Tweed & Lismore

Unknown

I am a navvie that worked everywhere
East, west, north and south I vow and declare
Such terrible misfortune I never had before
As I had on that Railway, The Tweed and Lismore


Chorus
Laddie Fol the Diddle eril Ol, eril Ol aye


Myself and Bill Lalie came up from the South
To see if we could get some cuts to take out
Old Kerril he promised us cuttings galore
On that railway they call the Tweed and Lismore


When we came to Bexhill 'twas on a hot day
We had no money or nothing to play
It came on to rain, and we lay on the floor
Beside that Railway, The Tweed and Lismore


There's one thing was in it, our credit ran light
If not, by my soul, a lot there would die
The people from Queensland came down by the score
To seek work on that Railway, The Tweed and Lismore


I next got a job with an axe in my hand
From lopping and chopping I scarcely could stand
My arms, they did ache and my hands they were sore
From working like blazes upon the Lismore


I next got a job with my horses and drays
The chaff it was dear boys, and so was the maize
Ten and sixpence a day they would give, and no more
And they run you like blazes upon the Lismore


Now our little 'Timie' was Brady by name
He came down from Queensland I tell to you plain
In stature he's small, but of cheek he's galore
And he'd sack you for smoking upon the Lismore


And now to conclude and finish my song
Mr McKeeley is big, fat and strong
While old Davie Morgan is a man to the core
And Kerril himself is a 'Bludde old Bore'

This note from Mark Gregory's Australian Folk Song site:

In his Big Book of Australian Folk Song Ron Edwards writes "The text of Tweed and Lismore was sent to me by the Richmond River Historical Society with a note: 'Composed by Ned McElligot, late of Bagotville.' Further enquiries failed to find anyone who knew the tune of the song until Wendy Lowenstein discovered it on a field recording which she thinks may have been made by collector Edgar Waters some years ago".