Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 01:41 AM

I've just delved, & wow!

I was in Brisbane in August 79, just before the Bellevue Hotel was destroyed - Bellvue hotel demolition
I was visiting a friend & she drove me past the gutted, balcony-less building.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 02:01 AM

Queensland policeman (Fitzgerald Enquiry) by john Dengate. Tune New England Cocky,

'Twas a Queensland policeman, or so I've been told
Whose pockets were bulging with ill-gotten gold.
Though his salary was modest, his rake-offs were big:
Corruption had made him a very fat pig.

He did not build his house out of sticks or of straw;
He built it of bricks and he dead-locked the door.
But when the big bad wolf enquired at his gates,
The pig got so scared that he dobbed in his mates.

"Well, I may be a pig, but my voice is in key,
A bloody canary's got nothing on me."
And his song was so long, by the end of the day,
He had sung the Commissioner's super away.

Well he dobbed and he snitched and he warbled and trilled
Till right across Queensland his guts he had spilled.
From Brisbane to Cooktown his singing was heard
And Mr Fitzgerald wrote down every word.

Now all you bent coppers, take warning from me,
Steer clear of the brothels, the drups and the S.P.
though the wages of sin are exceedingly great;
Remember the bagman and don't trust your mate.


John's note - Inspired by a comment of an ex-wharfie mate of mine: "I couldn't care less about the corruption; it's the dobbing I can't stand".
page 45 'My Shout again', Malaney, Qld, 1989

dobbed/snitched - told tales, (a great sin in all circles, whether it is the innocent, foreign-born child telling the teacher she was blaming the wrong pupil & naming the one who misbehaved, or in adult circles, both suburban or criminal)
super - Superannuation/pension
S.P. - Starting Price, gambling on horses, an illegal activity

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 02:25 AM

BICYCLE BUILT FOR THREE by Noel Gardner, 2016.
winner of the 2018 Dengate Parody Competition, Illawarra Folk Festival.

Malcolm, Malcolm give us some answers do
We thought, you had principles, but I guess we hadn’t a clue
It seemed like a stylish marriage, leather jacket and gold carriage
But now your, not so sweet, upon that seat, with Pauline and Tony to

Malcolm Malcolm, the blue sweater is more your style
Mr Harbour Side Mansion, making money and flashy smile
Trusts and Cayman havens, reduced tax, with offshore trading
You slather your mates, reduce welfare rates, a right wing repertoire

Malcolm Malcolm, the vision you sold was a lie
Your born to rule mentality, is now well magnified
You sold us a pup for powe, as you climbed your way up the tower
As the walls cave in, you morph into spin, with shallowness quantified

Malcolm Malcolm, how far right, are you willing to go
To outflank Pauline, and appease your bed fellows
Refugees are now dispensable, your lack of caring, reprehensible
Your appeasement to win is such a sin, clearly you were all show

Malcolm, Malcolm you really are such a hack
Rupert’s lap dog, Mr Elite just spreading his crap
You spruik the coal companies message, attack renewable energy
You banker toff why don’t you piss off, and give us our future back

Malcolm, Malcolm give us some answers do
We thought, you had principles, but I guess we hadn’t a clue
It seemed like a stylish marriage, leather jacket and gold carriage
But now you're not so sweet, upon that seat, with Pauline and Tony too

Noel Gardner 1/11/16

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 05:11 AM

Thanks for posting John’s Fitzgerald Inquiry song, Sandra!
Yes, sadly The Bellevue is merely one of MANY heritage buildings throughout Australia, destroyed (IMHO) mostly by greedy Councils and State Govts in the pockets of Developers – and mostly they seem to be replaced by buildings of absolutely ZILCH architectural qualities etc ….. (IMHO, of course!)

Back to the Song Posts :

I think we’re overdue for a WARHORSE, and I don’t think we’ve had this one yet :

THE CONVICT MAID

trad

You lads and lasses all attend to me
While I relate my tale of misery
By hopeless love was I once betrayed
And now I am, alas, a convict maid.

To please my lover did I try full sore
I spent upon him all of my master’s store
Who in his wrath did so loud upbraid
And brought before the judge this convict maid.

The judge his sentence then to me addressed
Which filled with agony my aching breast
To Botany Bay you must be conveyed
For seven long years to be a convict maid.

For seven long years I toiled in pain and grief
And cursed the day that I became a thief
Oh had I stuck by some honest trade
I’d ne’er have been, alas, a convict maid.


This is, I think, the most basic version of the story (it’s the one I remember singing in my youth, anyway!)
In those days it was sung to good effect by Marian Henderson, as in this clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbct0Jd5X6g
The tune is also known as “The Croppy Boy” & “McCaffery” and even “Lord Franklin” is related ….

AND THEN THERE’S THIS VERSION :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEE7mQ0fAzQ    by Melbourne trio, “BUSH GOTHIC”

“Bush Gothic wander through the dankest, weirdest corners of the trad song books and emerge as post modern slash anti establishment slash folk feminists. Are they outsiders, lurking on the cultural fringe?
Or have they penetrated to the inner core of Australian identity? BBC Music Magazine gave them FIVE STARS and they are multiple Best Music Award winners at The Adelaide Fringe.”

‘Rising folk stars, inventive and edgy’ - The Guardian

'Extraordinary, even revolutionary. Unforgettable folk.' - The Canberra Times

'Rescues Australian folk from the world of beards and blue jeans.' - The Age

From their website bio.



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 07:00 AM

ANTIQUE ANNIE'S MAGIC LANTERN SHOW

(Jimmy Stewart & Doug Ashdown)

Porcelain plates and penny-farthings
Places you can visit now from long ago
Ruby rings and old brass hearthings
Chippendale, mahoganies that glow
Children's music, box-ed cameos
At ‘Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show’

Come and see her wares
Climb three flights of stairs
Come and see her face at a place
They call Antique

Bentley-driven Edgecliff ladies
Touch and tease, and toil and spoil her show
Dainty, dusty, Dresden dancers
Answers Annie sweetly, bowing low
Annie answers all that you wish to know
At ‘Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show’

They bought her coloured glass
They thought that they’d bought her past
Through the silver and the lace at a place
They called Antique

Chippendale, mahoganies that glow
Children's music, boxed cameos
At ‘Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show’

Come and see her wares
Climb three flights of stairs
Come and see her face at a place
They call Antique …. Antique


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEA-40wWa7M Marian Henderson’s beautiful rendition from her 1970 “Cameo” album, which became ‘collectable’ (I still have my LP!)

Here is the version by co-writer, Doug Ashdown, an Adelaide boy, from his 1970 album “The Age of Mouse” :    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mROiP4s2u1c


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 07:41 AM

WINTER IN AMERICA (1976)

(orig. Leave Love Enough Alone, 1974)

Doug Ashdown & Jimmy Stewart

The harbour's misty in the morning love
Oh how I miss December
The Frangipani opens up to kiss the salty air
I know you're getting ready for the office
I suppose he's still there
With you, sharing our morning sun.

ch:
Winter in America is cold
And I just keep growing older
I wish I could have known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.

I've learned something of love
I wish I’d known before you left me
But it's funny how you don't know what you've got
Until it's gone
And I hope you're getting all the love you’ve ever wanted
But I wish I was there
With you, sharing our morning sun.

I wake into the sadness of the rain
And making love to strangers
And wishing I had known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.

Winter in America is cold
And I just keep growing older
I wish I could have known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.

Winter in America is cold
And I just keep growing older
I wish I could have known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi12rCeWD1A    : Doug Ashdown, c. 1976

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Ashdown

Version by Australia’s Margret RoadKnight (and a Mudcatter!) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1npgoO0mL0k


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 08:36 AM

THE FEMALE FACTORY

John Hospadaryk

Monday morning, Old Stringybark comes out to take a peep
At the best-behaved girls who stand in line like dirty sheep
It’s one way to get a pardon by being sold, by being married off to some cove who’s far too old
Might be better than this place of infamy
Might be better than this stinking hole : The Female Factory.

Within the hour the Reverend Marsden will have you given away
Oh, you’ll be taken up- country somewhere ‘fore the end of the day
And when you think about it, it could have been a lot worse
For the Authorities there, they were not averse to using the Cat o’ Nine Tails or shaving your head
And you personally knew some girls who made sure they left that place dead.

Let’s not mince words : if you’re not high-born, you’re a whore
And the best that you’ll be called is ‘unfortunate wretch’ and nothing more
You were savaged on the transport ships, you were raped in Sydney Town
You were forced to give them favours on the barge that brought you down
You were forced to live in filth, but what is even worse is that your sex and class have no redress
Small wonder that you curse.

Monday morning, Old Stringybark comes out to take a peep.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSZB-52gdg   Chloe & Jason Roweth (BATTLER’s BALLAD), in 2012.

WIKI : “Female factories were based on British bridewells, prisons and workhouses. They were for women convicts transported to the penal colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. An estimated 9,000 convict women were in the 13 female factories, in the colonies of NSW and Van Diemen's Land. This spanned a period of 52 years -1804 to 1856. An estimated 1 in 5 to 1 in 7 Australians are related to these women. The factories were called factories because each was a site of production. The women produced spun wool and flax in all the factories. In the main factories other work was undertaken such as sewing, stocking knitting and straw plaiting. Hard labour included rock breaking and oakum picking.[1] Women were sent to the female factories while awaiting assignment to a household or while awaiting childbirth or weaning or as punishment.”


https://femalefactoryonline.org/about/history/parramatta-female-factory/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 02:45 AM

Further to yesterday’s song about The Female Factory,
here is a composition from Canadian?? singer-songwriter Catherine Doucet (yes very Joni-like!), Mary Hindle: Ballad of a Female Convict Down Under
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9fl_ZAQCnE
“This song is based on research of the life of Mary Hindle, a young woman falsely accused of a crime and sent to the penal colony of New South Wales, Australia in 1826.
Her punishment was hard labour at the Parramatta Female Factory. 15 years into her sentence, her family died. Shortly thereafter, she took her life.”


Today, I came across this most interesting website and research by Dr. Heather Blasdale-Clarke : http://www.colonialdance.com.au/    Australian Colonial Dance : The History of Music and Dance in Australia 1788-1840
and some pages regarding Song and Dance in the Convict Realms : http://www.colonialdance.com.au/convict-research
and these song links on the pages make interesting reading (well, what else is one to do on The Eve of Merry Bah-Humbug, Down Under?!) :

Auld Robin Grey
Drops of Brandy
King of the Cannibal Islands
Michael Wiggins
Off She Goes
Tekeli

Apparently the song “King of the Cannibal Islands” [i.e. FIJI - and referenced in a number of the Old Sydney Town police reports included here] fell out of currency in Australia, but continues in America ……………………..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNnl63U4bTA

You will note that the female of the species received harsher sentence for disturbing the peace by Singing; namely lengthy times in Mrs Gordon’s establishment (i.e. The Female Factory), whereas the menfolk copped a small fine or a few hours in the stocks.   Such was Life.    HOWEVER, some of the Dancing men were “Sentenced to dance the mazy round of Mr. Murray’s spiritual rectifier [aka the treadmill]” for a few days - not so good :(

But all-in-all, the website does give evidence of another side to early Colonial life, for “the lower orders”!!


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:15 AM

NOTE TO FOLLOWERS OF THIS THREAD :

Sorry for promising the new spreadsheets of the thread's CONTENTS up to the Solstice, but I figured most folks will be off celebrating the coming of this year's end (!) and it makes more sense to close off Edition One on Dec 31st.
As Sandra said previously, if you'd like a copy of the two emailed spreadsheets, just PM me (or her) with an email addy (or post it here in code, LoL)

Seasons Greetings,
R-J :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:41 AM

And the Band Played "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
Tony Miles

When I was a young man and played a guitar
I lived the free life of a rover.
From Brisbane's green river to dusty folk clubs
I waltzed my old Martin all over.
And at each club I played, the people said ‘Son,
We do like your songs’, but when I was done
They'd leap on the stage saying "Now I'll sing one"
And this is the song that they'd sing.

1st Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda',
Then the audience soon forgot me
And amidst all the tears, flag waving and cheers,
I'd slip to the loo for a pee.
   
How well I remembered that terrible day,
How my blood boiled much hotter than water.
For up to that time I'd been well on the way
To winning the publican's daughter.
Johnny Turk, he was singing and sang the song well,
I showered him with insults and truth is to tell,
I wished Eric Bogle had gone straight to hell
And never had come to Australia.

2nd Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'
was such a well loved refrain
that when Johnny Turk had finished the berk
Started all over again.

And now every April I sit on my porch
And watch my past life pass before me.
And I wished I had written that rambling song
That brought Eric Bogle such glory.
And the songs what I wrote, I don't sing them no more
They're tired old songs from a tired old bore
And the young people ask ‘What did he write them for?’
And I ask myself the same question.
3rd Chorus:

'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' -
How the singers respond to that call,
And as year passes year all my hopes disappear
That no one will sing it at all

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:47 AM

Used to Be a River
Craig Edmondson

1. This used to be a river (used to be a river)
But now it is a sewer (now it is a sewer)
But it used to be a river,
And I wonder where the river got to go.

Chorus:
These changes, I have seen, I have seen
To the people and the places
Dear to me, dear to me.

2. This used to be a mountain (used to be a mountain)
But now it is a golf course (now it is a golf course)
But it used to be a mountain,
And I wonder where the mountain got to go.

Chorus

3. This used to be a forest (used to be a forest)
But now it is a Kmart (now it is a Kmart)
But it used to be a forest,
And I wonder where the forest got to go.

Chorus

4. You used to be my baby (used to be my baby)
But now you are a stranger (now you are a stranger)
But you used to be my baby,
And I wonder where my baby got to go.

Chorus

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recording by Craig Edmondson, from the 1987 vinyl Bondi Road, Restless RRP019.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:55 AM

Shelter
Eric Bogle

I'm drowning in the sunshine as it pours down from the skies
There's something stirring in my heart, bright colours fill my eyes
As from here to the far horizon your beauty does unfold
And oh, you look so lovely, dressed in green and gold

And I can almost touch the ocean, shimmering in the distant haze
As I stand here on this mountain on this loveliest day of days
Round half the world I've drifted, left no wild oats unsown
But now my view has shifted and I think I've just come home

To the homeless and the hungry, may you always open doors
May the restless and the weary find safe harbour on your shores
May you always be our dreamtime place, our spirit's glad release
May you always be our shelter, may we always live in peace

I'm drowning in the sunshine as it pours down from the skies
There's something stirring in my heart, bright colours fill my eyes
As from here to the far horizon your beauty does unfold
And oh, you look so lovely, dressed in green and gold

Here's a recording.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 04:03 AM

The Garden
(Kate Fagan)

I knew a woman who lived alone,
Saving seeds and lifting stones,
Watching leaves and moving(?) bones
Until she built a garden.
A garden for her broken heart ,
A garden like a poet's art,
Lines of flowers to stop and start
The seasons in her garden

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The garden of our future is planted in our names.
Food to feed the many, birds to sing a song.
It's a garden for our children even if we plant alone

I knew a woman who loved to sing,
She had a song for everything.
A song for Winter, a song for Spring,
A song to fill a garden.
Even when the sky was gray
She'd find a verse to greet the day,
A tune to see her on her way,
To carry in her garden

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The songs that we remember, we sing them in our names.
Words to hold the many, music to bring us home,
They're stories for our children even if we sing alone.

I knew a girl who loved to dance,
Held the world in both her hands,
Every flower, every plant
She tended in her garden.
Roses for her mother's heart,
A friesia by the circle path,
Bluebells, daffodils, sweet blue grass,
She planted in her garden

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The garden of their future is planted in our names.
Food to feed the many, birds to sing a song,
It's a garden for our children even if we plant alone

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The garden of our future is planted in their names.
Food to feed the many, birds to sing a song,
It's a garden for our children that we never plant alone.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recorded by Margaret and Bob Fagan on the 2019 CD, Landmarks on the Journey, FMCD007. Not on the internet, so far as I know.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 04:21 AM

SALVATION JANE              words and music:  Fay White

(With some changes made by the folk process. It thanks John Warner)
 
In the Flinders Ranges grows a flower glorious to see
Pink and purple, paddocks full, a goldmine for the bee
For its nectar yields a blending honey and its pollen's a link in the chain
Giving food for the hive so the bee-keeper blesses it                            
And calls it Salvation Jane
 
But across the border in New South Wales it's a different kind of scene
For the flower infests the western plain - down to the Riverine
And it gives the cattle a liver disease that affects the grazier's purse
So he sees the weed with a jaded eye
And calls it Paterson's Curse
 
        Salvation Jane, Salvation Jane
        Adverse? Converse?, is it Paterson’s Curse
        Or is it Salvation Jane?
 
Cross the border again to South Australia for the farmer's voice to hear
He says that the weed grows greener longer and later in the year
So it feeds your cattle in droughty weather and fattens them nicely too
It's no great trouble if you manage it well
Just depends on your point of view
 
Well I know some folks whose hearts are like
a paddock ploughed and bare
Fertile ground for growing good grain and reaping a harvest there
But with constant, constant care they’re watering seeds of pain                
And they’re reaping a crop of Paterson's curse        
And not Salvation Jane
 
        Salvation Jane, Salvation Jane,
        For better or worse, turn Paterson's Curse
        Into Salvation Jane.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Fay White writes,

"Salvation Jane/Paterson's Curse is a harmful pasture weed in eastern Australia but it sustains livestock in times of drought.  The ambivalent nature of this biennial plant gives us a quaint metaphor for how we handle our lives - happiness and excess grief aren't dealt out by fate, but are choices we make ourselves."

Recorded by Jill Stevens on the album Desert Rain, Restless RRP016. No recordings available online, so far as I know. My thanks to Margaret Walters for contacting Fay White, and to Fay White for her permission to post these lyrics.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 05:11 AM

Gerry, The Fossikers sing 'Used to be a River' as Craig's daughter is a member. I can ask them if they have a recording

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 09:01 AM

THE BATAVIA SHANTY

John Warner’s song of the tragic and grisly tale of shipwreck, mutiny and slaughter in Houtman’s Abrolhos, a group of islands off the central coast of Western Australia, in 1629 by renegade sailors of the Dutch East India Company.

Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, tea
Heave and fall on the southern swells
Fill the holds of the VOC
Roll Batavia down

But down in stout Batavia’s hold
There’s a massive weight of jewels and gold
Quarter-million guilders worth, all told
Roll Batavia down.

For months the murderous plot’s been laid
Heave and fall on the southern swells
To slip away from the ships of trade
Roll Batavia down

Make passage south to the unknown land
Turn buccaneer as the skipper has planned
Slaughter all others out of hand
Roll Batavia down.

What’s that gleam on the larboard quarter?
Heave and fall on the southern swells
Moonlight glinting on the water
Roll Batavia down

No moonlight here, but the crashing wave
The lookout cries too late to save
Batavia from her island grave
Roll Batavia down

Now some did drown and some made land
Heave and fall on the southern swells
But few can hide from death’s cold hand
Roll Batavia down

The sword and dagger do their work
Who knows where bloody murderers lurk
To silence traitors with a dirk
Roll Batavia down

The commander’s gone and the captain too,
Heave and fall on the southern swells
Along with the best of the barge’s crew
Roll Batavia down

Protection that they might have made
By this desertion is betrayed
Throats stretched to the slaughterer’s blade
Roll Batavia down

The rescue ship has come too late
Heave and fall on the southern swells
For those who met a bloody fate
Roll Batavia down

The thieves have paid for their plunder dear
Trial and torture, pain and fear
Death for every mutineer
Roll Batavia down

Stark the creaking scaffolds stand
Heave and fall on the southern swells
The dead swing over the blowing sand
Roll Batavia down

They say that dead men tell no tales
Who knows but many a spirit wails
In the cold lament of the southern gales
Roll Batavia down


Batavia : Words and Tune : John Warner
“The Batavia sailed with a convoy to Java on her maiden voyage in 1628, laden with jewels and gold for the Dutch East India Company (the VOC). In a plot by Jeronimus Cornelisz the vessel was parted from the fleet and inadvertently wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia. [While Captain Pelsaert and some crew sailed a longboat to Java to get help,] Over a two-month period Cornelisz and his companions slaughtered 125 of the 200 survivors of the wreck, planning to seize the rescue vessel and turn pirate. They were foiled by a group of loyal soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes and [when Pelsaert returned,] a dreadful justice was finally meted out to Cornelisz and the other mutineers.”
https://40degrees-south.com/cds/life-of-brine/notes/#2

The WIKI Tale : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship) : of the 332 originally on board, 122 people made it to Java.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ecidTxr18 –   Daniel Kelly sings JW’s Batavia Shanty


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 05:58 PM

Sandra, I have the vinyl from back-in-the-day. But if the Fossickers have something they can put online, that would be excellent.

Marg Walters ran a monthly singaround back then. For a while, the venue was Craig's place. Daisy was a baby then.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 06:52 PM

that must have been a looooong time ago ...

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 10:44 PM

I recall singing this number in one annual MayDay Choir in Darwin, early 90s!

SPIRIT OF THE LAND   -    [1st version]

Martin Kellock

When you look around, look at how we're living
And you see the way that we treat those who stand in our way
Always taking more, never ever giving
Don't you feel ashamed, of what we're doing today?

Wish I could repay, all our acts of desecration
European eyes couldn't see beyond their own greed
All the tribal land, all the native population
How long must it go on, how long can they bleed?

Chorus :
Oh I, wish we could remember
Maybe, then we'll understand
They know, where the wealth is hidden
They know, Spirit of the Land.

Spirit of the Laa-and !!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo61FNMTHSY    Spirit of the Land from Ross Hannaford’s Lucky Dog; lead vocal by composer Martin Kellock.

The late, talented and zany, Ross Hannaford, now much missed. His best-known group was probably Daddy Cool but he was also a much sought-after session guitarist : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Hannaford

“….. Ross at his best was a uniquely sublime musician, and the best I ever heard from him was always live. In his last few years he played superb R&R/R&B etc. at the St Andrews Pub with The Useful Members of Society - his solos on Neil Young's On The Beach in particular were as inspired, innovative and expressive as any electric guitar of that kind ever played by anyone ever, anywhere; and with his duos, trios and quartets at the hole in the wall venue of Claypots in Barkly Street St Kilda around the same time, his ineffably ethereal extemporisations on his own original themes were indescribably transporting…. “ Jacob Marley, YouTube channel.


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 10:50 PM

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAND - [2nd version]

Hugh McDonald

The rivers are dry across the land
And the farmers’ fields have turned to sand
'Cause the rain hasn't come
For two years, almost three
The topsoil’s gone with the hot north wind
The crops won't grow and rust set in
And the cruel south wind of Winter brought no relief.


Ch.
And the old men in the public bar
Talk of floods and droughts before
The night goes on and the conversations die
But the battlers don't give up
It's written on their hands and in their eyes
And the spirit of the land survives.

On Saturday nights in the Royal Hotel
Hank the Dutchman plays guitar
He sings Country and Western favorites - and requests
It used to be his second job
A bit of a laugh for a couple of bob
Now it's all he's got 'cause his crops all died from thirst.

So he spent his savings on cattle and sheep
He got some credit, got in too deep
But stock won't graze on pastures turned to salt
He tried to get work as a travelling man
Selling Rawleighs products from the back of his van
But the cockies all shop in town where things are cheap.

chorus

The school’s all rundown
The roof’s rusted and the paint peeling
The playground’s just a dustbowl; not a spot of green
But kids still kick their footballs
Sending dustclouds to the sun
And it's good to know that drought can't spoil the fun.

And in the cricketers’ lounge late at night
Where the cockies talk and the shearers fight
And their wives drink shandies 'cause they'll be driving home
The talk centres around the price of wheat
The lack of rain and the lack of sheep
'Cause credit’s stretched - and it won't stretch any more.

Chorus


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFIgEIvnL-E    The late, renowned, Hugh McDonald, singing at Brisbane’s 1988 EXPO.

This song is from the REDGUM album "Spirit Of The Land". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_McDonald_(Australian_musician)



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:27 AM

WHERE THE DEAD MEN LIE
Barcroft Boake

Out on the wastes of the Never Never -
That's where the dead men lie!
There where the heat-waves dance forever -
That's where the dead men lie!
That's where the Earth's loved sons are keeping
Endless tryst: not the west wind sweeping
Feverish pinions can wake their sleeping -
Out where the dead men lie!

Where brown Summer and Death have mated -
That's where the dead men lie!
Loving with fiery lust unsated -
That's where the dead men lie!
Out where the grinning skulls bleach whitely
Under the saltbush sparkling brightly;
Out where the wild dogs chorus nightly -
That's where the dead men lie!

Deep in the yellow, flowing river -
That's where the dead men lie!
Under the banks where the shadows quiver -
That's where the dead men lie!
Where the platypus twists and doubles,
Leaving a train of tiny bubbles.
Rid at last of their earthly troubles -
That's where the dead men lie!

East and backward pale faces turning -
That's how the dead men lie!
Gaunt arms stretched with a voiceless yearning -
That's how the dead men lie!
Oft in the fragrant hush of nooning
Hearing again their mother's crooning,
Wrapt for aye in a dreamful swooning -
That's how the dead men lie!

Only the hand of Night can free them -
That's when the dead men fly!
Only the frightened cattle see them -
See the dead men go by!
Cloven hoofs beating out one measure,
Bidding the stockmen know no leisure -
That's when the dead men take their pleasure!
That's when the dead men fly!

Ask, too, the never-sleeping drover:
He sees the dead pass by;
Hearing them call to their friends - the plover,
Hearing the dead men cry;
Seeing their faces stealing, stealing,
Hearing their laughter, pealing, pealing,
Watching their grey forms wheeling, wheeling
Round where the cattle lie!

Strangled by thirst and fierce privation -
That's how the dead men die!
Out on Moneygrub's farthest station -
That's how the dead men die!
Hard-faced greybeards, youngsters callow;
Some mounds cared for, some left fallow;
Some deep down, yet others shallow.
Some having but the sky.

Moneygrub, as he sips his claret,
Looks with complacent eye
Down at his watch-chain, eighteen carat -
There, in his club, hard by:
Recks not that every link is stamped with
Names of the men whose limbs are cramped with
Too long lying in grave-mould, camped with
Death where the dead men lie.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recorded by Gerry Hallom, who only used stanzas 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8, and made some changes in the words. Also recorded, to a different tune, by Margaret Bradford. Nothing up on the web, to the best of my knowledge. Boake, born in 1866, wrote the poem in 1891, and took his own life in 1892.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:29 AM

THE DEATHS GO ON

Peter Kearney

Eddie Murray was drinking the night into day
Police picked him up and took him away
One hour later he was dead in his cell
Took his own life – so police records tell
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On.
Dying of 200 years.

Robert Walker was lowered and beaten in hell
In Broome, Dixon Green dropped dead in his cell
John Pat, in Roebourne, was kicked to the ground
They cleaned up his body - then the doctor came round
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On
Dying of 200 years.

The Coroner spoke from his smooth white face
“Death by misadventure : the usual case”
Charlie Michaels was bent like a bow on the floor
His heart just snapped – he couldn’t take any more
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On.
Dying of 200 Years.

And how must it feel to be black in this land?
When all of the power is in the white hand
When that hand can suddenly turn to a fist –
You’re no one. You’re nothing. You’ll hardly be missed
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On
GONE.


(NB These lyrics reflect the Hammer & Tongues and No Strings Attached arrangements, rather than keeping strictly to Peter Kearney’s original song.)


It’s nigh on 40 years since the death of Eddie Murray in police custody, which sparked public debate on these police crimes - and which eventually led to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, running from 1987-1990.

Sadly, Eddie’s wasn’t the first death – and he certainly wasn’t the last - and the families of the young men in this song, and of many other Aboriginal men and women, are still trying to get some sort of justice from the Australian judicial system.

The song was written by prolific singer-songwriter, Peter Kearney, and it won the Declan Affley Memorial Award at The National Folk Festival, for 1988.   Peter is known for his “folk-hymns”, strong social justice/peace focus and indigenous and christian issues.

However, the version that I sang with Darwin a cappella harmony group “No Strings Attached” was set to music by Perth’s Kerry Fletcher, and arranged with Phillip Griffin, for that fabulous West Aussie trio, “Hammer & Tongues”(Kerry Fletcher, Lyn Hazleton, Maria Wilson? ) who blew me away at the Maleny National Folk Festival in 1989. Very sad that their 1991 cassette “Voices Abreast” is not available on the internet, as all their songs were just great. Hopefully in the New Year, I’ll at least be able to post to my YT channel, a version by “No Strings” ……

Here is Peter Kearney’s website : https://peterkearneysongs.com.au/home   and this is his song version on YT : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqNd4DxxBW0   (although, I must confess that it doesn’t quite sound like I remember from the cassette I had, possibly with the group CROSSOVER (maybe just my aging memory?!) Plus it has an extra verse one may like to incorporate ……)
Here is an Adelaide choir version using Kerry Fletcher’s setting, from The Tutti Ensemble : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKhPId2tFw
[“The original Tutti Choir : a performing choir and band with up to 75 participants over half of whom identify with disability.”]



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:32 AM

BLOODY ROTTEN AUDIENCE
(Tony Miles)

Well, here's a song I've written specifically for you
Who sit out in the audience and talk through all I do
I cannot understand it cause I'm pretty good, you see
So there must be something wrong with you, there's nothing
wrong with me

Chorus (after each verse)

You're a bloody rotten audience whilst I am very good
If brains were made of oak and ash then you'd have balsa wood
I'm ethnic and authentic and I'm really full of class
While you're ignorant, you're cultureless, you're philistines
en masse.

I'm an artist and authority on music and what's more
I'm incredibly informative on folksong and folklore
I'm a wonderful performer and so you all must be
So bloody thick and stupid not to like the likes of me

I'm a folkie and that's obvious, you can tell it by me clothes
And when I sing traditional, I sing it through me nose
And if you persist in talking every time I sing a song
I'll fix you with 'Bold Robin Hood', that's eighty verses long.

And when I sing contemporary, my heart and soul are pure
I must be bloody brilliant, cause my writing's so obscure
My hero's Leonard Cohen, I dig him perfectly
But I must be so much better, because no-one here digs me.

But now I'm going to leave you, cause I feel I'm wasting time
Couldn't possibly be wasting yours, so you must be wasting mine
And let me tell you now that I'm not up here for me health
So if you don't come and pull with me, I'll go and pull meself

Ch.: You're a bloody rotten audience whilst I am very good
If brains were made of oak and ash then you'd have balsa wood
I'm ethnic and authentic and I'm really full of class
But underneath it all I'm just a pain in the flipping ass.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recording by Eric Bogle.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:43 AM

TUMBA-BLOODY-RUMBA
Traditional

He looked for work at muster-time. We tried him as a rider,
We tried him as the rouseabout, and as the cook’s off-sider.
He said he'd sailed the seven seas, he’d been up in Alaska,
He’d been in every western state from Texas to Nebraska.

Chorus (after each verse):
He said he’d shorn a sheep or two, and cut a bit of lumber,
And waged war on the kangaroos, at Tumba-bloody-rumba.

We tried him as a shearer, we tried him as a stacker,
We tried him digging rabbits out. He wasn’t worth a cracker.
He had a shop in Singapore, he owned a pearling lugger,
He was a champ at baccarat, Australian rules and rugger.

He never showed his aptitude at jobs he was allotted,
But showed his skill upon the booze, and cigarettes he blotted.
He said he’d climbed the Matterhorn, he’d been a union leader,
And years ago in Adelaide he was a pigeon breeder.

We tried him digging fencing posts, we tried to find his caper,
Until that happy pay-day when he got his piece of paper.
I wonder where he is now, perhaps back on the lumber,
Or shooting kanga-bloody-roos at Tumba-bloody-rumba.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recorded by Warren Fahey.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 05:56 AM

When the Army Prays for Watty, poem by Henry Lawson

When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star,
Hide the picture on the signboard over Doughty's Horse Bazaar;
When the last rose-tint is fading on the distant mulga scrub,
Then the Army prays for Watty at the entrance of his pub.

Now, I often sit at Watty's when the night is very near,
With a head that's full of jingles and the fumes of bottled beer,
For I always have a fancy that, if I am over there
When the Army prays for Watty, I'm included in the prayer.

Watty lounges in his arm-chair, in its old accustomed place,
With a fatherly expression on his round and passive face;
And his arms are clasped before him in a calm, contented way,
And he nods his head and dozes when he hears the Army pray.

And I wonder does he ponder on the distant years and dim,
Or his chances over yonder, when the Army prays for him?
Has he not a fear connected with the warm place down below,
Where, according to good Christians, all the publicans should go?

But his features give no token of a feeling in his breast,
Save of peace that is unbroken and a conscience well at rest;
And we guzzle as we guzzled long before the Army came,
And the loafers wait for `shouters' and -- they get there just the same.

It would take a lot of praying -- lots of thumping on the drum --
To prepare our sinful, straying, erring souls for Kingdom Come;
But I love my fellow-sinners, and I hope, upon the whole,
That the Army gets a hearing when it prays for Watty's soul.

audio from Loaded Dog -CD That there dog o' mine I don't have this Loaded Dog album, but I know the song from Dave de Hugard's version on "Songs of the wallaby track"

Stewie, do Loaded Dog sing Henry's original words?

When the Army Prays for Watty by Henry Lawson, as sung by Dave de Hugard

When the kindly hours of darkness, 'cept for the light of moon and star,
Hide the picture on the signboard over Watty's Horse Bazaar;
When the last rose-tints are fading on the distant mulga scrub,
The Salvos pray for Watty at the entrance of his pub.

And I often sit at Watty's when the night is very near,
With a head full of jingles and as I sip back me beer,
For I sometimes have the fancy that, if I am over there
When the Salvos prays for Watty, I'm included in the prayer.

There's Watty in his arm-chair, in its old accustomed place,
With a fatherly expression on his round passive face;
And his folded arms before him in a calm, contented way,
He nods his head and dozes when he hears the Salvos pray.

And I wonder does he ponder on the distant years and dim,
Or his chances over yonder, when the Salvos pray for him?
Has he not a little fear of that hot place below,
Where, according to the good Christians, all publicans should go?

But his features give no token of a feeling in his breast,
Except of peace unbroken and a conscience well at rest;
And we guzzle as we guzzled long before the Salvos came,
And the loafers wait for "shouters" and we all get there just the same.

It'd take a lot of praying, lots of thumping on that drum
To prepare our sinful, straying, erring souls for Kingdom Come;
But I love my fellow-sinners, so I hope, upon the whole,
That the Salvos get a hearing when they pray for Watty's soul.

final verse is repeated.

It'd take a lot of praying, lots of thumping on that drum
To prepare our sinful, straying, erring souls for Kingdom Come;
But I love my fellow-sinners, so I hope, upon the whole,
That the Salvos get a hearing ...   when they pray for Watty's soul.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 06:19 AM

Flash Jack from Gundagai - trad

I've shore at Burrabogie and I've shore at Toganmain
I've shore at Big Willandra and out on the Coleraine
But before the shearing was over I longed to get back again
Shearing for old Tom Patterson on the One Tree Plain

Chorus
All among the wool boys all among the wool
Keep your blades full boys keep your blades full
I can do a respectable tally myself whenever I like to try
And they know me round the backblocks as Flash Jack from Gundagai

I've shore at Big Willandra and I've shore at Tilberoo
And once I drew my blades boys upon the famed Barcoo
At Cowan Downs and Trida as far as Moulamein
But I was always glad to get back again to the One Tree Plain

I've pinked them with the Wolseleys and I've rushed with B-bows too
And shaved them in the grease boys with the grass seeds showing through
But I never slummed a pen my lads whatever it might contain
When shearing for Old Tom Patterson on the One Tree Plain

I've been whaling up the Lachlan and I've dossed on Cooper's Creek
And once I rung Cudjingie shed and blued it in a week
But when Gabriel blows his trumpet lads I'll catch the morning train
And push for Old Tom Patterson's on the One Tree Plain

Audio

Notes

Printed in Paterson's Old Bush Songs with the note:

"Wolsleys and B-bows are respectively machines and hand-shears, and 'pinking' means that he had shorn the sheep so closely that the pink skin showed through.... 'I rung Cudgingie shed and blued it in a week' i.e he was the ringer or the fastest shearer of the shed, and he dissipated his earnings in a single week's drunkeness.... 'Whaling up the Lachlan' In the old days there was an army of professional loafers who walked from station to station, ostensively to look for work, but without any idea of accepting it. These nomads often followed up and down certain rivers, and would camp for days and fish for cod in the bends of the river. Hence whaling up the Lachlan".

The song was also published (without attribution) in The Land 4 July 1930.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 09:18 AM

SING FOR NO-ONE (SING FOR EVERYONE)

© Kavisha Mazzella, 2015

“There is a gypsy saying "Sing for No-one sing for everyone"
I love this philosophy and it helps me put a perspective on what I'm here to do ...”


Before we were born, song was there
She pulled us from the womb for us she cared
And whispered in our ears life's mystery
And when we die she surely will be there
Song says "Oh please use me, you're my voice, you're my hands
Fashion me into a melody That tells the human story
It's misery and glory Don't be silent that would be a tragedy!"

Sing for no one sing for everyone . . . sing for we are servants of the song
Sing for being together never mind the weather Sing for no one sing for everyone!

Our instruments the weapons of our choice to disarm oppression with our voice
Though we make an orphans choir we set all hearts on fire and angels weep as we do rejoice

Sing for no one sing for everyone . . . sing for we are servants of the song
Sing for being together never mind the weather Sing for no one sing for everyone!

We cry because there's evil in this world watch the oyster as her art unfurls
Why not turn your sorrow into a song tomorrow and let your tears become a string of pearls...

Sing for no one sing for everyone . . . sing for we are servants of the song
Sing for being together never mind the weather Sing for no one sing for everyone!


Kavisha Mazzella sings this song here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSzgZCV9ikI


If you are new to Kavisha, read something of her amazing musical History here – and be sure to checkout her many beautiful earlier compositions, too : https://www.kavisha.com/index.php/about/history


e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY-bfG6PJYc   WEDDING SHEETS, 1993 (re-recorded 2015)
“ ….. is a song set after WW2. It describes the feelings of a young Italian bride who is coming out to Australia by boat to meet her husband for the first time.Many women experienced this way of migrating to the new world especially after WW2.It was called "Sposa Procura". Sometimes the marriages were very successful but other times, sadly, it was a disaster.   
I had the great fortune to meet these women whilst I was doing a community music project of traditional Italian folk song collection and songwriting the stories of the Italian migrants and formed a choir in Fremantle West Australia, in the late eighties called "The Joys Of The Women" It was then that I heard their true stories and wanted to create songs to tell their tales.

Their story has also been documented in the award winning 1992 film "The Joys Of The Women" by Franco Di Chiera. ….. You can purchase the DVD of The Joys Of The Women from Electric Pictures, Fremantle West Australia http://electricpictures.com.au”

Here is are 3 short music clips from 1992 about these earlier projects of Kavisha’s : https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/joys-women/clip1/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 07:50 PM

I feel I should put in a little mention of Australia's fabulous Russian Men's Choir - from Mullumgrad in Northern NSW!!

They are DUSTYESKY*** and don't speak Russian, just sing in it and they are now (well, pre-Covid) garnering world-wide attention - and the Russians love them!!!

Watch this recent clip from ABC-TV's Australian Story program, about the group : https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2002Q034S00 ( their part starts at 13:10 )

: A wonderful fun and blokey experience!


Na Zdorovie!!!
(Nostrovia/Cheers!)


R-J

*** an "ESKY" (or "chillybin" in NZ), is an Australian portable icebox, first and foremost to keep yer beer cold.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 09:34 PM

Sandra, Loaded Dog sing Lawson's original words. Their tune is by Phil Roeterdink, a member of the band.

R-J has posted a couple of songs by Doug Ashdown. Since we were born in the same city - Adelaide, South Australia - and he was the first live folk act that I saw back in the '60s, I thought I should post another of his songs. I couldn't find the lyrics on the Net so this is my transcription.

THE SADDEST SONG OF ALL
(D.Ashdown/J.Stewart)

The papers got wet in the morning rain
The birds sang - Friday started early that day
Mr Albert Aloysius Jones rubbed the sleep out of his bones
Ate his toast and he spoke her name
His feet went off to find a train
Same old way and his hand reached out to catch its pay
There was much he didn’t know about his life
The girl who typed his letters loved him better than his wife

And he couldn’t hear the song the children sang
He couldn’t see the trees behind the wall
And he never heard the melody the bells played when they rang
For the city sang the saddest song

Mrs Milly Jones arose and ran a comb around her curls
Did the washing and the ironing for 3 dirty little girls
And her body glowed as she recalled that the man who sold the milk
Still thought her young and sweet enough to say that she was made of silk
And she smiled as she remembered all the things about his touch
She wondered how a man like that could make her feel so much
And then she cooked the dinner

The Jones’ leaves were in a pile
The children smiled and brought them breakfast on a tray
Mr and Mrs Jones rubbed the sleep out of their bones
Took the food and said, ‘thank you’
Then they wondered what to do with Saturday
And her hand reached out to catch his pay
And as he gave he smiled and called her ‘mother’
She spent some upon the children and rest upon her lovers

And they couldn’t hear the song the children sang
Couldn’t see the trees behind the wall
And they never heard the melody the bells played when they rang
For the city sang the saddest song of all

Youtube clip

I heard Ashdown at a small folk club called The Catacombs.

Folk revival in Adelaide

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 10:55 PM

This Henry Lawson poem was mentioned upthread (18 Aug 20 08:53 PM) but I thought we should also have the words here:

Do you think that I do not know
Henry Lawson

They say that I never have written of love, as a writer of songs should do.
They say that I never could touch the strings with a touch that is firm and true.
They say I know nothing of women and men in the fields where Love's roses grow.
I must write, they say, with a halting pen – do you think that I do not know?

My love-burst came, like an English Spring, in days when our hair was brown.
And the hem of her skirt was a sacred thing, and her hair was an angel's crown.
The shock when another man touched her arm, where the dancers sat in a row.
The hope, the despair, and the false alarm – do you think that I do not know?

By the arbour lights on the western farms, you remember the question put,
While you held her warm in your quivering arms, and you trembled from head to foot.
The electric shock from her finger-tips, and the murmuring answer low,
The soft, shy yielding of warm red lips – do you think that I do not know?

She was buried at Brighton, where Gordon sleeps, when I was a world away,
And the sad old garden its secret keeps, for nobody knows to-day.
She left a message for me to read, where the wild wide oceans flow.
Do you know how the heart of a man can bleed? Do you think that I do not know?

I stood by the grave where the dead girl lies, when the sunlit scenes were fair,
Neath white clouds high in the autumn skies, and I answered the message there.
But the haunting words of the dead to me shall go wherever I go.
She lives in the Marriage that Might Have Been – do you think that I do not know?

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

There are (at least) two outstanding musical settings for this poem. One is by Slim Dusty, as recorded here by Priscilla Herdman. The other is by Chris Kempster. It was recorded by Declan Affley. I can't find that online, but there's nothing wrong with this recording of Chris Kempster's setting by Martyn Wyndham-Read.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 10:58 PM

I didn't look hard enough. Here's Declan Affley's recording of the Chris Kempster setting of Do You Think That I Do Not Know.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 11:37 PM

that track comes from his 1987 LP Declan Affley - TAR 020.

I have a CD of that record & play it constantly along with Dave Brannigan's 2003 CD, I love his voice.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 06:07 AM

Some of the songs from Reedy River are missing from this songbook!

Shock, horror, 4 iconic songs from THE iconic Australian musical drama set in the years following the Shearers' Strike of 1891 plus another that is unknown. The unknown song is Wake Up, Landlord, lyrics, Dick Diamond, music Charles Allen, and is "a structural part of the play & it didn't stand alone as a song. (email from Alex Hood, who appeared in 1953/54 Sydney production of Reedy River, 27th Dec 2020)

These are the songs from the 1954, 1960 & 1966 editions of the Reedy River songbook.

Ballad of 1891, posted 10 Sep 20 - 08:14 PM

Banks of the Condamine, posted 15 Oct 20 - 08:27 PM

By The Eumerella Shore

Click go the Shears

Four Little Johnny Cakes   24 Sep 20 - 04:36 AM

Lazy Harry's

My Old Black Billy, posted 03 Oct 20 - 07:30 AM

Reedy Lagoon, posted 21 Aug 20 - 11:52 PM

Reedy River, posted 20 Aug 20 - 11:04 AM

Wake Up, Landlord lyrics, Dick Diamond, music Charles Allen -

Widgegoweera Joe

Wild Rover No More, posted 20 Aug 20 - 11:04 AM

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 07:53 AM

One of the songs from the first Sydney production of Reedy River

words as sung in Reedy River

By The Eumerella Shore, as sung by John Thompson

There's a pretty little valley on the Eumerella shore
Where I've lingered many happy hours away
On my little free selection I have acres by the score
When I unyoke my bullocks from the dray

To my bullocks I will say, "Now, no matter where you stray,
For you'll never be impounded any more,
For you're running, running, running on the duffer's piece of land,
Free selected on the Eumerella shore."

When we find a mob of horses, and the paddock rails are down,
Though before that they were never known to stray,
Oh how quickly we will drive them to some distant inland town
And sell them into slavery far away.

To Jack Robertson we'll say, "You've been leading us astray,
For we'll never go a-farming any more,
For it's cheaper running cattle on the duffer's piece of land
Free selected on the Eumerella shore."

From Ron Edward's Great Australian Folk Songs, taped from the singing of Sam Long (b. 1894) of "The Glue Pot", Wondecla, Queensland, 25 March 1965.

Ron notes that the correct spelling is probably "Umaralla" from the river by that name near Cooma, NSW. There is also a town on that river called Numeralla.

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:31 AM

Another song from Reedy River, but not the same words

Click go the Shears

Out on the board the old shearer stands,
Grasping his shears in his long, honey hands,
Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied "Joe,"
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the "ringer" go.

Chorus: Click go the shears boys, click, click, click,
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick,
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow,
And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied "Joe."

In the middle of the floor, in his cane-bottomed chair
Is the boss of the board, with eyes everywhere;
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention if it's taken off clean.

The colonial experience man, he is there, of course,
With his shiny leggin's, just got off his horse,
Casting round his eye like a real connoisseur,
Whistling the old tune, "I'm the Perfect Lure."

The tar-boy is there, awaiting in demand,
With his blackened tar-pot, and his tarry hand;
Sees one old sheep with a cut upon its back,
Hears what he's waiting for, "Tar here, Jack!"

Shearing is all over and we've all got our cheques,
Roll up your swag for we're off on the tracks;
The first pub we come to, it's there we'll have a spree,
And everyone that comes along it's "Come and drink with me!"

Down by the bar the old shearer stands,
Grasping his glass in his thin honey hands;
Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg,
Glory he'll get down on it, ere he stirs a peg.

There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands,
Whilst all around him, every "shouter" stands
His eyes are on the cask, which is now lowering fast,
He works hard, he drinks hard, and goes to hell at last!

The first version of this song was titled "The Bare-Belled Ewe" and was published the Bacchus Marsh Express in 1891. The version above was published much later in the Twentieth Century magazine in 1946 in an article by Percy Jones. Recent research has discovered a 1939 version titled "The Shearers Song" published in the Sydney newspaper the World's News A variant of that was published in the NSW newspaper the Wellington Times in December 1939.

Printed in Stewart and Keesing's Old Bush Songs with the following note: "From Dr Percy Jones's collection, with one additional stanza, "Now Mister Newchum" etc., collected by John Meredith from Mrs Sloane, of Lithgow, New South Wales. "Mrs Sloane is 60, and learnt most of her songs from her mother in the early part of this century. Mrs Sloane plays button-accordion, fiddle, mouth-organ and jewsharp, and her mother, Mrs Frost, played concertina, accordion and jews-harp." The word "Joe" is presumably a corruption of "Yowe" or "ewe."

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:37 AM

Another song from Reedy River, very close to RR version

Lazy Harry's   

Oh we started down from Roto when the sheds had all cut out
We'd whips and whips of Rhino as we meant to push about
So we humped our blues serenely and made for Sydney town
With a three-spot cheque between us as wanted knocking down

Chorus
But we camped at Lazy Harry's, on the road to Gundagai
The road to Gundagai
Not five miles from Gundagai
Yes we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Well we struck the Murrumbidgee near the Yanco in a week
And passed through old Narrandera and crossed the Burnett Creek
And we never stopped at Wagga for we'd Sydney in our eye
But we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Oh I've seen a lot of girls my boys and drunk a lot of beer
And I've met with some of both chaps as has left me mighty queer
But for beer to knock you sideways and for girls to make you sigh
You must camp at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Well we chucked our blooming swags off and we walked into the bar
And we called for rum-an'-raspb'ry and a shilling each cigar
But the girl that served the poison she winked at Bill and I
And we camped at Lazy Harry's not five miles from Gundagai

In a week the spree was over and the cheque was all knocked down
So we shouldered our Matildas and we turned our back on town
And the girls they stood a nobbler as we sadly said good-bye
And we tramped from Lazy Harry's not five miles from Gundagai

Last chorus
And we tramped from Lazy Harry's not five miles from Gundagai
The road to Gundagai
Not five miles from Gundagai
Yes we tramped from Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Notes

First published by Banjo Paterson as "Lousy Harry's" in an article in the Adelaide newspaper The Chronicle 10 March 1900 in this collection. Later printed in Paterson's Old Bush Songs in 1905.

This version from the singing of A.L.Lloyd.

Ron Edwards collected a version of the song from Jack Parveez in Charters Towers, Qld. Parveez had a different tune and his shearers "started out from Reio".

Roto is a station in south central NSW. Gundagai lies on what is now the main road from Sydney to Melbourne, the Hume Highway. Perhaps more songs mention Gundagai than any other town in Australia.

Three-spot-check: a check in the hundreds of pounds

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:50 AM

Another song from Reedy River

Widgegoweera Joe. words Bill Tully, music traditional (note in RR program)


I'm only a back-blocks shearer, as easily can be seen
I've shorn in almost every shed on the plains of the Riverine
I've shorn in most of the famous sheds, I've seen big tallies done
But somehow or other, I don't know why, I never became a gun

CHORUS:
Hurrah, me boys, my shears are set, I feel both fit and well
Tomorrow will find me at my pen when the gaffer rings the bell
With Haydon's patent thumbguards fixed and both my blades pulled back
Tomorrow I go with a sliding blow for a century or the sack

I've opened down the windpipe straight, I've opened behind the ear
I've shorn in every possible style in which a man can shear
I've studied all the cuts and drives of the famous men I've met
But I've never succeeded in plastering up those three little figures yet

When the Boss walked past this morning, he stopped and he stared at me
For I'd mastered Moran's Great Shoulder Cut, as he could plainly see
But I've another surprise for him, that'll give his nerves a shock
Tomorrow I'll show him I have mastered Pierce's Rang-tang Block

And if I succeed, as I hope to do, next year I intend to shear
At the Wagga Demonstration, that's held there every year
And there I'll lower the colours, the colours of Mitchell and Co
Instead of Deeming, you will hear of Widgegoweera Joe


Also known the Backblocks Shearer. Another from Ron Edwards. Some online versions have W Tully as the author. Featured in Reedy River.

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 09:47 AM

Wake up landlord by Dick Diamond, tune Charles Allen (an historical item, published here for posterity)

You know a feller always has to make
A speech when there's a celebration,
The thing we celebrate of course
Is the Land Act legislation.

CHORUS
So come on fellers, we're going to sing;
Ring out people, we're having a ding;
Dance up ladies, from near and far,
Wake up landlord and open the bar.

A thousand squatters owned this state
With not an acre over
For farming folk like you and me
Until we did 'em over.

CHORUS

We fought it out with tooth and nail
Until there came a testing,
And we got our good green acres
By the strength of our protesting.

CHORUS

And we stocked our free selections
With free cattle when we could,
Just to show there's no ill feeling
As any cocky would.

CHORUS

Wake up Landlord, from 1954 Reedy River song book

Wake Up, Landlord is a structural part of the play & it didn't stand alone as a song. (email from Alex Hood, who appeared in 1953/54 Sydney production of Reedy River, 27th Dec 2020)

When I found Don Henderson's parody 'One of the Has-Beens' about the collection of a folk song (19 Aug 20 - 02:12 AM), I took it to a session to get someone to sing it for me (I can't hold a tune on my own!) but I won't be taking 'Wake up landlord' anywhere.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:44 PM

Wongawilli's Oz take on Martin Curtis' 'Gin and Raspberry'.

RUM AND RASPBERRY
(Wongawilli/Curtis)

Searching for cattle - we first came this way
From Talbingo township took many long days
To cut through the scrub till we found a good claim
And we called it the Rum and Raspberry.

The rumours went out and thousands poured in
A handful grew rich while many grew thin
They all hoped to find their own patch of ground
As rich as the Rum and Raspberry

Chorus:
Oh but it's hard, cruel and cold
Searching Kiandra for nuggets of gold
An ounce to a bucket - we'll all sell our souls
For the taste of the Rum and Raspberry

At first it was summer, we all thought it grand
No shirts on our backs as we sluiced and we panned
But then came the snow and the westerly blow
And there's ice down the Rum and Raspberry

Chorus

Jimmy McGrath, he worked hard and worked long
Ready to smile or to sing us a song
But then he struck gold and was found dead and cold
Down in the Rum and Raspberry

Chorus

I'll work out my time and I'll stay out of strife,
Save all me tin to send home to me wife
And when me time's done, I'll leave on the run
And to hell with the Rum and Raspberry.

Chorus

But to hell with the Rum and Raspberry!

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 09:08 PM

A little late, but a poem with a christmas reference. Wongawilli put a sprightly tune to this favourite from John O'Brien.

TANGMALANGALOO
(John O'Brien)

The bishop sat in lordly state and purple cap sublime
And galvanized the old bush church at confirmation time
And all the kids were mustered up from fifty miles around
With Sunday clothes, and staring eyes, and ignorance profound
Now was it fate, or was it grace, whereby they yarded too
An overgrown two-storey lad from Tangmalangaloo?

A hefty son of virgin soil where nature has her fling
And grows the trefoil three feet high and mats it in the spring
Where mighty hills uplift their heads to pierce the welkin's rim
And trees sprout up a hundred feet before they shoot a limb
There everything is big and grand, and men are giants too
But christian knowledge wilts, alas, at Tangmalangaloo

The bishop summed the youngsters up, as bishops only can
He cast a searching glance around, then fixed upon his man
But glum and dumb and undismayed through every bout he sat
He seemed to think that he was there, but wasn't sure of that
The bishop gave a scornful look, as bishops sometimes do
And glared right through the pagan in from Tangmalangaloo

"Come, tell me, boy," his lordship said in crushing tones severe
"Come, tell me why is christmas day the greatest of the year?
"How is it that around the world we celebrate that day
"And send a name upon a card to those who're far away?
"Why is it wandering ones return with smiles and greetings too?"
A squall of knowledge hit the lad from Tangmalangaloo

He gave a lurch which set a-shake the vases on the shelf
He knocked the benches all askew, up-ending of himself
And so, how pleased his lordship was, and how he smiled to say
"That's good, my boy. Come, tell me now; and what is christmas day?"
The ready answer bared a fact no bishop ever knew -
"It's the day before the races out at Tangmalangaloo"

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 06:45 PM

After Stewie’s posts of 12Dec of “The Eagle & the Islanders” re the US atomic tests on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, and “Anchor Me”, re the French bombing of the peace vessel “Rainbow Warrior”,
I mentioned that I was researching Britain’s atomic testing in Australia and subsequent songs.

I haven’t found any yet about the Montebello Islands off WA, nor Emu Field in SA . Nor even the British tests on two Kiribati islands (aka Christmas / Malden) – or oddly, songs in English re the French (193 tests, 1966-96) on two Tuamotu islands (aka Mururoa / Fangataufa) - in the Pacific),
but, there are quite a few songs nowadays about Maralinga (though this situation seems to have taken a long time to develop!!) and this one below, by the late Alistair Hulett, is probably the best (and to-the-point), so far.

But I’ll cover a bit more of the Test histories and deplorable results, when I post a couple of the other 15+ songs (like Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil) ….
R-J


THE PLAINS OF MARALINGA

Alistair Hulett

Remember in the old days how we sucked up to the Poms
We stood and sang their anthem like a pack of Uncle Toms
And they bought our beef and wool
So we let them test their bombs.

In the heartland of Australia where the black-skinned nation roams
There was nothing in the papers about what was being done
If Robert Menzies knew, by Christ, he wasn’t letting on
For he loved his flamin’ knighthood, that great Australian son
Much more than he loved the land where the Pitjantjatjara run.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

No one asked the local people if they thought it was okay
If you haven’t got a job, mate, you haven’t got a say
Oh, and if we lost a few, they were only in the way
If they’d been white, then bet your backside there’d be holy shit to pay.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

They said fallout was harmless, they knew that was a lie
But it never slowed them up when there were people camped close by
Who tell a story how they saw a big flash in the sky
Then they all got sick and one by one began to slowly die.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

Now the sun set on the Empire though they never thought it would
And now your Uncle Sam controls the neighborhood
Andin the name of peace and justice, he swears he’s Robin Hood
But in Chile and El Salvador, the truth is understood.

He’s got bureaucrats and technocrats, diplomats and spies
Working for the Pentagon, they’re its bloody nose and eyes
But you only feel disheartened until you realize
When the workers of the world unite, we’re twice their bloody size.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the whole human race.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BxpFy_1kM&t=3s
– Alistair Hulett (with slideshow)


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 07:11 PM

SEND THE BOATS AWAY

Lynn Clark

Once, in seas of silver, fishermen would cast their nets
To take the bounty of the Sea: those men are fishing yet,
But now their boats are laden down with goods of lethal store,
And in these peace-times we should fear those sea-bound men-of-war.


Chorus:
(so) Send the boats away, my friends, (now) send the boats away.
We care not how we run them out, but send the boats away,
For if we choose to live in peace then who are they to say?
Let's take a stand, protect this land, and send the boats away.


Who will want those nuclear holes when those nets are raised?
To our oceans whose seas are filled with waste,
And fishing-boats of fisher-folk lie useless on the shore,
For bearing down upon them now are those sea-bound men-of-war.

Chorus

Once I slept easy in my bed, mind free from Holocaust,
But now it seems like nuclear-free Pacific zones we've lost,
For now the boats are laden down with goods of lethal store,
And in these peace-times we should fear those sea-bound men-of-war.

Chorus

Send them away

Send them away

Send them away.

[lyrics taken from Mudcat thread]

This song was very popular in Sessions when I first came to Qld years ago – and esp the heartfelt harmonising by Lonnie Martin and Helen Rowe – I find it hard to believe that the only YT version I can find is by a Teesider – but a goodun, nonetheless!!   

So here is the late Vin Garbutt singing Lynn Clark’s NZ plea for a Nuclear-free Pacific : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ElwvsTVMIk


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 09:01 PM

BtW, I did NOT mean to suggest in my earlier post, that there were NOT songs about the French Muroroa and British Christmas Is. tests etc etc, just that I hadn't yet found the obvious ones on YT (MORE TIME! is the thing .........)

Here, for example, is the HERBS number called "FRENCH LETTER" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuJ8PP1Icfw

"When Herbs’ recording of ‘French Letter’ – a song protesting French nuclear testing in the South Pacific – spent eleven weeks on the New Zealand charts in 1982, it represented a mainstream peak for a musical movement that had begun in this country some 50 years earlier....."
from "Decades of Dissent : Protest Songs in New Zealand" : https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201852325/decades-of-dissent-protest-songs-in-new-zealand

Be good to hear this one :"Unity Singers member Rudy Sunde can be heard performing ‘Talking Radiation’, a talking blues adapted from Pete Seeger in which he asks ‘How would you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island’?" [aka Kiritimati Island, that the British nuked)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_nuclear-free_zone

Cheers,
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 10:02 PM

The Reedy River still flows © Bruce Watson 2013, winner of the Bush Music Club 60th Anniversary Song competition         

Chorus:
Time goes by, how the years they fly
And fashions may come and may go
But as long as there’s music, as long as there’s dance
The Reedy River still flows
The Reedy River still flows

In the far distant times of the Dreaming
When people first walked this land
There was music and dancing to sing up the spirits
To bring us together, every woman and man

Chorus

And from far distant lands others came
And still come to our bounteous shores
They bring stories and songs that tell who we are
And we dance round the room as did others before

Chorus

In far distant places through the bush of Australia
The song catchers tirelessly roamed
Collecting the stories and tunes of our country
Collecting the dances, the songs and the poems

Chorus

So let’s sing songs of those come before us
And let’s strike up the fiddle and bow
And let’s dance till we drop, and then sing one more chorus
So the River of Music still flows

Chorus

video - Bruce & the "Ringwood All Stars" a scratch band from the Ringwood Folk Club. Bruce wrote this song to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Sydney Bush Music Club, the longest running folk club in Australia, in 1954. The club emerged from the folk musical production "Reedy River". The song celebrates tradition and continuity using the metaphor of a river.
Musicians: Harry Gardner, Peter Ellis, Maggie Somerville, Maree Butler, Don Gingrich

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 10:50 PM

The late David O'Connor wrote a good one about the French nuclear tests in the Pacific - when I have time I'll type it out. It starts off:

Drop it in Paris, c'est votre bomb......

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 12:35 AM

a most excellent song

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 10:23 PM

THE RED ROSE TOP
(Traditional)

I'll cut off the red rose top
And plant the willow green, green
In all this world the you may see
It's slighted I have been, been

Oh, when your thyme is pulled and gone
They care no more for you, you
There's not a place your thyme goes waste
But it spreads all over with rue, rue
It spreads all over with rue

John Meredith collected this from Sally Sloane who learned it from her grandmother. It is derived from the English song, 'The seeds of love'.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 05:01 AM

More Music of the Atomic Age:

Possibly the saddest 14+ minutes you can spend, is to watch and listen to the following presentation on YouTube by Japanese artist, Isao Hashimoto – the soundtrack representing 2,053 of the nuclear explosions over our World from 1945 to 1998 and therefore of the destruction of parts of the Earth and inhabitants - in one form or another.   Very sobering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY&t=128s    This version has a music composition overlaid, by Andrews Wax : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAKH9KU3BHc&t=492s


A reminder here that Sandra posted Eric Bogle’s “When the Wind Blows” on Sept 18th. This song was based on Raymond Briggs’ 1982 graphic novel of the same name, which, as he said, was “a chilling little book” :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Wind_Blows_(comics)

Meanwhile, Paul Lawler, in Darwin, wrote this number for his folk-rock band, “Gutter Press”. It is, however, yet to be digitised and posted to his channel.


NUCLEAR FISSION ( aka MARILINGA ON )

Paul Lawler, May1983 ©


Nuclear fission, provoked a decision
To find out why I had no emission.

I was given permission to see a physician
Who told me I should stop all coition.

Exit creation, no ejaculation
Radiations, yield mutation.

With trepidation, I applied embrocation
And tried to stop this ulceration.

Contamination, incarceration
Expectation – castration.

Amputation, desolation
Causation – detonation.

~ Paul Lawler ~



Some Industry and Govt hype infers that we’re naïve to worry overly much about the ongoing and unsolved problem of nuclear waste; that it’s just not as dangerous to the planet and inhabitants as many have made out.
But, we’ve trusted Them before, eh…………… :(

Anyway, here is what France is trying, underneath the town of Bure : https://www.ft.com/content/db87c16c-4947-11e6-b387-64ab0a67014c
(and SONGS, STORIES, and ART may all have a part to play!)



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 05:42 AM

many years ago we had a session on body counts - singers sang songs where people die, I can't remember what the bloodiest song was, but
I won by reciting (I can't hold a tune on my own) "When the wind blows".

No own could beat 'a billion lost souls falling into hell'

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 08:12 AM

Yet More Atomic Tests Music :

Checkout some (or all) of the articles linked to in this Dossier (and more clips on YT from survivors and investigators) :
https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Advertiser-Maralinga-Dossier.pdf

Sobering reading.

The secrets and deliberate withholding +
The deliberate lies +
The callous disregard for the Australian population – both black and white – both civilian and military –
by both the British Govt AND the Australian Govt (who, to be fair, were also lied to by the Brits),
including the denials from both that radiation problems had occurred - and even that servicemen were involved!!!!

Perhaps they were hoping the rank-and-file would all be dead before they could be tempted to break the “Official Secrets Act”???
Guess it cuts down the cost of potential compensation claims and negative publicity….


Here is Paul Kelly’s contribution :

MARALINGA (aka Rainy Land)

This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land
No thunder in our sky
No trees stretching high
But this is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

My name is Yami Lester
I hear, I talk, I touch but I am blind
My story comes from darkness
Listen to my story now unwind
This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

First we heard two big bangs
We thought it was the Great Snake digging holes
Then we saw the big cloud
Then the big, black mist began to roll
This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

A strangeness on our skin
A soreness in our eyes like weeping fire
A pox upon our skin
A boulder on our backs all our lives
This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

No thunder in our sky
No trees stretching high
But this is a rainy land

My name is Edie Millipuddie
They captured me and roughly washed me down
Then my child stopped kicking
Then they took away my oId man to town
They said 'Do you speak English?'
He said 'I know that Jesus loves me I know
Because the bible tells me so'

This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land
No thunder in our sky
No trees stretching high
But this is a rainy land
This is a rainy land


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvXgspzP0go


R-J