Fannie Bay

Words: David Charles and Douglas Tainsh (?)
Tune: Traditional (?) (Fanny Bay)


Tell her I'm droving down Camooweal way
Or signed with pearlers for seas far away
You can tell her I've gone, I'll be back some day
Please don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay.

You can say I've gone on the old 'River Queen'
It's whistle a-haunting the bullockies' dream,
Down the Murray I've gone, I'll be back some day
Please don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay.

Chorus:
And on Thursday Island the sun wams the air
As the breeze from the sea blows her hair
And she sits by her window and calls me
Yes, she calls me.

You can say the bush has called me away
And I'm riding the fences for ten bob a day,
Yes, I needed a job, I needed the pay
Please don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay

Chorus:
And they came to the door and they dragged me away
From all that I love and I pray
That it won't reach her ear 'cause I love her
And she'd die for sure

Just say the gold has taken me down
To the places where fortunes are easily found
Yes, I've gone but tell her I'll be back some day
Just don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay






Recorded by the Bushwackers Band on their album, Bushfire (1979), where they credited the song to A & D Tainsh. This site has the song was apparently written for episode 226 of the Australian police show, Division 4 which aired in 1974. (I will happily stand corrected on this).

It has a distinctly modern feel to it. It's not a song I'd heard before but comments to my earlier post of the parody, Fanny Bay, alerted me to this one.


The illustration is a photograph of Fanny Bay Gaol from around 1900.