk website: https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/ontheroadwithliddy.html

The info following is from the also excellent Folkstream.com website by Mark Gregory :
See also the original published version from the Darwin Newspaper the Northern Standard The Droving Days in this collection
From the singing of A.L.Lloyd. Printed in Australian Tradition , Oct 1971
Wyndham - port town in northern WA   / Lloyd describes Liddy as a well known drover of the area and Liddy's is also known as a bottle tree near Cockatoo Bore, the other side of Kununurra / Fats - road bullocks / Tom Cole - contract musterer and station manager who settled in Wyndham in 1924 / Georgie Hunt - drover on the VRD, Victoria River Downs in the Northern Territory / Teddy Clark's wife ran a pub called the Six Mile in about 1923 / Filmshows were put on at the meatworks in Wyndham in those days.


My previous hearing of this song was an a cappella group harmony version, but just by whom, has now been lost to me!


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 03:02 AM

Just came across Greg Windred on YT.

He's from Armidale, NSW and likes a wide range of music and styles.

Have a listen to his powerful "BLOOD ON THE WATTLE", set to a great slideshow :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crNVyuRtZFM




Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 02:54 AM

HARD TACK

trad

I'm a shearer, yes, I am, and I’ve shorn both sheep and lamb
From the Wimmera to the Darling Downs and back
And I've run a shed or two when the fleece was tough as glue
But I'll tell you where I struck the ’ardest tack.

I was down round Yenda way, killin' time from day to day
Till the big sheds started movin' further out
When I met a bloke by chance that I summed up at a glance
As a cocky from a vineyard round about.

Now it seems he picked me too—well, it wasn't hard to do
'Cause I had me tongs a-hangin' at me hip
“Well, I got a mob,” he said, “just about two hundred head
And I'd give a ten pound note to get the clip.”

I says, “Right, I'll take the stand”, it meant gettin’ in me hand
And by nine o’clock we'd rounded up the mob
In a shed sunk in the ground with wine-casks all around
And that was where I started on me job.

I goes easy for a bit whilst me hand was gettin’ fit
And by dinner time I'd done about a score
With the cockie pickin' up, and handin' me a cup
Of pinkie after every sheep I shore.

Well, he had to go away about the seventh day
After showin’ me the kind of casks to use
Then I'd do the pickin' up, and manipulate the cup
Strollin' round them wine-casks just to pick and choose.

Then I'd stagger to the pen, grab a sheep and start again
With a sound between an 'iccup and a sob
And sometimes I'd fall asleep with me arms around a sheep
Worn and weary from me over-arduous job.

And so six weeks went by, till one day, with a sigh
I shoved the dear old cobbler through the door
I gathered in the cocky's pay, and staggered on me way
From the hardest flamin' shed I'd ever shorn.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaisYXk0tsE&list=PLETVuiXKS2qBiKClqcaTxb5V5juZC7tdf&index=13
sung here by Declan Affley on LP “The Day the Pub Burned Down”

Notes by A.L.Lloyd are taken from LP “The Great Australian Legend” :
“Already in the nineteenth.century, in South Australia and Victoria, vineyards were being planted, mostly by German settlers. And notably in the period between the World wars, with the establishment of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, the orchard and vineyard districts of New South Wales began to spread and encroach on regions that formerly had been devoted to sheep. To their astonishment, shearers found themselves drinking wine instead of their famed staple beverage, beer. The culture collision between vineyard and sheep land, wine and beer, is well expressed in the Hard Tack song.”

tongs: hand shears / pickin’ up: picking up and baling the fleeces as they are shorn / pinkie: wine / cobbler: last sheep to be shorn
https://www.topicrecords.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/TSDL203.pdf



Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 10:42 PM

ODE TO STREAM
(Mic Travers)

Well I’m cuttin’ all my ties and I’ve sung all my goodbyes
There’s no tellin’ when I might return
For I’ve heard it in the streams and I’m out to catch my dreams
There’s a light within my soul that does burn

Chorus
Yes, pack your bags, girl, be my friend on the road
Together we will find again the good times that we know’d
And our love emerge unscathed from the baptism of waves
It’s written in the sands, in the lines upon our hands
It will be so

From life’s impossible defeats to her euphoric craigie peaks
I’ve staggered over many the ragged mile
From this material mirage, I leap for the universe at large
Blind and trusting as a new-born child

Chorus

And now I close my eyes and dream of that gentle flowing stream
And the words of wisdom it must whisper still
I drink deeply from its banks and I offer up my thanks
Oh will I return again, I probably will

Chorus

Now it’s time to press upon the road, sing a song to light our load
Let the hook and fire rekindle our soul
But there’s every chance we’ll weather if we can but stick together
Whatever tempest mother nature throws

Chorus

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 10:23 PM

SOON MAY THE WELLERMAN COME
(Anon)

There was a ship that put to sea
The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea
The winds blew up, her bow dipped down
Oh blow me bully boys blow

Chorus
Soon may the Wellerman come
And bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day when the tonguin’ is done
We’ll take our leave and go

She had not been two weeks from shore
When down on her a wright whale bore
The captain called all hands and swore
He’d take that whale in tow

Before the boat had hit the water
The whale’s tail came up and caught her
All hands to the side, harpooned and fought her
When she dived down below

No line was cut, no whale was freed
The captain’s mind was not of greed
But he belonged to the wheelman’s creed
She took the ship in tow

For forty days or even more
The line went slack, then tight once more
All boats were lost - there were only four
But still the whale did go

As far as I’ve heard, the fight’s still on
The line’s not cut and the whale’s not gone
The Wellerman makes his regular call
To encourage the captain, crew and all

Shore-whalers, unlike whalers on ships, could not return to their native lands. Even if there were a ship, they couldn’t afford the passage for they saw no money. Whaling companies, such as Wellers of Sydney, sent agents across the Tasman to collect the bone and oil and to pay the men in sugar and rum. When the companies ceased to operate, the men began to work on their own - whaling, some fishing, a little farming.’Song of a Young Country’ p10.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 05 Oct 20 - 01:19 AM

Sandra posted a couple of Greg Hastings songs above, and I remembered this one :


NULLARBORING PLAIN

Written while driving across the Nullarbor in a Diatsu 500cc Handy Van


CHORUS
Curse the blessed highway that's been going on for miles
Across the Nullaboring Plain the lonesome traveler drives
Counting cans and gum trees there isn't much to choose
But the skeletons of burnt out cars and flattend kangaroos.


You've loaded up your roof racks, supplies aare stacked and stored
You take along your best cassettes to stop from getting bored.
Maybe you've a friend or two in your car or your can or your truck
But by the time you get to Eucla mate you won't give a ..... damn.


CHORUS

You start off waving at the cars you meet along the track
And then you give up hoping you ever will wave back
You get so flaming bored that to stop yourself from sleep
You start waving at the cows, the birds, the signposts and the sheep.

CHORUS

If by chance you break down with a station miles away
There'll be no need to panic as on your knees you pray
You'll never be very lonely no matter how hard you tries
Cos you've always got the company of sixty million flies.

CHORUS

If you like your fauna as you're driving on your way
There's very little of it if you're driving in the day
You may just catch the odd roo or rabbit in the rough
But they're usually quite motionless and absolutely stuffed.

CHORUS

Then at night they jump you and they'll give you quite a scare
You'll even see them moving when they're never there
Still you've got those insects, whose guts just must be seen
And you've got the time to watch it as it spreads across the screen.

CHORUS

There's roadtrains to the left of you, roadtrains to the right
Things can get quite hairy when you're driving in the night
They look like giant Christmas trees as they cut off every bend
But you'll wind up like a fairy with one stuffed right up your end.

CHORUS

And when at last you get there be it Perth or Sydney town
A sense of great achievement no doubt you will have found
You may be tired and sweaty, your back all stiff and sore
But at least you've got your sticker says you've crossed the Nullarbor.

CHORUS


Copyright Greg Hastings © 1982

Sample excerpt :
https://www.greghastings.com/files/Greg%20Hastings%20-%20Wandering%20Man%20-%2015%20-%20Nullaboring%20Plain.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T845HV-1yP0&feature=youtu.be   Greg at Roleystone Performer’s Night, 2011


In 2020, it is a roughly 3935 kilometre (or 2445 mile) journey, on Highway 1, taking maybe 41 hours with shared driving.    Apparently.

Most West Aussie Baby Boomers would have done the overland trip along the old Eyre Highway (and many of us, more than once) in the ‘bulldust’ days, long before all the roads were sealed and vehicles were air conditioned. Where you had to carry jerry cans of spare fuel and water – just in case. The roads were mostly long, hot, dry, dusty tracks (until it rained, when it was slippery mud) - covered in potholes (if large and hit at speed there goes your front end), teeth-rattling corrugations, and limestone outcrops to shred the tyres of the tired and unwary, with mostly only the occasional truck-cum-roadtrain for fleeting company (or sometimes a Speleo Expedition of cavers, as the land is littered with huge underground cave systems and sinkholes).
And the road just went on for Bloody Miles and Miles!! Great fun. The only relief was stopping at the bore water tanks where you could sluice off the grime with hot - very salty – undrinkable water.
I recall my Aunt and Uncle, then resident in Tasmania, visiting their Perth families in the mid 1950s - with 3 kids under 5, in a small sedan car. And they did it again a few years later, with an extra child!
West Aussies (and Returned Soldiers), sure were built tough!!

I’ve now a mind to revisit some of the books written about the early post-WWII journeys undertaken (like by Ion Idriess), and about the famous Redex trials that started in 1953 (with drivers like “Gelignite Jack” Murray and Jack Brabbham), and films of which excited everyone so much at the local flicks!

https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/redex_trials_the_legend


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Oct 20 - 10:28 PM

R-J, this should be of interest to you since your beloved made instruments for hydrographers in Darwin.

THE WAYWARD HYDROGRAPHER
(Mic Travers)

Well come listen all my merry friends, I’ll tell to you this yarn
It is of a young apprentice who was living up in Darwin
Water was his trade and his indentures had been signed
That was his undoing as sure as you’re a friend of mine

Da da li li etc

Well despite his youthful countenance and credit where it’s due
Our youth had had experience and he’d seen a few things too
He’d travelled round about the place, a few trips beneath his belt
But he’d never been down south in spring when snow begins to melt

Refrain

He set off one morn from Darwin and the weather it was fine
It was mid-to-late September and most morns are then you’ll find
He travelled south by east, stopping briefly here and there
But he never stopped for good till he breathed cool mountain air

Refrain

Well at this point in my story, it is fair I tell to you
The few things he had with him that he thought would see him through
He had a guage, a rod, a rain guage, a book of useful facts
An inner tube, a swag and a few things in a pack

Refrain

Well he’d been camped up there a few weeks, taking guagings of the stream
Looking for some correlation, some new insight he might glean
When he saw it in his readings and confirmed it with his eyes
That within the space of hours, the mountain stream began to rise

Refrain

Well at first he thought nought of it, still he made some little note
For it may have proved of interest to some academic bloke
But as the stream became a torrent, interest gave way to alarm
And he scampered over rocks, still with his rod under his arm

Refrain

Now without the hint of panic, our old mate knew what to do
He reached straight for his old inner tube and into it he blew
And blew with all his might, barely stopping for a spell
He had thing damn near inflated ‘fore into the stream he fell

Refrain

And so quick were his reflexes, he had time before he went
To grab his book of useful facts and to take one last measurement
He rode the old tube like a pro, steering with his guage and rod
Thumbing the index of his book for flashing floods and acts of god

Refrain

Mic spent some time in Darwin with his young family before heading to Brisbane - a fine performer and song writer.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 04 Oct 20 - 04:14 AM

THE PROSECUTION

(Don Henderson)


Young, free and white, woke up this morning
Looked out the window and he saw
In the east a new day was dawning
A day that had never been before
And he wonders, could it be
That, in some way, mightn't he
Be as singularly unique as this new day?
Or was it simply true
There are 'Them' and 'They' and 'You'
And to 'Them' you are just another 'They'?


Ch.
And his hopes of acquittal are sinking
For the charges on which he'll appear
Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking'
And 'possession of a dangerous idea'.


The family is all seated round the table
The children eat their meal and ask for more
Mother says she's done the best she's able
Father swears and, leaving, slams the door
He is poor and some are not
His two hands are all he's got
His two hands built the world and hold it high
Could he build a new world where
Working men all have a share?
He wonders if he's brave enough to try.


And his hopes of acquittal are sinking
For the charges on which he'll appear
Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking'
And 'possession of a dangerous idea'.


Saturday night and the camp is getting jumpy
As white men after 'velvet' offer port
Jackie sits there in his scrap heap humpy
And thinks 'If this is life, thank God it's short'
On the wind faint voices came
Called him by his tribal name
And asked him what of his Dreaming, his people's land?
Then, rising from the dirt, he threw down the mission shirt
And, proud again, put on the red headband.


And his hopes of acquittal are sinking
For the charges on which he'll appear
Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking'
And 'possession of a dangerous idea'.


The court has been rehearsed in preparation
The executioner is well prepared
All services will join the operation
Leave is cancelled, no expense is spared
Knowing what it was he said,
Nothing's safe till he is dead
He said: "Every man's his own man in the end!"
He said: "Slaves are black and white,
The divided will unite"
He said: "Every man's his own man in the end!"


And his hopes of acquittal are sinking
For the charges on which he'll appear
Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking'
And 'possession of a dangerous idea'.


And his hopes of acquittal are sinking
For the charges on which he'll appear
Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking'
And 'possession of a dangerous idea'...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHjheDR-J_4
as sung by Tommy Leonard, c.2010 - in the now very sadly defunct UpFront Club in Maleny, Qld



Cheers, R-J