Lyr Req: The Trees Have Now Gone (John Williamson)

Subject: The trees are all gone
From: Kathryn
Date: 24 May 01 - 06:15 PM

This is an Australian song by John Williamson. I can understand most of the words, but when it comes to the names of the trees, I am lost. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The trees are all gone
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 May 01 - 09:29 PM

Go look Here(click) and see if that is the correct song. I didn't see any tree names in it.......could be wrong song, tho.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The trees are all gone
From: Kathryn
Date: 25 May 01 - 07:55 AM

Thanks, Sorcha. That isn't the song, though. The actual line in the song is "But most of the trees are all gone." It begins "Why don't we go back to the sheep, and leave this old lady alone...."

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TREES HAVE NOW GONE (John Williamson)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 03:41 PM

Found these lyrics at a Russian web site. I can't explain the tree names.


THE TREES HAVE NOW GONE
John Williamson

Why don't we go back to the sheep,
And leave this old lady alone.
We've pushed and we've pulled,
We've killed and we've mauled,
And there's nowhere to hide from the sun.
Why do we take more than we need,
What is this strange disease?
We turn everything we can see into money,
Damn the earth, damn the sky, damn the seas.

Why do we destroy so much life,
When we're more than flesh on the bone.
I jump in my truck, but I'm out o' luck
'Cause most of the trees have now gone.

(Take the) girls for a pony ride, show them the brigalow.
Like the hair on my face it was all over the place,
Eighty odd years ago,
(There's a) couple on the side of the road,
And one's got some kind of grub.
(There was) box and boonery, belah and black wallaby.
Ask the old bloke down the pub.
There was supple-jack and leopard wood,
Myall, Wilga and it goes on.
I jump in my truck, but I'm out o' luck,
'Cause most of the trees have now gone,
Most of the trees have now gone.

(So why) don't we go back to the wool,
Start keeping the whole world warm,
We've dug and we've dirted,
We've sprayed and we've squirted,
And it all floats away in the storm.
My life is just a flash in the dark, I know,
And I'm just a victim of fate,
Why was I born in this beautiful world,
Why was I born too late,
To walk in the virgin bushland,
Put damper and billy on,
I jump in my truck, but I'm out o' luck,
'Cause most of the trees are now gone
Most of the trees have now gone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Trees Have Now Gone (John William
From: Rowan
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 06:47 PM

From various sources

Brigalow
Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) is a species of silvery wattle that gives the mosaic of open forest and woodland communities known as the Brigalow Belt (in Queensland) its name. The canopy is usually 10-15m in height, and the dominant tree species that may occur with Brigalow include Belah, Gidgee, Lancewood or Bendee.

Box
a category of eucalypts and close relatives, particularly Angophora
Eucalypt Bark characteristics
Stringybark — consists of long fibres and can be pulled off in long pieces. It is usually thick with a spongy texture.
Ironbark — is hard, rough and deeply furrowed. It is impregnated with dried kino (a sap exuded by the tree) which gives a dark red or even black colour.
Tessellated — bark is broken up into many distinct flakes. They are corkish and can flake off.
Box — has short fibres. Some also show tessellation.
Ribbon — this has the bark coming off in long thin pieces but still loosely attached in some places. They can be long ribbons, firmer strips or twisted curls.

Boonery
Alectryon oleifolius
Description: Small tree with new growth silky, branches and leaves usually pendent. Widespread in semi-arid areas, west from upper Hunter Valley.

Belah
Casuarina cristata Miq.
Family Casuarinaceae
Common name: Belah, Muurrgu
Description: Dioecious tree 10–20 m high, frequently producing suckers.
Branchlets drooping in vigorous specimens, spreading in depauperate specimens. Often found in association with brigalow. Usually grows on clayey soils with calcareous nodules near the surface. Mostly inland, from central Qld south to Temora, NSW.

SuppleJack
Flagellaria indica
From tropical Queensland. Also called 'Whip Vine', this is a fast and vigorous climber with a round, cane-like stem and long leaves. The long leaves are unusual as their tips have been modified into tendrils to enable the plant to curl its way through the canopy. It is found in mangroves and forests in eastern and the wetter tropical areas of the old world tropics, and is common in places such as along the Marrdja boardwalk.

Leopard wood
Flindersia maculosa is a tree in the citrus family. It is found in arid and semi arid areas in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. Because of the spotted bark, it is known as the Leopardwood or Leopard Tree.
The habitat is stony hills and sand plains. It can grow in areas with an annual average rainfall of less than 250 mm, such as at Mutawintji National Park, NSW.
An elegant small tree, up to 15 metres tall. The bark sheds irregularly resulting in a mottled trunk. Leaves are opposite, small and narrow. This gives the foliage a wispy appearance. Leaves 10 to 80 mm long, and 2.5 to 10 mm wide.
Small cream flowers form around November. The fruit is a spiky woody capsule 2.5 cm long, which opens to release the seeds. Seeds are around 1.8 cm long with a thin winged membrane on both ends.

Myall
Weeping Myall Acacia pendula
Description: Pendulous tree to 10 m, usually upright, occasionally spreading, with grey, narrow phyllodes to 8 cm. Yellow ball-shaped flowers appear in spring.
Distribution: semi-arid areas of Qld, NSW, Vic.

Western myall (Acacia sowdenii Maiden 1919), a "graceful and attractive" (Jackson 1958), "handsome" (Cleland 1930) tree, extends from Port Augusta in a band across the western arid rangelands of South Australia (see Boomsma 1972 p. 45) and continues as a minor fringe south and west of the Nullarbor Plain. At least 80,000 square kilometres of sheep station paddocks are western myall-bluebush (Kochia spp.)-saltbush (Atriplex spp.) woodland, and the pioneering "Yudnapinna" grazing experiment was on this rangeland type (Woodroffe 1941). Continuous pastoralism for 100 years shows that western myall woodland is accepted by graziers as an adequate base for successful pastoral enterprise. Station size there averages about 1,300 square kilometres, with stocking rates and wool returns north of the Gawler Ranges now averaging about 6 sheep and 0.2 bales/square km respectively, and south about 10 sheep and 0.3 bales.

[Myall is also one of the names applied by white settlers, in what was to become NSW, to the original inhabitants north and west of Sydney. For many in my area, the Myall Creek Massacre is still a painful event.]

Wilga
Geijera parviflora. RUTACEAE (Rue & citrus family)
Wilga is a small shade tree growing to about 20 feet with very attractive weeping foliage. Although the leaves may be up to 6 inches long they are no more than 1/4 inch wide. The small whitish flowers are not very conspicuous. Wilga grows in dry areas of all Australian states, where the sheep enjoy nibbling the leaves while squatting on their haunches.

Hope that helps.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Trees Have Now Gone (John Williamson)
From: Beer
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 11:30 PM

I don't want to be seen as a deterrent from this thread, but I do want to see John Williamson contribution to music continue. So please let us continue to post.
Ad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Trees Have Now Gone (John William
From: Rowan
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 12:24 AM

Adrienne, I hope my offers of info about the names of the trees mentioned in the song isn't taken as a deterrent to further posting.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Trees Have Now Gone (John Williamson)
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 11:26 PM

The trees he mentioned are the brigalow, wilga, supple jack, wilga, mulga (not in that order).

I really love the wilga trees...common in the Australian desert landscape. Amazing trees...I love em!

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=mulga+trees&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=qi2&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=wilga+trees&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=